In message <20050511122013.GA46029@lori.mine.nu>, "Geert Hendrickx" writes:
>Hi, 
>
>the manpage for restore says the following: 
>
>> The fastest way to extract a few files is to start with the last
>> volume and work towards the first volume.
>
>I don't see why...  
>

The backup directory is at the beginning of the first tape; restore 
looks up the inode numbers.  Each tape starts with a header saying what 
inode the tape start with.  Just looking at that header can tell you 
that the inode number you want isn't on that tape; it's too low.  That 
saves the effort of reading that entire tape.

		--Prof. Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb