xref: /freebsd/sbin/dump/dump.8 (revision 77b7cdf1999ee965ad494fddd184b18f532ac91a)
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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, except that if it is
137larger than 64, the command uses 64.
138(See the
139.Sx BUGS
140section.)
141The default block size is 10.
142.It Fl C Ar cachesize
143Specify the cache size in megabytes.
144This will greatly improve performance
145at the cost of
146.Nm
147possibly not noticing changes in the file system between passes.
148It is
149recommended that you always use this option when dumping a snapshot.
150Beware that
151.Nm
152forks, and the actual memory use may be larger than the specified cache
153size.
154The recommended cache size is between 8 and 32 (megabytes).
155.It Fl c
156Change the defaults for use with a cartridge tape drive, with a density
157of 8000 bpi, and a length of 1700 feet.
158.It Fl D Ar dumpdates
159Specify an alternate path to the
160.Pa dumpdates
161file.
162The default is
163.Pa /etc/dumpdates .
164.It Fl d Ar density
165Set tape density to
166.Ar density .
167The default is 1600BPI.
168.It Fl f Ar file
169Write the backup to
170.Ar file ;
171.Ar file
172may be a special device file
173like
174.Pa /dev/sa0
175(a tape drive),
176.Pa /dev/fd1
177(a floppy disk drive),
178an ordinary file,
179or
180.Sq Fl
181(the standard output).
182Multiple file names may be given as a single argument separated by commas.
183Each file will be used for one dump volume in the order listed;
184if the dump requires more volumes than the number of names given,
185the last file name will used for all remaining volumes after prompting
186for media changes.
187If the name of the file is of the form
188.Dq host:file ,
189or
190.Dq user@host:file ,
191.Nm
192writes to the named file on the remote host using
193.Xr rmt 8 .
194The default path name of the remote
195.Xr rmt 8
196program is
197.\" rmt path, is the path on the remote host
198.Pa /etc/rmt ;
199this can be overridden by the environment variable
200.Ev RMT .
201.It Fl h Ar level
202Honor the user
203.Dq nodump
204flag
205.Pq Dv UF_NODUMP
206only for dumps at or above the given
207.Ar level .
208The default honor level is 1,
209so that incremental backups omit such files
210but full backups retain them.
211.It Fl L
212This option is to notify
213.Nm
214that it is dumping a live file system.
215To obtain a consistent dump image,
216.Nm
217takes a snapshot of the file system and
218then does a dump of the snapshot.
219The snapshot is removed when the dump is complete.
220.It Fl n
221Whenever
222.Nm
223requires operator attention,
224notify all operators in the group
225.Dq operator
226by means similar to a
227.Xr wall 1 .
228.It Fl S
229Display an estimate of the backup size and the number of
230tapes required, and exit without actually performing the dump.
231.It Fl s Ar feet
232Attempt to calculate the amount of tape needed
233at a particular density.
234If this amount is exceeded,
235.Nm
236prompts for a new tape.
237It is recommended to be a bit conservative on this option.
238The default tape length is 2300 feet.
239.It Fl T Ar date
240Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump
241instead of the time determined from looking in
242the
243.Pa dumpdates
244file.
245The format of date is the same as that of
246.Xr ctime 3 .
247This option is useful for automated dump scripts that wish to
248dump over a specific period of time.
249The
250.Fl T
251option is mutually exclusive from the
252.Fl u
253option.
254.It Fl u
255Update the
256.Pa dumpdates
257file
258after a successful dump.
259The format of
260the
261.Pa dumpdates
262file
263is readable by people, consisting of one
264free format record per line:
265file system name,
266increment level
267and
268.Xr ctime 3
269format dump date.
270There may be only one entry per file system at each level.
271The
272.Pa dumpdates
273file
274may be edited to change any of the fields,
275if necessary.
276The default path for the
277.Pa dumpdates
278file is
279.Pa /etc/dumpdates ,
280but the
281.Fl D
282option may be used to change it.
283.It Fl W
284Tell the operator what file systems need to be dumped.
285This information is gleaned from the files
286.Pa dumpdates
287and
288.Pa /etc/fstab .
289The
290.Fl W
291option causes
292.Nm
293to print out, for each file system in
294the
295.Pa dumpdates
296file
297the most recent dump date and level,
298and highlights those file systems that should be dumped.
299If the
300.Fl W
301option is set, all other options are ignored, and
302.Nm
303exits immediately.
304.It Fl w
305Is like
306.Fl W ,
307but prints only those file systems which need to be dumped.
308.El
309.Pp
310Directories and regular files which have their
311.Dq nodump
312flag
313.Pq Dv UF_NODUMP
314set will be omitted along with everything under such directories,
315subject to the
316.Fl h
317option.
318.Pp
319The
320.Nm
321utility requires operator intervention on these conditions:
322end of tape,
323end of dump,
324tape write error,
325tape open error or
326disk read error (if there are more than a threshold of 32).
327In addition to alerting all operators implied by the
328.Fl n
329key,
330.Nm
331interacts with the operator on
332.Em dump's
333control terminal at times when
334.Nm
335can no longer proceed,
336or if something is grossly wrong.
337All questions
338.Nm
339poses
340.Em must
341be answered by typing
342.Dq yes
343or
344.Dq no ,
345appropriately.
346.Pp
347Since making a dump involves a lot of time and effort for full dumps,
348.Nm
349checkpoints itself at the start of each tape volume.
350If writing that volume fails for some reason,
351.Nm
352will,
353with operator permission,
354restart itself from the checkpoint
355after the old tape has been rewound and removed,
356and a new tape has been mounted.
357.Pp
358The
359.Nm
360utility tells the operator what is going on at periodic intervals
361(every 5 minutes, or promptly after receiving
362.Dv SIGINFO ) ,
363including usually low estimates of the number of blocks to write,
364the number of tapes it will take, the time to completion, and
365the time to the tape change.
366The output is verbose,
367so that others know that the terminal
368controlling
369.Nm
370is busy,
371and will be for some time.
372.Pp
373In the event of a catastrophic disk event, the time required
374to restore all the necessary backup tapes or files to disk
375can be kept to a minimum by staggering the incremental dumps.
376An efficient method of staggering incremental dumps
377to minimize the number of tapes follows:
378.Bl -bullet -offset indent
379.It
380Always start with a level 0 backup, for example:
381.Bd -literal -offset indent
382/sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/nsa0 /usr/src
383.Ed
384.Pp
385This should be done at set intervals, say once a month or once every two months,
386and on a set of fresh tapes that is saved forever.
387.It
388After a level 0, dumps of active file systems are taken on a daily basis,
389using a modified Tower of Hanoi algorithm,
390with this sequence of dump levels:
391.Bd -literal -offset indent
3923 2 5 4 7 6 9 8 9 9 ...
393.Ed
394.Pp
395For the daily dumps, it should be possible to use a fixed number of tapes
396for each day, used on a weekly basis.
397Each week, a level 1 dump is taken, and
398the daily Hanoi sequence repeats beginning with 3.
399For weekly dumps, another fixed set of tapes per dumped file system is
400used, also on a cyclical basis.
401.El
402.Pp
403After several months or so, the daily and weekly tapes should get
404rotated out of the dump cycle and fresh tapes brought in.
405.Sh ENVIRONMENT
406.Bl -tag -width ".Ev TAPE"
407.It Ev TAPE
408Device from which to read backup.
409.It Ev RMT
410Pathname of the remote
411.Xr rmt 8
412program.
413.El
414.Sh FILES
415.Bl -tag -width /etc/dumpdates -compact
416.It Pa /dev/sa0
417default tape unit to dump to
418.It Pa /etc/dumpdates
419dump date records
420(this can be changed;
421see the
422.Fl D
423option)
424.It Pa /etc/fstab
425dump table: file systems and frequency
426.It Pa /etc/group
427to find group
428.Em operator
429.El
430.Sh SEE ALSO
431.Xr chflags 1 ,
432.Xr fstab 5 ,
433.Xr restore 8 ,
434.Xr rmt 8
435.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
436Many, and verbose.
437.Pp
438Dump exits with zero status on success.
439Startup errors are indicated with an exit code of 1;
440abnormal termination is indicated with an exit code of 3.
441.Sh BUGS
442Fewer than 32 read errors on the file system are ignored.
443.Pp
444Each reel requires a new process, so parent processes for
445reels already written just hang around until the entire tape
446is written.
447.Pp
448Currently,
449.Xr physio 9
450slices all requests into chunks of 64 KB.
451Therefore, it is
452impossible to use a larger output block size, so
453.Nm
454will prevent this from happening.
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 .
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