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Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 16:17:51 +0100
From: Palle Girgensohn <girgen@partitur.se>
Organization: Partitur
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To: Michael Haro <perl@netmug.org>
CC: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: backup
References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980116193125.23395A-100000@netmug.org>
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Michael Haro wrote:
> 
> Hi, I was wondering what the best way to backup /var/mail is.
> Currently I make a tar of it and save the tar on a different HD.  The only
> problem I have is that if you finger a user, it says they last checked
> their email at the time the tar tar'ed their mailbox.
> 
> Any idea how to fix this problem?  I'd rather have finger report the
> proper time.
> 
> Thanks,
> Michael

Hi Michael,

Try using 'dump' to a file on the second HD (or maybe 'dd').

  dump 0f /hd2/file /dev/vardevice

This  way, you backup the entire /var; in fact, you must backup an
entire file system, so unless var is it's own filesystem (it usually
is), you need to backup the whole root fs... You don't have to use the
device name if you have a modern system; /var is OK if it's in
/etc/fstab.

If you want to use gzip, try 

  dump 0f - /var | gzip >/hd2/file.gz

To restore, use 'restore': 

  zcat /dh2/file.gz | restore if -

for interactive restore. Check the man pages for more info. 

Also, I'm not sure what this tar option does, but *might* be able to use
it:
(from the tar manpage, fbsd 2.2.5:)
     --atime-preserve        Restore the access times on files which are
writ-
                             ten to tape (note that this will change the
in-
                             ode-change time!).

Good luck
/Palle