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29.\" $Id: dump.8.in,v 1.56 2004/04/21 08:55:48 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.PP
61(The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility but is not
62documented here.)
63.SH DESCRIPTION
64.B Dump
65examines files on an ext2/3 filesystem and determines which files need to be
66backed up. These files are copied to the given disk, tape or other storage
67medium for safe keeping (see the
68.B \-f
69option below for doing remote backups). A dump that is larger than the output
70medium is broken into multiple volumes. On most media the size is determined by
71writing until an end-of-media indication is returned.
72.PP
73On media that cannot reliably return an end-of-media indication (such as some
74cartridge tape drives), each volume is of a fixed size; the actual size is
75determined by specifying cartridge media, or via the tape size, density and/or
76block count options below. By default, the same output file name is used for
77each volume after prompting the operator to change media.
78.PP
79.I files-to-dump
80is either a mountpoint of a filesystem or a list of files and directories to be
81backed up as a subset of a filesystem. In the former case, either the path to a
82mounted filesystem or the device of an unmounted filesystem can be used. In the
83latter case, certain restrictions are placed on the backup:
84.B \-u
85is not allowed, the only dump level that is supported is
86.B 0
87and all the files and directories must reside on the same filesystem.
88.SH OPTIONS
89The following options are supported by
90.B dump:
91.TP
92.BI \-level#
93The dump level (any integer). A level 0, full backup, guarantees the
94entire file system is copied (but see also the
95.B \-h
96option below). A level number above 0, incremental backup, tells
97.B dump
98to
99copy all files new or modified since the last dump of a lower level. The
100default level is 9. Historically only levels 0 to 9 were usable in
101dump, this version is able to understand any integer as a dump level.
102.TP
103.BI \-a
104\*(lqauto-size\*(rq. Bypass all tape length calculations, and write until an
105end-of-media indication is returned. This works best for most modern tape
106drives, and is the default. Use of this option is particularly recommended when
107appending to an existing tape, or using a tape drive with hardware compression
108(where you can never be sure about the compression ratio).
109.TP
110.BI \-A " archive_file"
111Archive a dump table-of-contents in the specified
112.I archive_file
113to be used by
114.BR restore (8)
115to determine whether a file is in the dump file that is being restored.
116.TP
117.BI \-b " blocksize"
118The number of kilobytes per dump record. The default blocksize is 10,
119unless the
120.B \-d
121option has been used to specify a tape density of 6250BPI or more,
122in which case the default blocksize is 32. Th maximal value is 1024.
123Note however that, since the IO system slices all requests into chunks
124of
125.B MAXBSIZE
126(which can be as low as 64kB), you can experience problems with
127.BR dump (8)
128and
129.BR restore (8)
130when using a higher value, depending on your kernel and/or libC versions.
131.TP
132.BI \-B " records"
133The number of 1 kB blocks per volume. Not normally required, as
134.B dump
135can detect end-of-media. When the specified size is reached,
136.B dump
137waits for you to change the volume. This option overrides the calculation of
138tape size based on length and density. If compression is on this limits the
139size of the compressed output per volume. Multiple values may be given
140as a single argument separated by commas. Each value will be used for one
141dump volume in the order listed; if
142.B dump
143creates more volumes than the
144number of values given, the last value will be used for the remaining
145volumes. This is useful for filling up already partially filled media
146(and then continuing with full size volumes on empty media) or mixing media
147of different sizes.
148.TP
149.BI \-c
150Change the defaults for use with a cartridge tape drive, with a density of 8000
151bpi, and a length of 1700 feet. Specifying a cartridge drive overrides the
152end-of-media detection.
153.TP
154.BI \-d " density"
155Set tape density to
156.IR density .
157The default is 1600BPI. Specifying a tape density overrides the end-of-media
158detection.
159.TP
160.BI \-D " file"
161Set the path name of the file storing the information about the previous
162full and incremental dumps. The default location is
163.IR __DUMPDATES__ .
164.TP
165.BI \-e " inodes"
166Exclude
167.I inodes
168from the dump. The
169.I inodes
170parameter is a comma separated list of inode numbers (you can use
171.BR stat (1)
172to find the inode number for a file or directory).
173.TP
174.BI \-E " file"
175Read list of inodes to be excluded from the dump from the text file
176.IR file .
177The file
178.I file
179should be an ordinary file containing inode numbers separated by newlines.
180.TP
181.BI \-f " file"
182Write the backup to
183.IR file ;
184.I file
185may be a special device file like
186.I /dev/st0
187(a tape drive),
188.I /dev/rsd1c
189(a floppy disk drive), an ordinary file, or
190.I \-
191(the standard output). Multiple file names may be given as a single argument
192separated by commas. Each file will be used for one dump volume in the order
193listed; if the dump requires more volumes than the number of names given,
194the last file name will used for all remaining volumes after prompting for
195media changes. If the name of the file is of the form
196.I host:file
197or
198.I user@host:file
199.B dump
200writes to the named file on the remote host (which should already
201exist, dump doesn't create a new remote file) using
202.BR rmt (8).
203The default path name of the remote
204.BR rmt (8)
205program is
206.IR /etc/rmt ;
207this can be overridden by the environment variable
208.BR RMT .
209.TP
210.BI \-F " script"
211Run script at the end of each tape (except for the last one).
212The device name and the current volume number are passed on the
213command line. The script must return 0 if
214.B dump
215should continue without asking the user to change the tape, 1 if
216.B dump
217should continue but ask the user to change the tape. Any other exit code will
218cause
219.B dump
220to abort. For security reasons,
221.B dump
222reverts back to the real user ID and the real group ID before running the
223script.
224.TP
225.BI \-h " level"
226Honor the user
227.B nodump
228flag
229.B UF_NODUMP
230only for dumps at or above the given
231.IR level .
232The default honor level is 1, so that incremental backups omit such files but
233full backups retain them.
234.TP
235.BI \-I " nr errors"
236By default,
237.B dump
238will ignore the first 32 read errors on the file system before asking for
239operator intervention. You can change this using this flag to any value. This
240is useful when running
241.B dump
242on an active filesystem where read errors simply indicate an inconsistency
243between the mapping and dumping passes.
244.IP
245A value of 0 means that all read errors will be ignored.
246.TP
247.BI \-j "compression level"
248Compress every block to be written on the tape using bzlib library. This option
249will work only when dumping to a file or pipe or, when dumping to a tape drive,
250if the tape drive is capable of writing variable length blocks. You will need
251at least the 0.4b24 version of
252.B restore
253in order to extract compressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not
254be compatible with the BSD tape format. The (optional) parameter specifies the
255compression level bzlib will use. The default compression level is 2. If the
256optional parameter is specified, there should be no white space between the
257option letter and the parameter.
258.TP
259.BI \-k
260Use Kerberos authentication to talk to remote tape servers. (Only available if
261this option was enabled when
262.B dump
263was compiled.)
264.TP
265.BI \-L " label"
266The user-supplied text string
267.I label
268is placed into the dump header, where tools like
269.BR restore (8)
270and
271.BR file (8)
272can access it. Note that this label is limited to be at most
273.B LBLSIZE
274(currently 16) characters, which must include the terminating \e0.
275.TP
276.BI \-m
277If this flag is specified,
278.B dump
279will optimise the output for inodes having been changed but not modified since
280the last dump ('changed' and 'modified' have the meaning defined in
281.BR stat (2)
282). For those inodes,
283.B dump
284will save only the metadata, instead of saving the entire inode contents.
285Inodes which are either directories or have been modified since the last dump
286are saved in a regular way. Uses of this flag must be consistent, meaning that
287either every dump in an incremental dump set have the flag, or no one has it.
288.IP
289Tapes written using such 'metadata only' inodes will not be compatible with the
290BSD tape format or older versions of
291.B restore.
292.TP
293.BI \-M
294Enable the multi-volume feature. The name specified with
295.B f
296is treated as a prefix and
297.B dump
298writes in sequence to
299.I <prefix>001, <prefix>002
300etc. This can be useful when dumping to files on an ext2 partition, in order to
301bypass the 2GB file size limitation.
302.TP
303.BI \-n
304Whenever
305.B dump
306requires operator attention, notify all operators in the group
307.B operator
308by means similar to a
309.BR wall (1).
310.TP
311.BI \-q
312Make
313.B dump
314abort immediately whenever operator attention is required, without prompting in
315case of write errors, tape changes etc.
316.TP
317.BI \-Q " file"
318Enable the Quick File Access support. Tape positions for each inode are stored
319into the file
320.I file
321which is used by
322.B restore
323(if called with parameter
324.B \-Q
325and the filename) to directly position the tape at the file
326.B restore
327is currently working on. This saves hours when restoring single files from
328large backups, saves the tapes and the drive's head.
329.IP
330It is recommended to set up the st driver to return logical tape positions
331rather than physical before calling
332.B dump/restore
333with parameter
334.BR \-Q .
335Since not all tape devices support physical tape positions those tape devices
336return an error during
337.B dump/restore
338when the st driver is set to the default physical setting. Please see the
339.BR st (4)
340man page, option
341.B MTSETDRVBUFFER
342, or the
343.BR mt (1)
344man page, on how to set the driver to return logical tape positions.
345.IP
346Before calling
347.B restore
348with parameter
349.BR \-Q ,
350always make sure the st driver is set to return the same type of tape position
351used during the call to
352.BR dump .
353Otherwise
354.B restore
355may be confused.
356.IP
357This option can be used when dumping to local tapes (see above) or to local
358files.
359.TP
360.BI \-s " feet"
361Attempt to calculate the amount of tape needed at a particular density. If this
362amount is exceeded,
363.B dump
364prompts for a new tape. It is recommended to be a bit conservative on this
365option. The default tape length is 2300 feet. Specifying the tape size
366overrides end-of-media detection.
367.TP
368.BI \-S
369Size estimate. Determine the amount of space that is needed to perform the dump
370without actually doing it, and display the estimated number of bytes it will
371take. This is useful with incremental dumps to determine how many volumes of
372media will be needed.
373.TP
374.BI \-T " date"
375Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump instead of the time
376determined from looking in
377.I __DUMPDATES__ .
378The format of
379.I date
380is the same as that of
381.BR ctime (3)
382followed by an rfc822 timezone specification: either a plus or minus sign
383followed by two digits for the number of hours and two digits for the minutes.
384For example, -0800 for eight hours west of Greenwich or +0230 for two hours
385and a half east of Greenwich. This timezone offset takes into account
386daylight savings time (if applicable to the timezone): UTC offsets
387when daylight savings time is in effect will be different than offsets
388when daylight savings time is not in effect. For backward
389compatibility, if no timezone is specified, a local time is assumed.
390This option is useful for automated dump scripts that wish to dump over a
391specific period of time. The
392.B \-T
393option is mutually exclusive from the
394.B \-u
395option.
396.TP
397.BI \-u
398Update the file
399.I __DUMPDATES__
400after a successful dump. The format of
401.I __DUMPDATES__
402is readable by people, consisting of one free format record per line:
403filesystem name, increment level and
404.BR ctime (3)
405format dump date followed by a rfc822 timezone specification (see the
406.B \-u
407option for details). If no timezone offset is specified, times are interpreted
408as local. Whenever the file is written, all dates in the file are converted
409to the local time zone, without changing the UTC times. There
410may be only one entry per filesystem at each level. The file
411.I __DUMPDATES__
412may be edited to change any of the fields, if necessary.
413.TP
414.BI \-v
415The
416.B \-v
417(verbose) makes
418.B dump
419to print extra information which could be helpful in debug sessions.
420.TP
421.BI \-W
422.B Dump
423tells the operator what file systems need to be dumped. This information is
424gleaned from the files
425.I __DUMPDATES__
426and
427.IR /etc/fstab .
428The
429.B \-W
430option causes
431.B dump
432to print out, for all file systems in
433.I __DUMPDATES__ ,
434and regognized file systems in
435.I /etc/mtab
436and
437.IR /etc/fstab .
438the most recent dump date and level, and highlights those that should be
439dumped. If the
440.B \-W
441option is set, all other options are ignored, and
442.B dump
443exits immediately.
444.TP
445.BI \-w
446Is like
447.BR \-W ,
448but prints only recognized filesystems in
449.I /etc/mtab
450and
451.I /etc/fstab
452which need to be dumped.
453.TP
454.BI \-y
455Compress every block to be written to the tape using the lzo library.
456This doesn't compress as well as the zlib library but it's much faster.
457This option will work only when dumping to a file or pipe or, when dumping to
458a tape drive, if the tape drive is capable of writing variable length blocks.
459You will need at least the 0.4b34 version of
460.B restore
461in order to extract compressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not
462be compatible with the BSD tape format.
463.TP
464.BI \-z "compression level"
465Compress every block to be written on the tape using zlib library. This option
466will work only when dumping to a file or pipe or, when dumping to a tape drive,
467if the tape drive is capable of writing variable length blocks. You will need
468at least the 0.4b22 version of
469.B restore
470in order to extract compressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not
471be compatible with the BSD tape format. The (optional) parameter specifies the
472compression level zlib will use. The default compression level is 2. If the
473optional parameter is specified, there should be no white space between the
474option letter and the parameter.
475.PP
476.B Dump
477requires operator intervention on these conditions: end of tape, end of dump,
478tape write error, tape open error or disk read error (if there is more than a
479threshold of nr errors). In addition to alerting all operators implied by the
480.B \-n
481key,
482.B dump
483interacts with the operator on dump's control terminal at times when
484.B dump
485can no longer proceed, or if something is grossly wrong. All questions
486.B dump
487poses
488.I must
489be answered by typing \*(lqyes\*(rq or \*(lqno\*(rq, appropriately.
490.PP
491Since making a dump involves a lot of time and effort for full dumps,
492.B dump
493checkpoints itself at the start of each tape volume. If writing that volume
494fails for some reason,
495.B dump
496will, with operator permission, restart itself from the checkpoint after the
497old tape has been rewound and removed, and a new tape has been mounted.
498.PP
499.B Dump
500tells the operator what is going on at periodic intervals, including usually
501low estimates of the number of blocks to write, the number of tapes it will
502take, the time to completion, and the time to the tape change. The output is
503verbose, so that others know that the terminal controlling
504.B dump
505is busy, and will be for some time.
506.PP
507In the event of a catastrophic disk event, the time required to restore all the
508necessary backup tapes or files to disk can be kept to a minimum by staggering
509the incremental dumps. An efficient method of staggering incremental dumps to
510minimize the number of tapes follows:
511.IP \(em
512Always start with a level 0 backup, for example:
513.RS 14
514.B /sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/st0 /usr/src
515.RE
516.IP
517This should be done at set intervals, say once a month or once every two months,
518and on a set of fresh tapes that is saved forever.
519.IP \(em
520After a level 0, dumps of active file systems are taken on a daily basis, using
521a modified Tower of Hanoi algorithm, with this sequence of dump levels:
522.RS 14
523.B 3 2 5 4 7 6 9 8 9 9 ...
524.RE
525.IP
526For the daily dumps, it should be possible to use a fixed number of tapes for
527each day, used on a weekly basis. Each week, a level 1 dump is taken, and the
528daily Hanoi sequence repeats beginning with 3. For weekly dumps, another fixed
529set of tapes per dumped file system is used, also on a cyclical basis.
530.PP
531After several months or so, the daily and weekly tapes should get rotated out
532of the dump cycle and fresh tapes brought in.
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.