splitting

Every once in a while there comes a situation where a file is too big for a CD, or you want to store a file larger than 2GB on a FAT partition, or you want to make a backup of data with UNIX-style permissions (almost a 100% necessity if backing up a $HOME folder with settings) and all you have is a FAT volume somewhere. Here the multi-volume feature of GNU tar comes to play. The ZIP and RAR formats have a similar feature, probably originally for floppy disks, but they don't store UNIX-style permissions. Also, the feature is in GNU tar for a partly historical reason (partly because it is probably still widely used for the original purpose):