Retrospect A/UX: 32000 File Limitation

The A/UX version of Retrospect has a limitation brought from the Macintosh version. It is the limitations of 32,000 files when storing or restoring a volume.

The error message, "Error -24062 (limited to 32000 files/folders)", is still in the A/UX version of the product. This puts some restrictions on what users can plan to backup with an Apple Workgroup Server (AWS) 95.

In the Macintosh version, Dantz claims that the HFS file system can become unstable with about 32000 files. That should not be true with the UNIX file system.

Will Dantz make any changes to eliminate this limitation in future version of Retrospect A/UX?

Here is what we received from Dantz:

It is true that Retrospect has a limit per scan of 32,000 files. This matches the limits of the Macintosh file system, though they will address this limit in a future version of Retrospect.

There are a couple of ways to work around this limit on the AWS 95. The best is to use Retrospect A/UX and backup a large drive in segments of 32,000 files or fewer. Retrospect can define folders as "Subvolumes" which act as separate volumes for backup purposes. The entire drive can be backed up this way since each backup session or script may contain an essentially unlimited number of Subvolumes.

Another possibility is to use UNIX utilities such as TAR or DUMP for volumes which exceed 32,000 files or folders.