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DUMP(8)			  BSD System Manager's Manual		       DUMP(8)

NAME
     dump, rdump — file system backup

SYNOPSIS
     dump [-0123456789aceFinStuX] [-B records] [-b blocksize] [-d density]
	  [-f file] [-h level] [-k read-blocksize] [-L label] [-l timeout]
	  [-r cachesize] [-s feet] [-T date] [-x snap-backup] files-to-dump
     dump [-W | -w]

     (The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibility, but
     is not documented here).

DESCRIPTION
     dump examines files on a file system and determines which files need to
     be backed up.  These files are copied to the given disk, tape or other
     storage 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 block count
     options below.  By default, the same output file name is used for each
     volume after prompting the operator to change media.

     files-to-dump is either a single file system, or a list of files and
     directories on a single file system to be backed up as a subset of the
     file system.  In the former case, files-to-dump may be the device of a
     file system, the path to a currently mounted file system, the path to an
     unmounted file system listed in /etc/fstab, or, if -F is given, a file
     system image.  In the latter case, certain restrictions are placed on the
     backup: -u is ignored, the only dump level that is supported is -0, and
     all of the files must reside on the same file system.

     Any files with the superuser "log" flag (SF_LOG) set will be skipped.
     These files are assumed to be wapbl(4) journal files and will not be
     backed up.

     The following options are supported by dump:

     -0-9    Dump levels.  A level 0, full backup, guarantees the entire file
	     system 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 a lower level (but see
	     also the -i option below).	 The default level is 9.

     -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 particu‐
	     larly 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 volume, rounded down to a multiple of
	     the blocksize.  This option overrides the calculation of tape
	     size based on length and density.

     -b blocksize
	     The number of kilobytes per dump record.

     -c	     Modify the calculation of the default density and tape size to be
	     more appropriate for cartridge tapes.

     -d density
	     Set tape density to density.  The default is 1600 Bits Per Inch
	     (BPI).

     -e	     Eject tape automatically if a tape change is required.

     -F	     Indicates that files-to-dump is a file system image.

     -f file
	     Write the backup to file; file may be a special device file like
	     /dev/rst0 (a tape drive), /dev/rsd1c (a disk drive), an ordinary
	     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).  Note that methods more secure
	     than rsh(1) (such as ssh(1)) can be used to invoke rmt(8) on the
	     remote host, via the environment variable RCMD_CMD.  See rcmd(3)
	     for more details.

     -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.

     -i	     The dump is treated as level 9 but takes into account a previous
	     level 9, if one exists.  This makes it possible to perform a
	     “true incremental” dump.

     -k read-blocksize
	     The size in kilobyte of the read buffers, rounded up to a multi‐
	     ple of the file system block size.	 Default is 32k.

     -l timeout
	     If a tape change is required, eject the tape and wait for the
	     drive to be ready again.  This is to be used with tape changers
	     which automatically load the next tape when the tape is ejected.
	     If after the timeout (in seconds) the drive is not ready dump
	     falls back to the default behavior, and prompts the operator for
	     the next tape.

     -L label
	     The user-supplied text string label is placed into the dump
	     header, where tools like restore(8) and file(1) can access it.
	     Note that this label is limited to be at most LBLSIZE (currently
	     16) characters, which must include the terminating ‘\0’.

     -n	     Whenever dump requires operator attention, notify all operators
	     in the group "operator" using wall(1).

     -r cachesize
	     Use that many buffers for read cache operations.  A value of zero
	     disables the read cache altogether, higher values improve read
	     performance by reading larger data blocks from the disk and main‐
	     taining them in an LRU cache.  See the -k option for the size of
	     the buffers.  Maximum is 512, the size of the cache is limited to
	     15% of the avail RAM by default.

     -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.

     -S	     Display an estimate of the backup size and the number of tapes
	     required, and exit without actually performing the dump.

     -t	     All informational log messages printed by dump will have the time
	     prepended to them.	 Also, the completion time interval estima‐
	     tions will have the estimated time at which the dump will com‐
	     plete printed at the end of the line.

     -T date
	     Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump instead
	     of the time determined from looking in /etc/dumpdates.  The for‐
	     mat of date is the same as that of ctime(3).  This option is use‐
	     ful for automated dump scripts that wish to dump over a specific
	     period of time.  The -T option is mutually exclusive from the -u
	     option.

     -u	     Update the file /etc/dumpdates after a successful dump.  The for‐
	     mat of /etc/dumpdates is readable by people, consisting of one
	     free format record per line: file system name, increment level
	     and ctime(3) format dump date.  There may be only one entry per
	     file system at each level.	 The file /etc/dumpdates may be edited
	     to change any of the fields, if necessary.	 If a list of files or
	     subdirectories is being dumped (as opposed to an entire file sys‐
	     tem), then -u is ignored.

     -x snap-backup
	     Use a snapshot with snap-backup as backup for this dump.  See
	     fss(4) for more details.

     -X	     Similar to -x but uses a file system internal snapshot on the
	     file system to be dumped.

     -W	     dump tells the operator what file systems need to be dumped.
	     This information is gleaned from the files /etc/dumpdates and
	     /etc/fstab.  The -W option causes dump to print out, for each
	     file system in /etc/dumpdates the most recent dump date and
	     level, and highlights those file systems that should be dumped.
	     If the -W option is set, all other options are ignored, and dump
	     exits immediately.

     -w	     Is like W, but prints only those file systems which need to be
	     dumped.

     If dump honors the "nodump" flag (UF_NODUMP), files with the "nodump"
     flag will not be backed up.  If a directory has the "nodump" flag, this
     directory and any file or directory under it will not be backed up.

     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 option, dump interacts with the operator on dump's con‐
     trol 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, 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 output 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:

	   ·   Always start with a level 0 backup, for example:

		     /sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/nrst1 /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.

	   ·   After a level 0, dumps of active file systems 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 file system 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.

     If dump receives a SIGINFO signal (see the "status" argument of stty(1))
     whilst a backup is in progress, statistics on the amount completed, cur‐
     rent transfer rate, and estimated finished time, will be written to the
     standard error output.

ENVIRONMENT
     If the following environment variables exist, they are used by dump.

     TAPE	 If no -f option was specified, dump will use the device spec‐
		 ified via TAPE as the dump device.  TAPE may be of the form
		 "tapename", "host:tapename", or "user@host:tapename".

     RCMD_CMD	 dump will use RCMD_CMD rather than rsh(1) to invoke rmt(8) on
		 the remote machine.

     TIMEFORMAT	 can be used to control the format of the timestamps produced
		 by the -t option.  TIMEFORMAT is a string containing embedded
		 formatting commands for strftime(3).  The total formatted
		 string is limited to about 80 characters, if this limit is
		 exceeded then "ERROR: TIMEFORMAT too long, reverting to
		 default" will be printed and the time format will revert to
		 the default one.  If TIMEFORMAT is not set then the format
		 string defaults to "%T %Z"

FILES
     /dev/nrst0	     default tape unit to use.	Taken from _PATH_DEFTAPE in
		     /usr/include/paths.h.
     /dev/rst*	     raw SCSI tape interface
     /etc/dumpdates  dump date records
     /etc/fstab	     dump table: file systems and frequency
     /etc/group	     to find group operator

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.

SEE ALSO
     chflags(1), rcmd(1), stty(1), wall(1), fts(3), rcmd(3), fss(4), st(4),
     fstab(5), environ(7), restore(8), rmt(8)

HISTORY
     A dump command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

     The -i flag was inspired by the -x flag from Sun's Solstice Backup util‐
     ity.

BUGS
     At least the following caveats can be mentioned.

     ·	 Fewer than 32 read errors on the file system are ignored.

     ·	 Each reel requires a new process, so parent processes for reels
	 already written just hang around until the entire tape is written.

     ·	 dump with the -W or -w options does not report file systems that have
	 never been recorded in /etc/dumpdates, even if listed in /etc/fstab.

     ·	 When dumping a list of files or subdirectories, access privileges are
	 required to scan the directory (as this is done via the fts(3) rou‐
	 tines rather than directly accessing the file system).

     ·	 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 provided more assistance for the operator running restore(8).

     ·	 Snapshot support is experimental.  Be sure you have a backup before
	 you use it.

BSD			       November 5, 2010				   BSD
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