xref: /freebsd/sbin/dump/dump.8 (revision 7773002178c8dbc52b44e4d705f07706409af8e4)
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33.\"     @(#)dump.8	8.3 (Berkeley) 5/1/95
34.\" $FreeBSD$
35.\"
36.Dd March 1, 2002
37.Dt DUMP 8
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm dump ,
41.Nm rdump
42.Nd file system backup
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Nm
45.Op Fl 0123456789acLnSu
46.Op Fl B Ar records
47.Op Fl b Ar blocksize
48.Op Fl C Ar cachesize
49.Op Fl D Ar dumpdates
50.Op Fl d Ar density
51.Op Fl f Ar file
52.Op Fl h Ar level
53.Op Fl s Ar feet
54.Op Fl T Ar date
55.Ar filesystem
56.Nm
57.Fl W | Fl w
58.Pp
59.Nm rdump
60is an alternate name for
61.Nm .
62.Pp
63.in \" XXX
64(The
65.Bx 4.3
66option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility, but
67is not documented here.)
68.Sh DESCRIPTION
69The
70.Nm
71utility examines files
72on a file system
73and determines which files
74need to be backed up.
75These files
76are copied to the given disk, tape or other
77storage medium for safe keeping (see the
78.Fl f
79option below for doing remote backups).
80A dump that is larger than the output medium is broken into
81multiple volumes.
82On most media the size is determined by writing until an
83end-of-media indication is returned.
84This can be enforced
85by using the
86.Fl a
87option.
88.Pp
89On media that cannot reliably return an end-of-media indication
90(such as some cartridge tape drives)
91each volume is of a fixed size;
92the actual size is determined by the tape size and density and/or
93.Fl B
94options.
95By default, the same output file name is used for each volume
96after prompting the operator to change media.
97.Pp
98The file system to be dumped is specified by the argument
99.Ar filesystem
100as either its device-special file or its mount point
101(if that is in a standard entry in
102.Pa /etc/fstab ) .
103.Pp
104The following options are supported by
105.Nm :
106.Bl -tag -width Ds
107.It Fl 0-9
108Dump levels.
109A level 0, full backup,
110guarantees the entire file system is copied
111(but see also the
112.Fl h
113option below).
114A level number above 0,
115incremental backup,
116tells dump to
117copy all files new or modified since the
118last dump of any lower level.
119The default level is 0.
120.It Fl a
121.Dq auto-size .
122Bypass all tape length considerations, and enforce writing
123until an end-of-media indication is returned.
124This fits best for most modern tape drives.
125Use of this option is particularly
126recommended when appending to an existing tape, or using a tape
127drive with hardware compression (where you can never be sure about
128the compression ratio).
129.It Fl B Ar records
130The number of kilobytes per output volume, except that if it is
131not an integer multiple of the output block size,
132the command uses the next smaller such multiple.
133This option overrides the calculation of tape size
134based on length and density.
135.It Fl b Ar blocksize
136The number of kilobytes per output block.
137The default block size is 10.
138.It Fl C Ar cachesize
139Specify the cache size in megabytes.
140This will greatly improve performance
141at the cost of
142.Nm
143possibly not noticing changes in the file system between passes.
144It is
145recommended that you always use this option when dumping a snapshot.
146Beware that
147.Nm
148forks, and the actual memory use may be larger than the specified cache
149size.
150The recommended cache size is between 8 and 32 (megabytes).
151.It Fl c
152Change the defaults for use with a cartridge tape drive, with a density
153of 8000 bpi, and a length of 1700 feet.
154.It Fl D Ar dumpdates
155Specify an alternate path to the
156.Pa dumpdates
157file.
158The default is
159.Pa /etc/dumpdates .
160.It Fl d Ar density
161Set tape density to
162.Ar density .
163The default is 1600BPI.
164.It Fl f Ar file
165Write the backup to
166.Ar file ;
167.Ar file
168may be a special device file
169like
170.Pa /dev/sa0
171(a tape drive),
172.Pa /dev/fd1
173(a floppy disk drive),
174an ordinary file,
175or
176.Sq Fl
177(the standard output).
178Multiple file names may be given as a single argument separated by commas.
179Each file will be used for one dump volume in the order listed;
180if the dump requires more volumes than the number of names given,
181the last file name will used for all remaining volumes after prompting
182for media changes.
183If the name of the file is of the form
184.Dq host:file ,
185or
186.Dq user@host:file ,
187.Nm
188writes to the named file on the remote host using
189.Xr rmt 8 .
190The default path name of the remote
191.Xr rmt 8
192program is
193.\" rmt path, is the path on the remote host
194.Pa /etc/rmt ;
195this can be overridden by the environment variable
196.Ev RMT .
197.It Fl h Ar level
198Honor the user
199.Dq nodump
200flag
201.Pq Dv UF_NODUMP
202only for dumps at or above the given
203.Ar level .
204The default honor level is 1,
205so that incremental backups omit such files
206but full backups retain them.
207.It Fl L
208This option is to notify
209.Nm
210that it is dumping a live file system.
211To obtain a consistent dump image,
212.Nm
213takes a snapshot of the file system and
214then does a dump of the snapshot.
215The snapshot is removed when the dump is complete.
216.It Fl n
217Whenever
218.Nm
219requires operator attention,
220notify all operators in the group
221.Dq operator
222by means similar to a
223.Xr wall 1 .
224.It Fl S
225Display an estimate of the backup size and the number of
226tapes required, and exit without actually performing the dump.
227.It Fl s Ar feet
228Attempt to calculate the amount of tape needed
229at a particular density.
230If this amount is exceeded,
231.Nm
232prompts for a new tape.
233It is recommended to be a bit conservative on this option.
234The default tape length is 2300 feet.
235.It Fl T Ar date
236Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump
237instead of the time determined from looking in
238the
239.Pa dumpdates
240file.
241The format of date is the same as that of
242.Xr ctime 3 .
243This option is useful for automated dump scripts that wish to
244dump over a specific period of time.
245The
246.Fl T
247option is mutually exclusive from the
248.Fl u
249option.
250.It Fl u
251Update the
252.Pa dumpdates
253file
254after a successful dump.
255The format of
256the
257.Pa dumpdates
258file
259is readable by people, consisting of one
260free format record per line:
261file system name,
262increment level
263and
264.Xr ctime 3
265format dump date.
266There may be only one entry per file system at each level.
267The
268.Pa dumpdates
269file
270may be edited to change any of the fields,
271if necessary.
272The default path for the
273.Pa dumpdates
274file is
275.Pa /etc/dumpdates ,
276but the
277.Fl D
278option may be used to change it.
279.It Fl W
280Tell the operator what file systems need to be dumped.
281This information is gleaned from the files
282.Pa dumpdates
283and
284.Pa /etc/fstab .
285The
286.Fl W
287option causes
288.Nm
289to print out, for each file system in
290the
291.Pa dumpdates
292file
293the most recent dump date and level,
294and highlights those file systems that should be dumped.
295If the
296.Fl W
297option is set, all other options are ignored, and
298.Nm
299exits immediately.
300.It Fl w
301Is like
302.Fl W ,
303but prints only those file systems which need to be dumped.
304.El
305.Pp
306Directories and regular files which have their
307.Dq nodump
308flag
309.Pq Dv UF_NODUMP
310set will be omitted along with everything under such directories,
311subject to the
312.Fl h
313option.
314.Pp
315The
316.Nm
317utility requires operator intervention on these conditions:
318end of tape,
319end of dump,
320tape write error,
321tape open error or
322disk read error (if there are more than a threshold of 32).
323In addition to alerting all operators implied by the
324.Fl n
325key,
326.Nm
327interacts with the operator on
328.Em dump's
329control terminal at times when
330.Nm
331can no longer proceed,
332or if something is grossly wrong.
333All questions
334.Nm
335poses
336.Em must
337be answered by typing
338.Dq yes
339or
340.Dq no ,
341appropriately.
342.Pp
343Since making a dump involves a lot of time and effort for full dumps,
344.Nm
345checkpoints itself at the start of each tape volume.
346If writing that volume fails for some reason,
347.Nm
348will,
349with operator permission,
350restart itself from the checkpoint
351after the old tape has been rewound and removed,
352and a new tape has been mounted.
353.Pp
354The
355.Nm
356utility tells the operator what is going on at periodic intervals
357(every 5 minutes, or promptly after receiving
358.Dv SIGINFO ) ,
359including usually low estimates of the number of blocks to write,
360the number of tapes it will take, the time to completion, and
361the time to the tape change.
362The output is verbose,
363so that others know that the terminal
364controlling
365.Nm
366is busy,
367and will be for some time.
368.Pp
369In the event of a catastrophic disk event, the time required
370to restore all the necessary backup tapes or files to disk
371can be kept to a minimum by staggering the incremental dumps.
372An efficient method of staggering incremental dumps
373to minimize the number of tapes follows:
374.Bl -bullet -offset indent
375.It
376Always start with a level 0 backup, for example:
377.Bd -literal -offset indent
378/sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/nsa0 /usr/src
379.Ed
380.Pp
381This should be done at set intervals, say once a month or once every two months,
382and on a set of fresh tapes that is saved forever.
383.It
384After a level 0, dumps of active file systems (file systems with files
385that change, depending on your partition layout some file systems may
386contain only data that does not change) are taken on a daily basis,
387using a modified Tower of Hanoi algorithm,
388with this sequence of dump levels:
389.Bd -literal -offset indent
3903 2 5 4 7 6 9 8 9 9 ...
391.Ed
392.Pp
393For the daily dumps, it should be possible to use a fixed number of tapes
394for each day, used on a weekly basis.
395Each week, a level 1 dump is taken, and
396the daily Hanoi sequence repeats beginning with 3.
397For weekly dumps, another fixed set of tapes per dumped file system is
398used, also on a cyclical basis.
399.El
400.Pp
401After several months or so, the daily and weekly tapes should get
402rotated out of the dump cycle and fresh tapes brought in.
403.Sh ENVIRONMENT
404.Bl -tag -width ".Ev TAPE"
405.It Ev TAPE
406Device from which to read backup.
407.It Ev RMT
408Pathname of the remote
409.Xr rmt 8
410program.
411.El
412.Sh FILES
413.Bl -tag -width /etc/dumpdates -compact
414.It Pa /dev/sa0
415default tape unit to dump to
416.It Pa /etc/dumpdates
417dump date records
418(this can be changed;
419see the
420.Fl D
421option)
422.It Pa /etc/fstab
423dump table: file systems and frequency
424.It Pa /etc/group
425to find group
426.Em operator
427.El
428.Sh SEE ALSO
429.Xr chflags 1 ,
430.Xr fstab 5 ,
431.Xr restore 8 ,
432.Xr rmt 8
433.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
434Many, and verbose.
435.Pp
436Dump exits with zero status on success.
437Startup errors are indicated with an exit code of 1;
438abnormal termination is indicated with an exit code of 3.
439.Sh BUGS
440Fewer than 32 read errors on the file system are ignored, though all
441errors will generate a warning message.
442This is a bit of a compromise.
443In practice it is possible to generate read errors when doing dumps
444on mounted partitions if the file system is being modified while the
445dump is running.
446Since dumps are often done in an unattended fashion using
447.Xr cron 8
448jobs asking for Operator intervention would result in the dump dying.
449However there is nothing wrong with a dump tape written when this sort
450of read error occurs and there is no reason to terminate the dump.
451.Pp
452Each reel requires a new process, so parent processes for
453reels already written just hang around until the entire tape
454is written.
455.Pp
456The
457.Nm
458utility with the
459.Fl W
460or
461.Fl w
462options does not report file systems that have never been recorded
463in the
464.Pa dumpdates
465file,
466even if listed in
467.Pa /etc/fstab .
468.Pp
469It would be nice if
470.Nm
471knew about the dump sequence,
472kept track of the tapes scribbled on,
473told the operator which tape to mount when,
474and provided more assistance
475for the operator running
476.Xr restore 8 .
477.Pp
478The
479.Nm
480utility cannot do remote backups without being run as root, due to its
481security history.
482This will be fixed in a later version of
483.Fx .
484Presently, it works if you set it setuid (like it used to be), but this
485might constitute a security risk.
486.Sh HISTORY
487A
488.Nm
489utility appeared in
490.At v6 .
491