Description of problem: using zcat to uncompress multiple files and send to a pipe is a disaster for the pipe reader Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): gzip-1.9-3.fc28.x86_64 How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. use "dump" to backup a file system that is big enough to exceed 4MB when zipped; use -z to zip it and pipe to split with 2GB file sizes --I did /home cd /someplace_on_another_FS dump -u0 -f - -L home /home | split -b 2GB -d - home.dmp 2. try to restore ANYTHING from the directory you backed up to elsewhere zcat home.dmp* | (cd /tmp/fubar ; restore -if -) 3. you will see all the filenames and directories as they are probably in first logical extent but after selecting someting (add ...); try "extract" to get the error Actual results: pre-mature end of file message Expected results: it should work nicely Additional info: to fix above, separate the concatenation from the unzipping cat home.dmp* | gunzip | ((cd /tmp/fubar; restore -if -) That works.
Hello Ray, I might be missing something, but it seems to me, that what you are doing is: compress some files -> split the archive -> try to uncompress parts of this splitted archive. The fix you mention on the other hand does: compress some files -> split the archive -> merge the archive parts back into single file -> uncompress it Are you sure you are not misinterpretting what is zcat used for? From the manpage: "...zcat uncompresses either a list of files on the command line or its standard input and writes the uncompressed data on standard output." Regards, Jakub
Jakub, I guess I assumed wrong. I thought zcat was supposed to cat like "cat" but uncompress along the way. Using cat is OK, but I thought zcat was targeted to also work like cat (which concatenates to standard output) not uncompress multiple files. Sorry, Ray