Commands for Copying File Systems

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If you want to copy or move individual files, portions of file systems, or complete file systems, follow the procedures described in this section.

The following table describes the various backup and restore commands that are available in Oracle Solaris. For enterprise environments, consider using an enterprise-level backup product.

Table 1 Advantages and Disadvantages of tar, pax, and cpio Commands

Command	Function	Advantages	Disadvantages
`tar`	Copies files and directory subtrees to a single tape.	Available on most UNIX operating systems Public domain versions are readily available	Is not aware of file system boundaries Length of full path name cannot exceed 255 characters Cannot be used to create multiple tape volumes
`pax`	Copies files, special files, or file systems that require multiple tape volumes. Or, copies files to and from POSIX-compliant systems.	Better portability than the `tar` or `cpio` commands for POSIX-compliant systems Multiple vendor support	Same disadvantages as the `tar` command, except that the `pax` command can create multiple tape volumes.
`cpio`	Copies files, special files, or file systems that require multiple tape volumes. Or, copies files from systems running latest Oracle Solaris version to systems running older Oracle Solaris versions.	Packs data onto tape more efficiently than the `tar` command Skips over any bad spots in a tape when restoring Provides options for writing files with different header formats, such as `tar`, `ustar`, `crc`, `odc`, `bar`, for portability between different system types Creates multiple tape volumes	The command syntax is more difficult than the `tar` or `pax` commands.

The following sections describes step-by-step instructions and examples of how to use these commands.