[kwlug-disc] Backup verification using cpio

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

The cpio tool provides a way for verifying backups, but it is a
two-pass thing and a  prerequisite.

For this to work, you have to use the "crc" output format for the archive:

cpio -o -H crc .... > archive

cpio -i --only-verify-crc < archive

>From the manual for this last option: "When reading a CRC format
archive, only verify the CRC’s of each file in the archive, don’t
actually extract the files"

cpio is more complicated than tar and has a multitude of output
formats, and that is probably why it never caught on like tar.
-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
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