Splitting Files

I previously talked about breaking a tar archive into multiple segments. I hadn’t used this knowledge until I was forced to backup to multiple DVD’s because until I had failing hardware. Because it saved the day, I put this knowledge into HOWTO Backup to DVD at the GLW – which (btw) )is down at the moment :) .

If there is a file that is already large, the command split can be used break it up:
split -b 650m linux-backup LB_

• 650m = 650 Megabytes
• LB_ is the prefix for new name

 
Or in conjunction with tar:
tar -cvj /full/path/to/mybigfile | split -b 650m

To put it back together:
cat LB* > newfile

When GLW is up again, I’ll update the wiki.

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