Date:        Sun, 26 Jan 2003 22:08:18 -0500 (EST)
    From:        der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
    Message-ID:  <200301270330.WAA06162@Sparkle.Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>

  | > something inherently solved by 'dump' and 'dump' alone.
  | 
  | ...or my tar.  Or probably others;

I have yet to see a tar that can (by itself) handle what I consider
one of the fundamentals of a backup system - that it not alter the
files being backed up in any way at all.

All tar's I have seen when doing backups alter either the st_atime or
st_ctime (or sometimes even both).

On NetBSD one can avoid that by using a tar that would normally alter
st_atime, by mounting the filesystem "-o noatime", which avoids the
worst of the problem, but tar itself is unlikely to be doing that.

kre