The Story
My backup is already 150 GB in size.
If I want to restore a specific file from a backup (e.g. a damaged office document) , I have to extract the complete 150 GB tarball to restore a file with a couple megabytes in size.
This is because a tarball has no catalog. Archive applications have to read the full tarball to get access to the single file.
Solution proposal
Support archive formats containing a catalog for specific content extraction.
The ZIP format has a catalog, you can extract specific files from large ZIP archives without reading the full archive file.
Solution hints
Provide a settings dialog where the user is able to select his archive format, e.g. like this:
Choose the archive format for your backup:
o TAR
- a very robust archive format against file errors
- File errors only affect the affected files
o ZIP
- contains a catalog for single file decompression,
- damages to the catalog could cause significant data loss
The Story
My backup is already 150 GB in size.
If I want to restore a specific file from a backup (e.g. a damaged office document) , I have to extract the complete 150 GB tarball to restore a file with a couple megabytes in size.
This is because a tarball has no catalog. Archive applications have to read the full tarball to get access to the single file.
Solution proposal
Support archive formats containing a catalog for specific content extraction.
The ZIP format has a catalog, you can extract specific files from large ZIP archives without reading the full archive file.
Solution hints
Provide a settings dialog where the user is able to select his archive format, e.g. like this:
Choose the archive format for your backup:
o TAR
o ZIP