[HPADM] Summary: Help on Tar in HP-UX 11.00

[Arun Kumar Dinaker]

PROBLEM DEFINITION:
In HP-UX 11.00, we are using tar command to archive few directories
into a
local file. The tar backup completes with an exit status 5.
What does the error status 5 for tar command indicate? There is no error
codes and their respective error messages listed in the man pages of tar
command.

The points to be noted about the problem:
* Command fired:
tar -cvf /usr/backup/backup.tarfile
/usr1/scripts /usr2/objects
* Size of the archived directories
/usr1/scripts /usr2/objects is < 2 GB.
Its around 600MB.
* We are able to do listing of the backuped
tar file
tar -tvf /usr/backup/backup.tarfile.

SOLUTIONS SUMMARY:
Some had interpreted the exit status(exit code) as HP-UX error. I had
mentioned 5
as the exit code of Tar command and it is not the HP-UX error. If it had
been Error 5 (HP-UX Error), then its I/O Error.

The correct reason for EXIT CODE 5 in my case is " Some files ownerships are
with UIDs which are not listed in /etc/passwd file."
(Thanks to Jim McDonald for giving the solution right at the first hit)

Here are the FULL DETAILED list of EXIT ERROR CODES OF TAR:
( Thanks to Deborah Hulett for the detailed error listing)

Code | Explanation
---------|-------------------------------------------------------
exit(0) | no error and no warning
---------|-------------------------------------------------------
exit(1) | tar: cannot create temporary file (%s)
| Invalid blocksize. (Max %d)
| tar: blocksize %d too big, can't get memory
| tar: Invalid or non-existent device file %s
| Can only create standard output archives
| tar: cannot open %s
| tar: option not supported for this device %s
| tar: cannot write to %s: write protected
| tar: usage tar [-]{txruc}[eONvVwAfblhm{op}][0-7[lmh]]..
| Attempt to create archive of no files. Nothing dumped.
| tar: cannot preserve extent attributes for %s. aborting...
| tar: cannot create temporary file (%s)
| Invalid blocksize. (Max %d)
| tar: blocksize %d too big, can't get memory
| tar: Invalid or non-existent device file %s
| Can only create standard output archives\
---------|------------------------------------------------------
exit(2) | directory checksum error
| tar: %s: HELP - extract write error
| tar: Cannot close %s
| tar: tape write error
---------|------------------------------------------------------
exit(3) | tar: tape read error
| tar: tape blocksize error
| tar: blocksize = 0; broken pipe?
| tar: error! blocksize changed
---------|------------------------------------------------------
exit(4) | tar: tape backspace error
| tar: ioctl to write filemarks failed (%d). aborting...
| tar: ioctl to determine device online failed. aborting...
---------|------------------------------------------------------
exit(5) | tar: %s: pathname too long
| tar: Cannot change directory to '%s'
| tar: Path '%s' skipped
| tar: cannot open %s Missing links to %s
| tar: %s: cannot access file
| tar: Out of memory. Cannot detect symbolic link loops
| tar: Loop of symbolic links detected, tar terminated
| tar: cannot stat %s. Not dumped.
| tar: Size of %s > %s. Not dumped.
| tar: %s: directory read error
| tar: %s: directory read error
| tar: %s: symbolic link too long
| tar: can't read symbolic link
| tar: %s: cannot open file
| tar: %s: link to name too long
| Out of memory. Link information lost
| %s: file changed size
| tar: %s is not a file. Not dumped.
| tar: %s: symbolic link failed %s: cannot link
| tar: %s couldn't create character device
| tar: %s couldn't create block device
| tar: %s couldn't create fifo
| tar: %s couldn't create directory
| tar: %s couldn't create directory
| tar: %s - cannot create
| tar: chmod failed
| tar: chown failed
| tar: couldn't get uname for uid %d
| tar: couldn't get gname for gid %d
| tar: pwd failed
| tar: %s: pathname too long
| tar: %s: prefix too long
| tar: %s: file name too long %s: file name too long
|
| Note: exit(5) is a 'NONFATAL_ERRCODE'.
---------|-------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to all who helped out immediately with your inputs.

Regards,
Arun

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