What is the difference between CAB, DAT, and BAK files?

It appears that any of these file types can be used with STSADM.EXE for
backing up, restoring, exporting, and importing. What is the differences
between these file types and what format should I be using and when?

davidgDONOTSPAM
Thu Dec 20 10:53:04 CST 2007

I am still not exactly clear as to when and why I should be using the various
file extensions. I think what is confusing is that I have yet to see a piece
of backup documentation that mentions them all at once. I suppose that I
will just use the .bak extension for my nightly stsadm backup routine. So
far I know of the following extensions that work correctlyâ?¦

.bak
.cmp
.cab
.dat
.stp
.wsp

Are there any other types?

Mike
Thu Dec 20 11:17:11 CST 2007

>I suppose that I will just use the .bak extension for my nightly
stsadm >backup routine.

It doesn't matter which extension you use for your stsadm backup. Todd
Klindt in chapter three of the Real World SharePoint 2007 book (the
chapter on SP administration) where he gives a lot of info on using
stsadm in real life, suggests using a completely different extension
(such as .stsadm - not sure if that exactly was what he says, but
similar) so that you can immediately identify them as stsadm backups and
nothing else that is using the rather common .bak file name.

Seemed a good idea to me when I read it.

Mike Walsh
WSS FAQ http://www.wssfaq.com
No private e-mail questions please

David Goebel wrote:
> I am still not exactly clear as to when and why I should be using the various
> file extensions. I think what is confusing is that I have yet to see a piece
> of backup documentation that mentions them all at once. I suppose that I
> will just use the .bak extension for my nightly stsadm backup routine. So
> far I know of the following extensions that work correctlyâ?¦
>
> .bak
> .cmp
> .cab
> .dat
> .stp
> .wsp
>
> Are there any other types?