Small man page improvement regarding the dump levels specification.

[dump.git] / dump / dump.8.in

diff --git a/dump/dump.8.in b/dump/dump.8.in
index 1245d849325163b82d1fb1ce4be7836a20fe79bf..400eff20a493cc13be74367a24b576bffd34129e 100644 (file)
--- a/dump/dump.8.in
+++ b/dump/dump.8.in
@@ -26,14 +26,15 @@
 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
 .\" SUCH DAMAGE.
 .\"
-.\"    $Id: dump.8.in,v 1.55 2004/02/18 16:26:41 stelian Exp $
+.\"    $Id: dump.8.in,v 1.59 2006/08/01 10:22:44 stelian Exp $
 .\"
 .TH DUMP 8 "version __VERSION__ of __DATE__" BSD "System management commands"
 .SH NAME
 dump \- ext2/3 filesystem backup
 .SH SYNOPSIS
 .B dump 
-[\fB\-0123456789ackMnqSuv\fR]
+[\fB\-\fIlevel#\fR]
+[\fB\-ackMnqSuv]
 [\fB\-A \fIfile\fR]
 [\fB\-B \fIrecords\fR]
 [\fB\-b \fIblocksize\fR]
@@ -56,9 +57,6 @@ dump \- ext2/3 filesystem backup
 .PP
 .B dump 
 [\fB\-W \fR| \fB\-w\fR]
-.PP
-(The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility but is not
-documented here.)
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B Dump
 examines files on an ext2/3 filesystem and determines which files need to be
@@ -88,15 +86,17 @@ and all the files and directories must reside on the same filesystem.
 The following options are supported by
 .B dump:
 .TP
-.BI \-0\-9
-Dump levels. A level 0, full backup, guarantees the entire file system is
-copied (but see also the
+.BI \-level#
+The dump level (any integer). A level 0, full backup, specified by
+.B \-0
+guarantees the entire file system is copied (but see also the
 .B \-h
 option below). A level number above 0, incremental backup, tells
 .B dump
 to
 copy all files new or modified since the last dump of a lower level. The 
-default level is 9.
+default level is 9. Historically only levels 0 to 9 were usable in
+dump, this version is able to understand any integer as a dump level.
 .TP
 .BI \-a 
 \*(lqauto-size\*(rq. Bypass all tape length calculations, and write until an 
@@ -284,6 +284,12 @@ Inodes which are either directories or have been modified since the last dump
 are saved in a regular way. Uses of this flag must be consistent, meaning that
 either every dump in an incremental dump set have the flag, or no one has it.
 .IP
+If you use this option, be aware that many programs that unpack
+files from archives (e.g. tar, rpm, unzip, dpkg) may set files'
+mtimes to dates in the past.  Files installed in this way may not be
+dumped correctly using "dump -m" if the modified mtime is earlier
+than the previous level dump.
+.IP
 Tapes written using such 'metadata only' inodes will not be compatible with the
 BSD tape format or older versions of
 .B restore.
@@ -528,6 +534,9 @@ set of tapes per dumped file system is used, also on a cyclical basis.
 .PP
 After several months or so, the daily and weekly tapes should get rotated out
 of the dump cycle and fresh tapes brought in.
+.PP
+(The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility but is not
+documented here.)
 .SH ENVIRONMENT
 .TP 
 .B TAPE