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29.\" $Id: dump.8.in,v 1.54 2004/01/27 10:37:28 stelian Exp $
30.\"
31.TH DUMP 8 "version __VERSION__ of __DATE__" BSD "System management commands"
32.SH NAME
33dump \- ext2/3 filesystem backup
34.SH SYNOPSIS
35.B dump
36[\fB\-0123456789ackMnqSuv\fR]
37[\fB\-A \fIfile\fR]
38[\fB\-B \fIrecords\fR]
39[\fB\-b \fIblocksize\fR]
40[\fB\-d \fIdensity\fR]
41[\fB\-D \fIfile\fR]
42[\fB\-e \fIinode numbers\fR]
43[\fB\-E \fIfile\fR]
44[\fB\-f \fIfile\fR]
45[\fB\-F \fIscript\fR]
46[\fB\-h \fIlevel\fR]
47[\fB\-I \fInr errors\fR]
48[\fB\-j\fIcompression level\fR]
49[\fB\-L \fIlabel\fR]
50[\fB\-Q \fIfile\fR]
51[\fB\-s \fIfeet\fR]
52[\fB\-T \fIdate\fR]
53[\fB\-y\fR]
54[\fB\-z\fIcompression level\fR]
55.I files-to-dump
56.PP
57.B dump
58[\fB\-W \fR| \fB\-w\fR]
59.PP
60(The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility but is not
61documented here.)
62.SH DESCRIPTION
63.B Dump
64examines files on an ext2/3 filesystem and determines which files need to be
65backed up. These files are copied to the given disk, tape or other storage
66medium for safe keeping (see the
67.B \-f
68option below for doing remote backups). A dump that is larger than the output
69medium is broken into multiple volumes. On most media the size is determined by
70writing until an end-of-media indication is returned.
71.PP
72On media that cannot reliably return an end-of-media indication (such as some
73cartridge tape drives), each volume is of a fixed size; the actual size is
74determined by specifying cartridge media, or via the tape size, density and/or
75block count options below. By default, the same output file name is used for
76each volume after prompting the operator to change media.
77.PP
78.I files-to-dump
79is either a mountpoint of a filesystem or a list of files and directories to be
80backed up as a subset of a filesystem. In the former case, either the path to a
81mounted filesystem or the device of an unmounted filesystem can be used. In the
82latter case, certain restrictions are placed on the backup:
83.B \-u
84is not allowed, the only dump level that is supported is
85.B 0
86and all the files and directories must reside on the same filesystem.
87.SH OPTIONS
88The following options are supported by
89.B dump:
90.TP
91.BI \-0\-9
92Dump levels. A level 0, full backup, guarantees the entire file system is
93copied (but see also the
94.B \-h
95option below). A level number above 0, incremental backup, tells
96.B dump
97to
98copy all files new or modified since the last dump of a lower level. The
99default level is 9.
100.TP
101.BI \-a
102\*(lqauto-size\*(rq. Bypass all tape length calculations, and write until an
103end-of-media indication is returned. This works best for most modern tape
104drives, and is the default. Use of this option is particularly recommended when
105appending to an existing tape, or using a tape drive with hardware compression
106(where you can never be sure about the compression ratio).
107.TP
108.BI \-A " archive_file"
109Archive a dump table-of-contents in the specified
110.I archive_file
111to be used by
112.BR restore (8)
113to determine whether a file is in the dump file that is being restored.
114.TP
115.BI \-b " blocksize"
116The number of kilobytes per dump record. The default blocksize is 10,
117unless the
118.B \-d
119option has been used to specify a tape density of 6250BPI or more,
120in which case the default blocksize is 32. Th maximal value is 1024.
121Note however that, since the IO system slices all requests into chunks
122of
123.B MAXBSIZE
124(which can be as low as 64kB), you can experience problems with
125.BR dump (8)
126and
127.BR restore (8)
128when using a higher value, depending on your kernel and/or libC versions.
129.TP
130.BI \-B " records"
131The number of 1 kB blocks per volume. Not normally required, as
132.B dump
133can detect end-of-media. When the specified size is reached,
134.B dump
135waits for you to change the volume. This option overrides the calculation of
136tape size based on length and density. If compression is on this limits the
137size of the compressed output per volume. Multiple values may be given
138as a single argument separated by commas. Each value will be used for one
139dump volume in the order listed; if
140.B dump
141creates more volumes than the
142number of values given, the last value will be used for the remaining
143volumes. This is useful for filling up already partially filled media
144(and then continuing with full size volumes on empty media) or mixing media
145of different sizes.
146.TP
147.BI \-c
148Change the defaults for use with a cartridge tape drive, with a density of 8000
149bpi, and a length of 1700 feet. Specifying a cartridge drive overrides the
150end-of-media detection.
151.TP
152.BI \-d " density"
153Set tape density to
154.IR density .
155The default is 1600BPI. Specifying a tape density overrides the end-of-media
156detection.
157.TP
158.BI \-D " file"
159Set the path name of the file storing the information about the previous
160full and incremental dumps. The default location is
161.IR __DUMPDATES__ .
162.TP
163.BI \-e " inodes"
164Exclude
165.I inodes
166from the dump. The
167.I inodes
168parameter is a comma separated list of inode numbers (you can use
169.BR stat (1)
170to find the inode number for a file or directory).
171.TP
172.BI \-E " file"
173Read list of inodes to be excluded from the dump from the text file
174.IR file .
175The file
176.I file
177should be an ordinary file containing inode numbers separated by newlines.
178.TP
179.BI \-f " file"
180Write the backup to
181.IR file ;
182.I file
183may be a special device file like
184.I /dev/st0
185(a tape drive),
186.I /dev/rsd1c
187(a floppy disk drive), an ordinary file, or
188.I \-
189(the standard output). Multiple file names may be given as a single argument
190separated by commas. Each file will be used for one dump volume in the order
191listed; if the dump requires more volumes than the number of names given,
192the last file name will used for all remaining volumes after prompting for
193media changes. If the name of the file is of the form
194.I host:file
195or
196.I user@host:file
197.B dump
198writes to the named file on the remote host using
199.BR rmt (8).
200The default path name of the remote
201.BR rmt (8)
202program is
203.IR /etc/rmt ;
204this can be overridden by the environment variable
205.BR RMT .
206.TP
207.BI \-F " script"
208Run script at the end of each tape (except for the last one).
209The device name and the current volume number are passed on the
210command line. The script must return 0 if
211.B dump
212should continue without asking the user to change the tape, 1 if
213.B dump
214should continue but ask the user to change the tape. Any other exit code will
215cause
216.B dump
217to abort. For security reasons,
218.B dump
219reverts back to the real user ID and the real group ID before running the
220script.
221.TP
222.BI \-h " level"
223Honor the user
224.B nodump
225flag
226.B UF_NODUMP
227only for dumps at or above the given
228.IR level .
229The default honor level is 1, so that incremental backups omit such files but
230full backups retain them.
231.TP
232.BI \-I " nr errors"
233By default,
234.B dump
235will ignore the first 32 read errors on the file system before asking for
236operator intervention. You can change this using this flag to any value. This
237is useful when running
238.B dump
239on an active filesystem where read errors simply indicate an inconsistency
240between the mapping and dumping passes.
241.IP
242A value of 0 means that all read errors will be ignored.
243.TP
244.BI \-j "compression level"
245Compress every block to be written on the tape using bzlib library. This option
246will work only when dumping to a file or pipe or, when dumping to a tape drive,
247if the tape drive is capable of writing variable length blocks. You will need
248at least the 0.4b24 version of
249.B restore
250in order to extract compressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not
251be compatible with the BSD tape format. The (optional) parameter specifies the
252compression level bzlib will use. The default compression level is 2. If the
253optional parameter is specified, there should be no white space between the
254option letter and the parameter.
255.TP
256.BI \-k
257Use Kerberos authentication to talk to remote tape servers. (Only available if
258this option was enabled when
259.B dump
260was compiled.)
261.TP
262.BI \-L " label"
263The user-supplied text string
264.I label
265is placed into the dump header, where tools like
266.BR restore (8)
267and
268.BR file (8)
269can access it. Note that this label is limited to be at most
270.B LBLSIZE
271(currently 16) characters, which must include the terminating \e0.
272.TP
273.BI \-m
274If this flag is specified,
275.B dump
276will optimise the output for inodes having been changed but not modified since
277the last dump ('changed' and 'modified' have the meaning defined in
278.BR stat (2)
279). For those inodes,
280.B dump
281will save only the metadata, instead of saving the entire inode contents.
282Inodes which are either directories or have been modified since the last dump
283are saved in a regular way. Uses of this flag must be consistent, meaning that
284either every dump in an incremental dump set have the flag, or no one has it.
285.IP
286Tapes written using such 'metadata only' inodes will not be compatible with the
287BSD tape format or older versions of
288.B restore.
289.TP
290.BI \-M
291Enable the multi-volume feature. The name specified with
292.B f
293is treated as a prefix and
294.B dump
295writes in sequence to
296.I <prefix>001, <prefix>002
297etc. This can be useful when dumping to files on an ext2 partition, in order to
298bypass the 2GB file size limitation.
299.TP
300.BI \-n
301Whenever
302.B dump
303requires operator attention, notify all operators in the group
304.B operator
305by means similar to a
306.BR wall (1).
307.TP
308.BI \-q
309Make
310.B dump
311abort immediately whenever operator attention is required, without prompting in
312case of write errors, tape changes etc.
313.TP
314.BI \-Q " file"
315Enable the Quick File Access support. Tape positions for each inode are stored
316into the file
317.I file
318which is used by
319.B restore
320(if called with parameter
321.B \-Q
322and the filename) to directly position the tape at the file
323.B restore
324is currently working on. This saves hours when restoring single files from
325large backups, saves the tapes and the drive's head.
326.IP
327It is recommended to set up the st driver to return logical tape positions
328rather than physical before calling
329.B dump/restore
330with parameter
331.BR \-Q .
332Since not all tape devices support physical tape positions those tape devices
333return an error during
334.B dump/restore
335when the st driver is set to the default physical setting. Please see the
336.BR st (4)
337man page, option
338.B MTSETDRVBUFFER
339, or the
340.BR mt (1)
341man page, on how to set the driver to return logical tape positions.
342.IP
343Before calling
344.B restore
345with parameter
346.BR \-Q ,
347always make sure the st driver is set to return the same type of tape position
348used during the call to
349.BR dump .
350Otherwise
351.B restore
352may be confused.
353.IP
354This option can be used when dumping to local tapes (see above) or to local
355files.
356.TP
357.BI \-s " feet"
358Attempt to calculate the amount of tape needed at a particular density. If this
359amount is exceeded,
360.B dump
361prompts for a new tape. It is recommended to be a bit conservative on this
362option. The default tape length is 2300 feet. Specifying the tape size
363overrides end-of-media detection.
364.TP
365.BI \-S
366Size estimate. Determine the amount of space that is needed to perform the dump
367without actually doing it, and display the estimated number of bytes it will
368take. This is useful with incremental dumps to determine how many volumes of
369media will be needed.
370.TP
371.BI \-T " date"
372Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump instead of the time
373determined from looking in
374.I __DUMPDATES__ .
375The format of
376.I date
377is the same as that of
378.BR ctime (3)
379followed by an rfc822 timezone specification: either a plus or minus sign
380followed by two digits for the number of hours and two digits for the minutes.
381For example, -0800 for eight hours west of Greenwich or +0230 for two hours
382and a half east of Greenwich. This timezone offset takes into account
383daylight savings time (if applicable to the timezone): UTC offsets
384when daylight savings time is in effect will be different than offsets
385when daylight savings time is not in effect. For backward
386compatibility, if no timezone is specified, a local time is assumed.
387This option is useful for automated dump scripts that wish to dump over a
388specific period of time. The
389.B \-T
390option is mutually exclusive from the
391.B \-u
392option.
393.TP
394.BI \-u
395Update the file
396.I __DUMPDATES__
397after a successful dump. The format of
398.I __DUMPDATES__
399is readable by people, consisting of one free format record per line:
400filesystem name, increment level and
401.BR ctime (3)
402format dump date followed by a rfc822 timezone specification (see the
403.B \-u
404option for details). If no timezone offset is specified, times are interpreted
405as local. Whenever the file is written, all dates in the file are converted
406to the local time zone, without changing the UTC times. There
407may be only one entry per filesystem at each level. The file
408.I __DUMPDATES__
409may be edited to change any of the fields, if necessary.
410.TP
411.BI \-v
412The
413.B \-v
414(verbose) makes
415.B dump
416to print extra information which could be helpful in debug sessions.
417.TP
418.BI \-W
419.B Dump
420tells the operator what file systems need to be dumped. This information is
421gleaned from the files
422.I __DUMPDATES__
423and
424.IR /etc/fstab .
425The
426.B \-W
427option causes
428.B dump
429to print out, for all file systems in
430.I __DUMPDATES__ ,
431and regognized file systems in
432.I /etc/mtab
433and
434.IR /etc/fstab .
435the most recent dump date and level, and highlights those that should be
436dumped. If the
437.B \-W
438option is set, all other options are ignored, and
439.B dump
440exits immediately.
441.TP
442.BI \-w
443Is like
444.BR \-W ,
445but prints only recognized filesystems in
446.I /etc/mtab
447and
448.I /etc/fstab
449which need to be dumped.
450.TP
451.BI \-y
452Compress every block to be written to the tape using the lzo library.
453This doesn't compress as well as the zlib library but it's much faster.
454This option will work only when dumping to a file or pipe or, when dumping to
455a tape drive, if the tape drive is capable of writing variable length blocks.
456You will need at least the 0.4b34 version of
457.B restore
458in order to extract compressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not
459be compatible with the BSD tape format.
460.TP
461.BI \-z "compression level"
462Compress every block to be written on the tape using zlib library. This option
463will work only when dumping to a file or pipe or, when dumping to a tape drive,
464if the tape drive is capable of writing variable length blocks. You will need
465at least the 0.4b22 version of
466.B restore
467in order to extract compressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not
468be compatible with the BSD tape format. The (optional) parameter specifies the
469compression level zlib will use. The default compression level is 2. If the
470optional parameter is specified, there should be no white space between the
471option letter and the parameter.
472.PP
473.B Dump
474requires operator intervention on these conditions: end of tape, end of dump,
475tape write error, tape open error or disk read error (if there is more than a
476threshold of nr errors). In addition to alerting all operators implied by the
477.B \-n
478key,
479.B dump
480interacts with the operator on dump's control terminal at times when
481.B dump
482can no longer proceed, or if something is grossly wrong. All questions
483.B dump
484poses
485.I must
486be answered by typing \*(lqyes\*(rq or \*(lqno\*(rq, appropriately.
487.PP
488Since making a dump involves a lot of time and effort for full dumps,
489.B dump
490checkpoints itself at the start of each tape volume. If writing that volume
491fails for some reason,
492.B dump
493will, with operator permission, restart itself from the checkpoint after the
494old tape has been rewound and removed, and a new tape has been mounted.
495.PP
496.B Dump
497tells the operator what is going on at periodic intervals, including usually
498low estimates of the number of blocks to write, the number of tapes it will
499take, the time to completion, and the time to the tape change. The output is
500verbose, so that others know that the terminal controlling
501.B dump
502is busy, and will be for some time.
503.PP
504In the event of a catastrophic disk event, the time required to restore all the
505necessary backup tapes or files to disk can be kept to a minimum by staggering
506the incremental dumps. An efficient method of staggering incremental dumps to
507minimize the number of tapes follows:
508.IP \(em
509Always start with a level 0 backup, for example:
510.RS 14
511.B /sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/st0 /usr/src
512.RE
513.IP
514This should be done at set intervals, say once a month or once every two months,
515and on a set of fresh tapes that is saved forever.
516.IP \(em
517After a level 0, dumps of active file systems are taken on a daily basis, using
518a modified Tower of Hanoi algorithm, with this sequence of dump levels:
519.RS 14
520.B 3 2 5 4 7 6 9 8 9 9 ...
521.RE
522.IP
523For the daily dumps, it should be possible to use a fixed number of tapes for
524each day, used on a weekly basis. Each week, a level 1 dump is taken, and the
525daily Hanoi sequence repeats beginning with 3. For weekly dumps, another fixed
526set of tapes per dumped file system is used, also on a cyclical basis.
527.PP
528After several months or so, the daily and weekly tapes should get rotated out
529of the dump cycle and fresh tapes brought in.
530.SH ENVIRONMENT
531.TP
532.B TAPE
533If no
534.B \-f
535option was specified,
536.B dump
537will use the device specified via
538.B TAPE
539as the dump device.
540.B TAPE
541may be of the form
542.IR tapename ,
543.IR host:tapename ,
544or
545.IR user@host:tapename .
546.TP
547.B RMT
548The environment variable
549.B RMT
550will be used to determine the pathname of the remote
551.BR rmt (8)
552program.
553.TP
554.B RSH
555.B Dump
556uses the contents of this variable to determine the name of the remote shell
557command to use when doing remote backups (rsh, ssh etc.). If this variable is
558not set,
559.BR rcmd (3)
560will be used, but only root will be able to do remote backups.
561.SH FILES
562.TP
563.I /dev/st0
564default tape unit to dump to
565.TP
566.I __DUMPDATES__
567dump date records
568.TP
569.I /etc/fstab
570dump table: file systems and frequency
571.TP
572.I /etc/mtab
573dump table: mounted file systems
574.TP
575.I /etc/group
576to find group
577.I operator
578.SH SEE ALSO
579.BR fstab (5),
580.BR restore (8),
581.BR rmt (8)
582.SH DIAGNOSTICS
583Many, and verbose.
584.SH COMPATIBILITY
585The format of the
586.I __DUMPDATES__
587file has changed in release 0.4b34, however, the file will be read
588correctly with either pre-0.4b34 or 0.4b34 and later versions of
589.B dump
590provided that the machine on which
591.B dump
592is run did not change timezones (which should be a fairly rare occurence).
593.SH EXIT STATUS
594.B Dump
595exits with zero status on success. Startup errors are indicated with an exit
596code of 1; abnormal termination is indicated with an exit code of 3.
597.SH BUGS
598It might be considered a bug that this version of dump can only handle ext2/3
599filesystems. Specifically, it does not work with FAT filesystems.
600.PP
601Fewer than 32 read errors (change this with
602.BR \-I )
603on the filesystem are ignored. If noticing read errors is important, the output
604from dump can be parsed to look for lines that contain the text 'read error'.
605.PP
606When a read error occurs,
607.B dump
608prints out the corresponding physical disk block and sector number and the
609ext2/3 logical block number. It doesn't print out the corresponing file name or
610even the inode number. The user has to use
611.BR debugfs (8),
612commands
613.B ncheck
614and
615.B icheck
616to translate the
617.B ext2blk
618number printed out by
619.B dump
620into an inode number, then into a file name.
621.PP
622Each reel requires a new process, so parent processes for reels already written
623just hang around until the entire tape is written.
624.PP
625The estimated number of tapes is not correct if compression is on.
626.PP
627It would be nice if
628.B dump
629knew about the dump sequence, kept track of the tapes scribbled on, told the
630operator which tape to mount when, and provided more assistance for the
631operator running
632.BR restore .
633.PP
634.B Dump
635cannot do remote backups without being run as root, due to its security history.
636Presently, it works if you set it setuid (like it used to be), but this might
637constitute a security risk. Note that you can set
638.B RSH
639to use a remote shell program instead.
640.SH AUTHOR
641The
642.B dump/restore
643backup suite was ported to Linux's Second Extended File System by Remy Card
644<card@Linux.EU.Org>. He maintained the initial versions of
645.B dump
646(up and including 0.4b4, released in january 1997).
647.PP
648Starting with 0.4b5, the new maintainer is Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>.
649.SH AVAILABILITY
650The
651.B dump/restore
652backup suite is available from <http://dump.sourceforge.net>
653.SH HISTORY
654A
655.B dump
656command appeared in
657.B Version 6 AT&T UNIX.