Why is restore so slow?

[Barry Shein]

We've suffered thru this slow restore problem here, so it's on my
mind.

Anyone have any thoughts on the idea of writing a restore which
restores a standard dump thru the raw device? This would be for the
first, zero level dump image (I guess, perhaps it would be easy enough
to apply incrementals this way also tho they're usually less of a
problem.)

It would seem that would bypass the synchronous directory problem w/o
too much disruption to, eg, the kernel. And one could still use good
ol' restore on the same tapes if there were any doubts or problems.  I
like the conservative nature of this approach, your tapes and backup
procedures remain unchanged, only restoral is affected.

Mostly a matter of simulating the file system at user-level and
deciding which block it would throw things into as they come off of
tape.

Thoughts? Think it would be a lot faster?
-- 
        -Barry Shein

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