How to Zip your UNIX Accounts

How to Zip your UNIX Accounts.

[Checking your account] [Dealing with Large accounts] [FTP] [ARJ] [ZipDrive] [Caution!!]

James Cotter said he's giving everyone warning to clear out their UNIX accounts before the end of term.
This page will explain how to zip up all the data on your accounts and bring them home with you.

Read this entire piece first before proceeding to Zip your account. Make sure to look at the cautionary note.

Also this procedure should be carried out from Windows. (i.e.) Do not be in UNIX to Zip your account. Instead telnet csa7.

1. Checking your Account.

Firstly check the size of your account. You can do this by typing
cd ~/
du

You will see all your files and folders fly up the screen something like this

4630    ./temp/pine4.10/imap/src/osdep
38      ./temp/pine4.10/imap/src/ansilib
58      ./temp/pine4.10/imap/src/mtest
1558    ./temp/pine4.10/imap/src/charset
7988    ./temp/pine4.10/imap/src
26      ./temp/pine4.10/imap/tools
9426    ./temp/pine4.10/imap
934     ./temp/pine4.10/pico/osdep
2380    ./temp/pine4.10/pico
1968    ./temp/pine4.10/pine/osdep
10856   ./temp/pine4.10/pine
24852   ./temp/pine4.10
49398   ./temp
147416 .
csa7%

The last number you see at the bottom is the size of your entire account.
(i.e. The size of the account above is 147.416 Megs !!)

If however you have less than 1.4 MEGS in your account I suggest you simply save it on a floppy and take it home.

2.Dealing With Large Accounts.

If you have a larger account then we'll have to tar and zip it.
Do the Following-:

Delete any files or folders you dont need. Delete files by doing rm <FILENAME> and delete folders recursively by doing rm -rf <FOLDER NAME>.
Change into your home directory by typing cd ~/
tar your entire account by tar cvf ~/UNIX_ACCOUNT_ZIPPED.tar ~/*
a load of stuff will fly up the screen and you may see the error message could not get group information for whatever. Don't mind this.
Now we zip the tar file by gzip -9 -S .gz UNIX_ACCOUNT_ZIPPED.tar This could take some time depending on the size of your account so if its big go for coffee.
You will now have a file called UNIX_ACCOUNT_ZIPPED.tar.gz which is your entire UNIX account zipped.

3. FTP.

You can now FTP the Zipped file down to your local machine using WS_FTP in the normal way. And make sure the transfer method is set to Binary. I reccomend you save it in c:\temp

Check the size of your Zipped file. If it's less that 1.44 Megs you can save it on a disk. If however it is more than 1.44 Megs we have a little more work to do.

4. ARJ

If your account is more than 1.44 Megs we have to make multiple archives of the zip file in order to save it all on floppies.
NOTE: If you are using this method I strongly reccomend that you do a thourough scandisk on all your floppy disks.

We use the ARJ program to do this. You can get it here.

Download it and place it in c:\windows\command\
I presume your UNIX zipped file is in c:\temp
Next open up a DOS shell.
Change directory into c:\temp
Type the following arj a -va a:\unixac.arj UNIX_ACCOUNT_ZIPPED.tar.gz
This will put your UNIX account onto your floppy and when the floppy fills up it will prompt you to insert another one.
Make sure to label the disks as you put them in. (i.e.) Disk 1. Disk 2. etc....

You can now take your floppies home with you but also make sure to take the ARJ.exe program home as well. You will need it to uncompress the files.
When you get home put ARJ.exe into your c:\windows\command
Open up WinZIP (I presume you have WinZip, If not get it @ http://tucows.tinet.ie or on the Cover CD of a Computer Mag.)
In WinZip hit "Options" and then "Program Locations"
Where it dsays "Arj" near the bottom, put in c:\windows\command\arj.exe
Now put the disk labeled "Disk 1" into the disk drive, double click on it and WinZip will open it.
The rest should be obvious.

5. Iomega Zip Drive.

If it turns out that you have a huge UNIX account even after zipping (say larger than 8 Megs) then ARJ is not really a viable option. In this case I'll give you the loan of an external Zip Drive which holds 100 Megs. (If your account is more than 100 Megs Zipped, then youre doing the wrong course!!)
You save your stuff on the Zip Drive, bring it home and put the data on your home computer. Ill supply drivers and the whole lot and it's not a big job anyway....

6. Danger Will Robinson!!

Things to note.

I am in no way responsiable if your data gets screwed up or lost by carrying out any of the instructions above. They are meerly a guideline to assist you in backing up your account.
Do Not delete the files on your UNIX account until you sure you transfered them to your home machine safe and sound and you know they are all there. This way its easy to try again. If you delete them, and say your floppy disk gets wet on the bus on the way home, well then they are gone for ever....
Do not critise my spelling. I know it's crap. I get told that every day.
If you are going to save your stuff on floppy disk it is real advisable to do a thourough ScanDisk on each floppy you will be using. Floppy disks are really gammy, espically if you have important stuff on them.
If you have trouble mail me at dmac@skynet.csn.ul.ie and we'll sort it out.

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