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29.\" $Id: dump.8.in,v 1.57 2004/07/13 08:17:32 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\-\fIlevel#\fR]
37[\fB\-ackMnqSuv]
38[\fB\-A \fIfile\fR]
39[\fB\-B \fIrecords\fR]
40[\fB\-b \fIblocksize\fR]
41[\fB\-d \fIdensity\fR]
42[\fB\-D \fIfile\fR]
43[\fB\-e \fIinode numbers\fR]
44[\fB\-E \fIfile\fR]
45[\fB\-f \fIfile\fR]
46[\fB\-F \fIscript\fR]
47[\fB\-h \fIlevel\fR]
48[\fB\-I \fInr errors\fR]
49[\fB\-j\fIcompression level\fR]
50[\fB\-L \fIlabel\fR]
51[\fB\-Q \fIfile\fR]
52[\fB\-s \fIfeet\fR]
53[\fB\-T \fIdate\fR]
54[\fB\-y\fR]
55[\fB\-z\fIcompression level\fR]
56.I files-to-dump
57.PP
58.B dump
59[\fB\-W \fR| \fB\-w\fR]
60.SH DESCRIPTION
61.B Dump
62examines files on an ext2/3 filesystem and determines which files need to be
63backed up. These files are copied to the given disk, tape or other storage
64medium for safe keeping (see the
65.B \-f
66option below for doing remote backups). A dump that is larger than the output
67medium is broken into multiple volumes. On most media the size is determined by
68writing until an end-of-media indication is returned.
69.PP
70On media that cannot reliably return an end-of-media indication (such as some
71cartridge tape drives), each volume is of a fixed size; the actual size is
72determined by specifying cartridge media, or via the tape size, density and/or
73block count options below. By default, the same output file name is used for
74each volume after prompting the operator to change media.
75.PP
76.I files-to-dump
77is either a mountpoint of a filesystem or a list of files and directories to be
78backed up as a subset of a filesystem. In the former case, either the path to a
79mounted filesystem or the device of an unmounted filesystem can be used. In the
80latter case, certain restrictions are placed on the backup:
81.B \-u
82is not allowed, the only dump level that is supported is
83.B 0
84and all the files and directories must reside on the same filesystem.
85.SH OPTIONS
86The following options are supported by
87.B dump:
88.TP
89.BI \-level#
90The dump level (any integer). A level 0, full backup, guarantees the
91entire file system is copied (but see also the
92.B \-h
93option below). A level number above 0, incremental backup, tells
94.B dump
95to
96copy all files new or modified since the last dump of a lower level. The
97default level is 9. Historically only levels 0 to 9 were usable in
98dump, this version is able to understand any integer as a dump level.
99.TP
100.BI \-a
101\*(lqauto-size\*(rq. Bypass all tape length calculations, and write until an
102end-of-media indication is returned. This works best for most modern tape
103drives, and is the default. Use of this option is particularly recommended when
104appending to an existing tape, or using a tape drive with hardware compression
105(where you can never be sure about the compression ratio).
106.TP
107.BI \-A " archive_file"
108Archive a dump table-of-contents in the specified
109.I archive_file
110to be used by
111.BR restore (8)
112to determine whether a file is in the dump file that is being restored.
113.TP
114.BI \-b " blocksize"
115The number of kilobytes per dump record. The default blocksize is 10,
116unless the
117.B \-d
118option has been used to specify a tape density of 6250BPI or more,
119in which case the default blocksize is 32. Th maximal value is 1024.
120Note however that, since the IO system slices all requests into chunks
121of
122.B MAXBSIZE
123(which can be as low as 64kB), you can experience problems with
124.BR dump (8)
125and
126.BR restore (8)
127when using a higher value, depending on your kernel and/or libC versions.
128.TP
129.BI \-B " records"
130The number of 1 kB blocks per volume. Not normally required, as
131.B dump
132can detect end-of-media. When the specified size is reached,
133.B dump
134waits for you to change the volume. This option overrides the calculation of
135tape size based on length and density. If compression is on this limits the
136size of the compressed output per volume. Multiple values may be given
137as a single argument separated by commas. Each value will be used for one
138dump volume in the order listed; if
139.B dump
140creates more volumes than the
141number of values given, the last value will be used for the remaining
142volumes. This is useful for filling up already partially filled media
143(and then continuing with full size volumes on empty media) or mixing media
144of different sizes.
145.TP
146.BI \-c
147Change the defaults for use with a cartridge tape drive, with a density of 8000
148bpi, and a length of 1700 feet. Specifying a cartridge drive overrides the
149end-of-media detection.
150.TP
151.BI \-d " density"
152Set tape density to
153.IR density .
154The default is 1600BPI. Specifying a tape density overrides the end-of-media
155detection.
156.TP
157.BI \-D " file"
158Set the path name of the file storing the information about the previous
159full and incremental dumps. The default location is
160.IR __DUMPDATES__ .
161.TP
162.BI \-e " inodes"
163Exclude
164.I inodes
165from the dump. The
166.I inodes
167parameter is a comma separated list of inode numbers (you can use
168.BR stat (1)
169to find the inode number for a file or directory).
170.TP
171.BI \-E " file"
172Read list of inodes to be excluded from the dump from the text file
173.IR file .
174The file
175.I file
176should be an ordinary file containing inode numbers separated by newlines.
177.TP
178.BI \-f " file"
179Write the backup to
180.IR file ;
181.I file
182may be a special device file like
183.I /dev/st0
184(a tape drive),
185.I /dev/rsd1c
186(a floppy disk drive), an ordinary file, or
187.I \-
188(the standard output). Multiple file names may be given as a single argument
189separated by commas. Each file will be used for one dump volume in the order
190listed; if the dump requires more volumes than the number of names given,
191the last file name will used for all remaining volumes after prompting for
192media changes. If the name of the file is of the form
193.I host:file
194or
195.I user@host:file
196.B dump
197writes to the named file on the remote host (which should already
198exist, dump doesn't create a new remote file) 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.PP
531(The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility but is not
532documented here.)
533.SH ENVIRONMENT
534.TP
535.B TAPE
536If no
537.B \-f
538option was specified,
539.B dump
540will use the device specified via
541.B TAPE
542as the dump device.
543.B TAPE
544may be of the form
545.IR tapename ,
546.IR host:tapename ,
547or
548.IR user@host:tapename .
549.TP
550.B RMT
551The environment variable
552.B RMT
553will be used to determine the pathname of the remote
554.BR rmt (8)
555program.
556.TP
557.B RSH
558.B Dump
559uses the contents of this variable to determine the name of the remote shell
560command to use when doing remote backups (rsh, ssh etc.). If this variable is
561not set,
562.BR rcmd (3)
563will be used, but only root will be able to do remote backups.
564.SH FILES
565.TP
566.I /dev/st0
567default tape unit to dump to
568.TP
569.I __DUMPDATES__
570dump date records
571.TP
572.I /etc/fstab
573dump table: file systems and frequency
574.TP
575.I /etc/mtab
576dump table: mounted file systems
577.TP
578.I /etc/group
579to find group
580.I operator
581.SH SEE ALSO
582.BR fstab (5),
583.BR restore (8),
584.BR rmt (8)
585.SH DIAGNOSTICS
586Many, and verbose.
587.SH COMPATIBILITY
588The format of the
589.I __DUMPDATES__
590file has changed in release 0.4b34, however, the file will be read
591correctly with either pre-0.4b34 or 0.4b34 and later versions of
592.B dump
593provided that the machine on which
594.B dump
595is run did not change timezones (which should be a fairly rare occurence).
596.SH EXIT STATUS
597.B Dump
598exits with zero status on success. Startup errors are indicated with an exit
599code of 1; abnormal termination is indicated with an exit code of 3.
600.SH BUGS
601It might be considered a bug that this version of dump can only handle ext2/3
602filesystems. Specifically, it does not work with FAT filesystems.
603.PP
604Fewer than 32 read errors (change this with
605.BR \-I )
606on the filesystem are ignored. If noticing read errors is important, the output
607from dump can be parsed to look for lines that contain the text 'read error'.
608.PP
609When a read error occurs,
610.B dump
611prints out the corresponding physical disk block and sector number and the
612ext2/3 logical block number. It doesn't print out the corresponing file name or
613even the inode number. The user has to use
614.BR debugfs (8),
615commands
616.B ncheck
617and
618.B icheck
619to translate the
620.B ext2blk
621number printed out by
622.B dump
623into an inode number, then into a file name.
624.PP
625Each reel requires a new process, so parent processes for reels already written
626just hang around until the entire tape is written.
627.PP
628The estimated number of tapes is not correct if compression is on.
629.PP
630It would be nice if
631.B dump
632knew about the dump sequence, kept track of the tapes scribbled on, told the
633operator which tape to mount when, and provided more assistance for the
634operator running
635.BR restore .
636.PP
637.B Dump
638cannot do remote backups without being run as root, due to its security history.
639Presently, it works if you set it setuid (like it used to be), but this might
640constitute a security risk. Note that you can set
641.B RSH
642to use a remote shell program instead.
643.SH AUTHOR
644The
645.B dump/restore
646backup suite was ported to Linux's Second Extended File System by Remy Card
647<card@Linux.EU.Org>. He maintained the initial versions of
648.B dump
649(up and including 0.4b4, released in january 1997).
650.PP
651Starting with 0.4b5, the new maintainer is Stelian Pop <stelian@popies.net>.
652.SH AVAILABILITY
653The
654.B dump/restore
655backup suite is available from <http://dump.sourceforge.net>
656.SH HISTORY
657A
658.B dump
659command appeared in
660.B Version 6 AT&T UNIX.