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DUMP(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual DUMP(8) NAME dump, rdump -- filesystem backup SYNOPSIS dump [-0123456789acknu] [-B records] [-b blocksize] [-D dumpdates] [-d density] [-f file] [-h level] [-s feet] [-T date] filesystem dump -W | -w rdump is an alternate name for dump. (The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility, but is not documented here.) DESCRIPTION Dump examines files on a filesystem and determines which files need to be backed up. These files are copied to the given disk, tape or other stor- age medium for safe keeping (see the -f option below for doing remote backups). A dump that is larger than the output medium is broken into multiple volumes. On most media the size is determined by writing until an end-of-media indication is returned. This can be enforced by using the -a option. On media that cannot reliably return an end-of-media indication (such as some cartridge tape drives) each volume is of a fixed size; the actual size is determined by the tape size and density and/or -B options. By default, the same output file name is used for each volume after prompt- ing the operator to change media. The filesystem to be dumped is specified by the argument filesystem as either its device-special file or its mount point (if that is in a stan- dard entry in /etc/fstab). The following options are supported by dump: -0-9 Dump levels. A level 0, full backup, guarantees the entire filesystem is copied (but see also the -h option below). A level number above 0, incremental backup, tells dump to copy all files new or modified since the last dump of any lower level. The default level is 0. -a ``auto-size''. Bypass all tape length considerations, and enforce writing until an end-of-media indication is returned. This fits best for most modern tape drives. Use of this option is particularly recommended when appending to an existing tape, or using a tape drive with hardware compression (where you can never be sure about the compression ratio). -B records The number of kilobytes per output volume, except that if it is not an integer multiple of the output block size, the command uses the next smaller such multiple. This option overrides the calculation of tape size based on length and density. -b blocksize The number of kilobytes per output block, except that if it is larger than 64, the command uses 64. (See the BUGS section.) The default block size is 10. -c Change the defaults for use with a cartridge tape drive, with a density of 8000 bpi, and a length of 1700 feet. -D dumpdates Specify an alternate path to the dumpdates file. The default is /etc/dumpdates. -d density Set tape density to density. The default is 1600BPI. -f file Write the backup to file; file may be a special device file like /dev/sa0 (a tape drive), /dev/fd1 (a floppy disk drive), an ordi- nary file, or `-' (the standard output). Multiple file names may be given as a single argument separated by commas. Each file will be used for one dump volume in the order listed; if the dump requires more volumes than the number of names given, the last file name will used for all remaining volumes after prompting for media changes. If the name of the file is of the form ``host:file'', or ``user@host:file'', dump writes to the named file on the remote host using rmt(8). The default path name of the remote rmt(8) program is /etc/rmt; this can be overridden by the environment variable RMT. -h level Honor the user ``nodump'' flag (UF_NODUMP) only for dumps at or above the given level. The default honor level is 1, so that incremental backups omit such files but full backups retain them. -k Use Kerberos authentication to talk to remote tape servers. (Only available if this option was enabled when dump was com- piled.) -n Whenever dump requires operator attention, notify all operators in the group ``operator'' by means similar to a wall(1). -s feet Attempt to calculate the amount of tape needed at a particular density. If this amount is exceeded, dump prompts for a new tape. It is recommended to be a bit conservative on this option. The default tape length is 2300 feet. -T date Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump instead of the time determined from looking in the dumpdates file. The format of date is the same as that of ctime(3). This option is useful for automated dump scripts that wish to dump over a spe- cific period of time. The -T option is mutually exclusive from the -u option. -u Update the dumpdates file after a successful dump. The format of the dumpdates file is readable by people, consisting of one free format record per line: filesystem name, increment level and ctime(3) format dump date. There may be only one entry per filesystem at each level. The dumpdates file may be edited to change any of the fields, if necessary. The default path for the dumpdates file is /etc/dumpdates, but the -D option may be used to change it. -W Dump tells the operator what filesystems need to be dumped. This information is gleaned from the files dumpdates and /etc/fstab. The -W option causes dump to print out, for each filesystem in the dumpdates file the most recent dump date and level, and high- lights those filesystems that should be dumped. If the -W option is set, all other options are ignored, and dump exits immedi- ately. -w Is like W, but prints only those filesystems which need to be dumped. Directories and regular files which have their ``nodump'' flag (UF_NODUMP) set will be omitted along with everything under such directo- ries, subject to the -h option. Dump requires operator intervention on these conditions: end of tape, end of dump, tape write error, tape open error or disk read error (if there are more than a threshold of 32). In addition to alerting all operators implied by the -n key, dump interacts with the operator on dump's control terminal at times when dump can no longer proceed, or if something is grossly wrong. All questions dump poses must be answered by typing ``yes'' or ``no'', appropriately. Since making a dump involves a lot of time and effort for full dumps, dump checkpoints itself at the start of each tape volume. If writing that volume fails for some reason, dump will, with operator permission, restart itself from the checkpoint after the old tape has been rewound and removed, and a new tape has been mounted. Dump tells the operator what is going on at periodic intervals -- every 5 minutes, or promptly after receiving SIGINFO -- including usually low estimates of the number of blocks to write, the number of tapes it will take, the time to completion, and the time to the tape change. The out- put is verbose, so that others know that the terminal controlling dump is busy, and will be for some time. In the event of a catastrophic disk event, the time required to restore all the necessary backup tapes or files to disk can be kept to a minimum by staggering the incremental dumps. An efficient method of staggering incremental dumps to minimize the number of tapes follows: +o Always start with a level 0 backup, for example: /sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/nsa0 /usr/src This should be done at set intervals, say once a month or once every two months, and on a set of fresh tapes that is saved forever. +o After a level 0, dumps of active filesystems are taken on a daily basis, using a modified Tower of Hanoi algorithm, with this sequence of dump levels: 3 2 5 4 7 6 9 8 9 9 ... For the daily dumps, it should be possible to use a fixed num- ber of tapes for each day, used on a weekly basis. Each week, a level 1 dump is taken, and the daily Hanoi sequence repeats beginning with 3. For weekly dumps, another fixed set of tapes per dumped filesystem is used, also on a cyclical basis. After several months or so, the daily and weekly tapes should get rotated out of the dump cycle and fresh tapes brought in. ENVIRONMENT The environment variable RMT will be used to determine the pathname of the remote rmt(8) program. FILES /dev/sa0 default tape unit to dump to /etc/dumpdates dump date records (this can be changed; see the -D option) /etc/fstab dump table: filesystems and frequency /etc/group to find group operator SEE ALSO chflags(1), fstab(5), restore(8), rmt(8) DIAGNOSTICS Many, and verbose. Dump exits with zero status on success. Startup errors are indicated with an exit code of 1; abnormal termination is indicated with an exit code of 3. BUGS Fewer than 32 read errors on the filesystem are ignored. Each reel requires a new process, so parent processes for reels already written just hang around until the entire tape is written. Currently, physio(9) slices all requests into chunks of 64 KB. There- fore, it is impossible to use a larger output block size, so dump will prevent this from happening. Dump with the -W or -w options does not report filesystems that have never been recorded in the dumpdates file, even if listed in /etc/fstab. It would be nice if dump knew about the dump sequence, kept track of the tapes scribbled on, told the operator which tape to mount when, and pro- vided more assistance for the operator running restore. Dump cannot do remote backups without being run as root, due to its secu- rity history. This will be fixed in a later version of FreeBSD. Presently, it works if you set it setuid (like it used to be), but this might constitute a security risk. HISTORY A dump command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. FreeBSD 11.1 July 9, 2001 FreeBSD 11.1
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | SEE ALSO | DIAGNOSTICS | BUGS | HISTORY
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