xref: /freebsd/sbin/dump/dump.8 (revision d2387d42b8da231a5b95cbc313825fb2aadf26f6)
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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 in the
214.Pa .snap
215directory in the root of the filesystem being dumped and
216then does a dump of the snapshot.
217The snapshot is removed when the dump is complete.
218If the
219.Pa .snap
220directory does not exist in the root of the filesystem being dumped,
221the dump will fail.
222This problem can be corrected by creating a
223.Pa .snap
224directory in the root of the filesystem to be dumped;
225its owner should be root, its group should be operator,
226and its mode should be 0770.
227.It Fl n
228Whenever
229.Nm
230requires operator attention,
231notify all operators in the group
232.Dq operator
233by means similar to a
234.Xr wall 1 .
235.It Fl S
236Display an estimate of the backup size and the number of
237tapes required, and exit without actually performing the dump.
238.It Fl s Ar feet
239Attempt to calculate the amount of tape needed
240at a particular density.
241If this amount is exceeded,
242.Nm
243prompts for a new tape.
244It is recommended to be a bit conservative on this option.
245The default tape length is 2300 feet.
246.It Fl T Ar date
247Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump
248instead of the time determined from looking in
249the
250.Pa dumpdates
251file.
252The format of date is the same as that of
253.Xr ctime 3 .
254This option is useful for automated dump scripts that wish to
255dump over a specific period of time.
256The
257.Fl T
258option is mutually exclusive from the
259.Fl u
260option.
261.It Fl u
262Update the
263.Pa dumpdates
264file
265after a successful dump.
266The format of
267the
268.Pa dumpdates
269file
270is readable by people, consisting of one
271free format record per line:
272file system name,
273increment level
274and
275.Xr ctime 3
276format dump date.
277There may be only one entry per file system at each level.
278The
279.Pa dumpdates
280file
281may be edited to change any of the fields,
282if necessary.
283The default path for the
284.Pa dumpdates
285file is
286.Pa /etc/dumpdates ,
287but the
288.Fl D
289option may be used to change it.
290.It Fl W
291Tell the operator what file systems need to be dumped.
292This information is gleaned from the files
293.Pa dumpdates
294and
295.Pa /etc/fstab .
296The
297.Fl W
298option causes
299.Nm
300to print out, for each file system in
301the
302.Pa dumpdates
303file
304the most recent dump date and level,
305and highlights those file systems that should be dumped.
306If the
307.Fl W
308option is set, all other options are ignored, and
309.Nm
310exits immediately.
311.It Fl w
312Is like
313.Fl W ,
314but prints only those file systems which need to be dumped.
315.El
316.Pp
317Directories and regular files which have their
318.Dq nodump
319flag
320.Pq Dv UF_NODUMP
321set will be omitted along with everything under such directories,
322subject to the
323.Fl h
324option.
325.Pp
326The
327.Nm
328utility requires operator intervention on these conditions:
329end of tape,
330end of dump,
331tape write error,
332tape open error or
333disk read error (if there are more than a threshold of 32).
334In addition to alerting all operators implied by the
335.Fl n
336key,
337.Nm
338interacts with the operator on
339.Em dump's
340control terminal at times when
341.Nm
342can no longer proceed,
343or if something is grossly wrong.
344All questions
345.Nm
346poses
347.Em must
348be answered by typing
349.Dq yes
350or
351.Dq no ,
352appropriately.
353.Pp
354Since making a dump involves a lot of time and effort for full dumps,
355.Nm
356checkpoints itself at the start of each tape volume.
357If writing that volume fails for some reason,
358.Nm
359will,
360with operator permission,
361restart itself from the checkpoint
362after the old tape has been rewound and removed,
363and a new tape has been mounted.
364.Pp
365The
366.Nm
367utility tells the operator what is going on at periodic intervals
368(every 5 minutes, or promptly after receiving
369.Dv SIGINFO ) ,
370including usually low estimates of the number of blocks to write,
371the number of tapes it will take, the time to completion, and
372the time to the tape change.
373The output is verbose,
374so that others know that the terminal
375controlling
376.Nm
377is busy,
378and will be for some time.
379.Pp
380In the event of a catastrophic disk event, the time required
381to restore all the necessary backup tapes or files to disk
382can be kept to a minimum by staggering the incremental dumps.
383An efficient method of staggering incremental dumps
384to minimize the number of tapes follows:
385.Bl -bullet -offset indent
386.It
387Always start with a level 0 backup, for example:
388.Bd -literal -offset indent
389/sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/nsa0 /usr/src
390.Ed
391.Pp
392This should be done at set intervals, say once a month or once every two months,
393and on a set of fresh tapes that is saved forever.
394.It
395After a level 0, dumps of active file systems (file systems with files
396that change, depending on your partition layout some file systems may
397contain only data that does not change) are taken on a daily basis,
398using a modified Tower of Hanoi algorithm,
399with this sequence of dump levels:
400.Bd -literal -offset indent
4013 2 5 4 7 6 9 8 9 9 ...
402.Ed
403.Pp
404For the daily dumps, it should be possible to use a fixed number of tapes
405for each day, used on a weekly basis.
406Each week, a level 1 dump is taken, and
407the daily Hanoi sequence repeats beginning with 3.
408For weekly dumps, another fixed set of tapes per dumped file system is
409used, also on a cyclical basis.
410.El
411.Pp
412After several months or so, the daily and weekly tapes should get
413rotated out of the dump cycle and fresh tapes brought in.
414.Sh ENVIRONMENT
415.Bl -tag -width ".Ev TAPE"
416.It Ev TAPE
417Device from which to read backup.
418.It Ev RMT
419Pathname of the remote
420.Xr rmt 8
421program.
422.It Ev RSH
423Pathname of remote shell program, if not
424.Xr rsh 1 .
425.El
426.Sh FILES
427.Bl -tag -width /etc/dumpdates -compact
428.It Pa /dev/sa0
429default tape unit to dump to
430.It Pa /etc/dumpdates
431dump date records
432(this can be changed;
433see the
434.Fl D
435option)
436.It Pa /etc/fstab
437dump table: file systems and frequency
438.It Pa /etc/group
439to find group
440.Em operator
441.El
442.Sh SEE ALSO
443.Xr chflags 1 ,
444.Xr fstab 5 ,
445.Xr restore 8 ,
446.Xr rmt 8
447.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
448Many, and verbose.
449.Pp
450Dump exits with zero status on success.
451Startup errors are indicated with an exit code of 1;
452abnormal termination is indicated with an exit code of 3.
453.Sh BUGS
454Fewer than 32 read errors on the file system are ignored, though all
455errors will generate a warning message.
456This is a bit of a compromise.
457In practice it is possible to generate read errors when doing dumps
458on mounted partitions if the file system is being modified while the
459dump is running.
460Since dumps are often done in an unattended fashion using
461.Xr cron 8
462jobs asking for Operator intervention would result in the dump dying.
463However there is nothing wrong with a dump tape written when this sort
464of read error occurs and there is no reason to terminate the dump.
465.Pp
466Each reel requires a new process, so parent processes for
467reels already written just hang around until the entire tape
468is written.
469.Pp
470The
471.Nm
472utility with the
473.Fl W
474or
475.Fl w
476options does not report file systems that have never been recorded
477in the
478.Pa dumpdates
479file,
480even if listed in
481.Pa /etc/fstab .
482.Pp
483It would be nice if
484.Nm
485knew about the dump sequence,
486kept track of the tapes scribbled on,
487told the operator which tape to mount when,
488and provided more assistance
489for the operator running
490.Xr restore 8 .
491.Pp
492The
493.Nm
494utility cannot do remote backups without being run as root, due to its
495security history.
496This will be fixed in a later version of
497.Fx .
498Presently, it works if you set it setuid (like it used to be), but this
499might constitute a security risk.
500.Sh HISTORY
501A
502.Nm
503utility appeared in
504.At v6 .
505