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DUMP(8)			  System management commands		       DUMP(8)

NAME
       dump - ext2/3 filesystem backup

SYNOPSIS
       dump  [-level#]	[-ackMnqSuv] [-A file] [-B records] [-b blocksize] [-d
       density] [-D file] [-e inode numbers] [-E file] [-f file]  [-F  script]
       [-h  level]  [-I	 nr errors] [-jcompression level] [-L label] [-Q file]
       [-s feet] [-T date] [-y] [-zcompression level] files-to-dump

       dump [-W | -w]

DESCRIPTION
       Dump examines files on an ext2/3 filesystem 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.

       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 specifying cartridge media, or via the
       tape size, density and/or block count options below.  By	 default,  the
       same output file name is used for each volume after prompting the oper‐
       ator to change media.

       files-to-dump is either a mountpoint of a filesystem or a list of files
       and  directories	 to  be	 backed up as a subset of a filesystem. In the
       former case, either the path to a mounted filesystem or the  device  of
       an  unmounted  filesystem  can  be  used.  In  the latter case, certain
       restrictions are placed on the backup: -u is not allowed, the only dump
       level  that  is	supported  is 0 and all the files and directories must
       reside on the same filesystem.

OPTIONS
       The following options are supported by dump:

       -level#
	      The dump level (any integer). A level 0, full backup,  specified
	      by  -0 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. The default level is 0. Historically
	      only  levels 0 to 9 were usable in dump, this version is able to
	      understand any integer as a dump level.

       -a     “auto-size”. Bypass all  tape  length  calculations,  and	 write
	      until  an	 end-of-media indication is returned.  This works best
	      for most modern tape drives, and is the  default.	 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).

       -A archive_file
	      Archive  a  dump table-of-contents in the specified archive_file
	      to be used by restore(8) to determine whether a file is  in  the
	      dump file that is being restored.

       -b blocksize
	      The  number  of kilobytes per dump record. The default blocksize
	      is 10, unless the -d option has been used to specify a tape den‐
	      sity  of 6250BPI or more, in which case the default blocksize is
	      32. Th maximal value is 1024.  Note however that, since  the  IO
	      system slices all requests into chunks of MAXBSIZE (which can be
	      as low as 64kB), you can experience problems  with  dump(8)  and
	      restore(8)  when	using a higher value, depending on your kernel
	      and/or libC versions.

       -B records
	      The number of 1 kB blocks per volume. Not normally required,  as
	      dump  can	 detect	 end-of-media.	When  the  specified  size  is
	      reached, dump waits for you to change the volume.	  This	option
	      overrides	 the calculation of tape size based on length and den‐
	      sity. If compression is on this limits  the  size	 of  the  com‐
	      pressed  output  per  volume.  Multiple values may be given as a
	      single argument separated by commas.  Each value	will  be  used
	      for  one	dump  volume in the order listed; if dump creates more
	      volumes than the number of values given, the last value will  be
	      used  for	 the  remaining volumes. This is useful for filling up
	      already partially filled media (and then	continuing  with  full
	      size volumes on empty media) or mixing media of different sizes.

       -c     Change  the defaults for use with a cartridge tape drive, with a
	      density of 8000 bpi, and a length of  1700  feet.	 Specifying  a
	      cartridge drive overrides the end-of-media detection.

       -d density
	      Set tape density to density.  The default is 1600BPI. Specifying
	      a tape density overrides the end-of-media detection.

       -D file
	      Set the path name of the file storing the information about  the
	      previous	full  and  incremental	dumps. The default location is
	      /etc/dumpdates.

       -e inodes
	      Exclude inodes from the dump. The inodes parameter  is  a	 comma
	      separated list of inode numbers (you can use stat(1) to find the
	      inode number for a file or directory).

       -E file
	      Read list of inodes to be excluded from the dump from  the  text
	      file  file.  The file file should be an ordinary file containing
	      inode numbers separated by newlines.

       -f file
	      Write the backup to file; file may be a special device file like
	      /dev/st0	(a  tape  drive), /dev/rsd1c (a floppy 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 prompt‐
	      ing  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  (which should already exist, dump doesn't create a
	      new remote file) 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.

       -F script
	      Run script at the end of each tape (except for  the  last	 one).
	      The  device name and the current volume number are passed on the
	      command line. The script must return 0 if dump  should  continue
	      without  asking  the  user  to change the tape, 1 if dump should
	      continue but ask the user to change the  tape.  Any  other  exit
	      code  will  cause	 dump  to  abort.  For	security reasons, dump
	      reverts back to the real user ID and the real  group  ID	before
	      running the script.

       -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	incre‐
	      mental backups omit such files but full backups retain them.

       -I nr errors
	      By  default,  dump  will	ignore the first 32 read errors on the
	      file system before asking for  operator  intervention.  You  can
	      change  this  using  this flag to any value. This is useful when
	      running dump on an active filesystem where  read	errors	simply
	      indicate	an  inconsistency  between  the	 mapping  and  dumping
	      passes.

	      A value of 0 means that all read errors will be ignored.

       -jcompression level
	      Compress every block to be  written  on  the  tape  using	 bzlib
	      library.	This  option  will work only when dumping to a file or
	      pipe or, when dumping to a tape drive,  if  the  tape  drive  is
	      capable  of  writing  variable  length  blocks. You will need at
	      least the 0.4b24 version of restore in  order  to	 extract  com‐
	      pressed  tapes. Tapes written using compression will not be com‐
	      patible with the BSD tape format. The (optional) parameter spec‐
	      ifies the compression level bzlib will use. The default compres‐
	      sion level is 2. If the optional parameter is  specified,	 there
	      should  be  no  white  space  between  the option letter and the
	      parameter.

       -k     Use Kerberos authentication to  talk  to	remote	tape  servers.
	      (Only  available	if  this option was enabled when dump was com‐
	      piled.)

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

       -m     If  this	flag  is  specified, dump will optimise the output for
	      inodes having been changed but not modified since the last  dump
	      ('changed' and 'modified' have the meaning defined in stat(2) ).
	      For those inodes, dump will save only the metadata,  instead  of
	      saving  the  entire  inode  contents.   Inodes  which are either
	      directories or have been modified since the last dump are	 saved
	      in  a regular way. Uses of this flag must be consistent, meaning
	      that either every dump in an incremental dump set have the flag,
	      or no one has it.

	      If  you use this option, be aware that many programs that unpack
	      files from archives (e.g. tar, rpm, unzip, dpkg) may set	files'
	      mtimes  to  dates	 in the past.  Files installed in this way may
	      not be dumped correctly using "dump -m" if the modified mtime is
	      earlier than the previous level dump.

	      Tapes written using such 'metadata only' inodes will not be com‐
	      patible with the BSD tape format or older versions of restore.

       -M     Enable the multi-volume feature. The name specified  with	 f  is
	      treated  as a prefix and dump writes in sequence to <prefix>001,
	      <prefix>002 etc. This can be useful when dumping to files on  an
	      ext2 partition, in order to bypass the 2GB file size limitation.

       -n     Whenever	dump requires operator attention, notify all operators
	      in the group operator by means similar to a wall(1).

       -q     Make dump	 abort	immediately  whenever  operator	 attention  is
	      required,	 without  prompting  in	 case  of  write  errors, tape
	      changes etc.

       -Q file
	      Enable the Quick File Access support. Tape  positions  for  each
	      inode are stored into the file file which is used by restore (if
	      called with parameter -Q and the filename) to directly  position
	      the tape at the file restore is currently working on. This saves
	      hours when restoring single files from large backups, saves  the
	      tapes and the drive's head.

	      It is recommended to set up the st driver to return logical tape
	      positions rather than physical before calling dump/restore  with
	      parameter	 -Q.  Since not all tape devices support physical tape
	      positions those tape devices return an error during dump/restore
	      when  the	 st  driver  is	 set  to the default physical setting.
	      Please see the st(4) man page, option MTSETDRVBUFFER  ,  or  the
	      mt(1)  man page, on how to set the driver to return logical tape
	      positions.

	      Before calling restore with parameter -Q, always make  sure  the
	      st  driver  is set to return the same type of tape position used
	      during the call to dump.	Otherwise restore may be confused.

	      This option can be used when dumping to local tapes (see	above)
	      or to local files.

       -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. Specifying the  tape  size
	      overrides end-of-media detection.

       -S     Size  estimate.  Determine the amount of space that is needed to
	      perform the dump without actually	 doing	it,  and  display  the
	      estimated	 number	 of  bytes  it	will take. This is useful with
	      incremental dumps to determine how many volumes of media will be
	      needed.

       -T date
	      Use the specified date as the starting time for the dump instead
	      of the time determined from looking  in  /etc/dumpdates  .   The
	      format  of  date	is the same as that of ctime(3) followed by an
	      rfc822 timezone specification: either a plus or minus sign  fol‐
	      lowed  by	 two digits for the number of hours and two digits for
	      the minutes.  For example, -0800 for eight hours west of	Green‐
	      wich  or	+0230 for two hours and a half east of Greenwich. This
	      timezone offset takes into account  daylight  savings  time  (if
	      applicable  to  the timezone): UTC offsets when daylight savings
	      time is in effect will be different than offsets	when  daylight
	      savings time is not in effect. For backward compatibility, if no
	      timezone is specified, a local time is assumed.  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 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: filesystem name, increment level
	      and ctime(3) format dump date  followed  by  a  rfc822  timezone
	      specification  (see  the	-u option for details). If no timezone
	      offset is specified, times are interpreted  as  local.  Whenever
	      the  file is written, all dates in the file are converted to the
	      local time zone, without changing the UTC times.	There  may  be
	      only one entry per filesystem at each level. The file /etc/dump‐
	      dates may be edited to change any of the fields, if necessary.

       -v     The -v (verbose) makes dump to  print  extra  information	 which
	      could be helpful in debug sessions.

       -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 all
	      file systems in /etc/dumpdates , and recognized file systems  in
	      /etc/mtab	 and /etc/fstab.  the most recent dump date and level,
	      and highlights those 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 recognized filesystems in /etc/mtab
	      and /etc/fstab which need to be dumped.

       -y     Compress every block to be written to the	 tape  using  the  lzo
	      library.	 This doesn't compress as well as the zlib library but
	      it's much faster.	 This option will work only when dumping to  a
	      file or pipe or, when dumping to a tape drive, if the tape drive
	      is capable of writing variable length blocks.  You will need  at
	      least  the  0.4b34  version  of restore in order to extract com‐
	      pressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not be  com‐
	      patible with the BSD tape format.

       -zcompression level
	      Compress	every  block  to  be  written  on  the tape using zlib
	      library. This option will work only when dumping to  a  file  or
	      pipe  or,	 when  dumping	to  a tape drive, if the tape drive is
	      capable of writing variable length  blocks.  You	will  need  at
	      least  the  0.4b22  version  of restore in order to extract com‐
	      pressed tapes. Tapes written using compression will not be  com‐
	      patible with the BSD tape format. The (optional) parameter spec‐
	      ifies the compression level zlib will use. The default  compres‐
	      sion  level  is 2. If the optional parameter is specified, there
	      should be no white space	between	 the  option  letter  and  the
	      parameter.

       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  is  more than a threshold of nr errors). 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, includ‐
       ing 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	 mini‐
       mum  by	staggering the incremental dumps. An efficient method of stag‐
       gering incremental dumps to minimize the number of tapes follows:

       —      Always start with a level 0 backup, for example:
		     /sbin/dump -0u -f /dev/st0 /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 for‐
	      ever.

       —      After a level 0, dumps of active file systems  are  taken	 on  a
	      daily basis, 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 number
	      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.

       Another backup strategy is the Tower of Hanoi  sequence,	 which	reuses
       older  tapes in a way that for newer dates the available restore points
       are    more     frequent,     then     for     older	dates	  (see
       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup_rotation_scheme    for   additional
       information).

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

ENVIRONMENT
       TAPE   If  no  -f option was specified, dump will use the device speci‐
	      fied via TAPE as the dump device.	 TAPE may be of the form tape‐
	      name, host:tapename, or user@host:tapename.

       RMT    The environment variable RMT will be used to determine the path‐
	      name of the remote rmt(8) program.

       RSH    Dump uses the contents of this variable to determine the name of
	      the  remote shell command to use when doing remote backups (rsh,
	      ssh etc.). If this variable is not set, rcmd(3)  will  be	 used,
	      but only root will be able to do remote backups.

FILES
       /dev/st0
	      default tape unit to dump to

       /etc/dumpdates
	      dump date records

       /etc/fstab
	      dump table: file systems and frequency

       /etc/mtab
	      dump table: mounted file systems

       /etc/group
	      to find group operator

SEE ALSO
       fstab(5), restore(8), rmt(8)

DIAGNOSTICS
       Many, and verbose.

COMPATIBILITY
       The  format  of	the /etc/dumpdates file has changed in release 0.4b34,
       however, the file will be read  correctly  with	either	pre-0.4b34  or
       0.4b34  and  later  versions of dump provided that the machine on which
       dump is run did not change timezones (which should  be  a  fairly  rare
       occurrence).

EXIT STATUS
       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
       It  might be considered a bug that this version of dump can only handle
       ext2/3 filesystems.  Specifically, it does not work with	 FAT  filesys‐
       tems.

       Fewer  than  32 read errors (change this with -I) on the filesystem are
       ignored. If noticing read errors is important, the output from dump can
       be parsed to look for lines that contain the text 'read error'.

       When  a	read  error occurs, dump prints out the corresponding physical
       disk block and sector number and the ext2/3 logical  block  number.  It
       doesn't print out the corresponding file name or even the inode number.
       The user has to use debugfs(8), commands ncheck and icheck to translate
       the  ext2blk number printed out by dump into an inode number, then into
       a file name.

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

       The estimated number of tapes is not correct if compression is on.

       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.

       Dump  cannot  do	 remote	 backups without being run as root, due to its
       security history.  Presently, it works if you set it  setuid  (like  it
       used  to	 be), but this might constitute a security risk. Note that you
       can set RSH to use a remote shell program instead.

AUTHOR
       The dump/restore backup suite was ported	 to  Linux's  Second  Extended
       File System by Remy Card <card@Linux.EU.Org>. He maintained the initial
       versions of dump (up and including 0.4b4, released in January 1997).

       Starting	  with	 0.4b5,	  the	new   maintainer   is	Stelian	   Pop
       <stelian@popies.net>.

AVAILABILITY
       The  dump/restore  backup  suite is available from <http://dump.source‐
       forge.net>

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

BSD			version 0.4b42 of June 18, 2009		       DUMP(8)
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