From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Mar 11 22: 1:15 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mailhost01.reflexnet.net (mailhost01.reflexnet.net [64.6.192.82]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6ECCC37B71B for ; Sun, 11 Mar 2001 22:01:11 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from cjc@rfx-216-196-73-168.users.reflexcom.com) Received: from rfx-216-196-73-168.users.reflexcom.com ([216.196.73.168]) by mailhost01.reflexnet.net with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.5.1877.197.19); Sun, 11 Mar 2001 21:57:39 -0800 Received: (from cjc@localhost) by rfx-216-196-73-168.users.reflexcom.com (8.11.1/8.11.1) id f2C5xfl94258; Sun, 11 Mar 2001 21:59:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from cjc) Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 21:59:28 -0800 From: "Crist J. Clark" To: Doug Young Cc: Michael Conlen , Matthew Rudderham , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: What Are Standard Procedures For System Backup Message-ID: <20010311215927.P50418@rfx-216-196-73-168.users.reflex> Reply-To: cjclark@alum.mit.edu References: <022501c0aa4d$a96a65e0$0200a8c0@apana.org.au> <20010311172203.K50418@rfx-216-196-73-168.users.reflex> <003b01c0aab4$400553a0$847e03cb@apana.org.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <003b01c0aab4$400553a0$847e03cb@apana.org.au>; from dougy@bryden.apana.org.au on Mon, Mar 12, 2001 at 03:20:40PM +1000 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mon, Mar 12, 2001 at 03:20:40PM +1000, Doug Young wrote: > Thanks ... makes at least part of it a bit clearer than the awful man page. > > I think I understand the purpose of that "-0af", & "path to dump file" looks > like its sorta like /backup (assuming its a local partition) ?? The useage > of "filesystem" here is not clear however ... man filesystem doesn't tell > me anything A filesystem is a rather basic concept in the operating system. Anything you use mount(8) to access is going to be a filesystem. Just type, $ mount To see your currently mounted filesystems. Anyone one of those which is a ufs type is a candidate for using dump(8) on. If you 'apropos filesystem,' you'll get a lot more info than you probably need. > > I am not sure what you can't find in the docs. > > The docs don't provide info in an intelligible format on exactly how to use > "dump" > I get TOTALLY confused with the extremely obtuse synopsis stuff in most man > pages, (man ppp is a notable exception) as do many others of my > acquaintance. > Thankfully there are usable explanations of many things at one of the > user-friendly > sites like freebsddiary / bsdvault / lnova / etc, but unfortunately there > doesn't appear > to be any articles on dump / restore. I guess the the format of official > docs is > meaningful to experts, but many other users have extreme difficulty making > any > sense out of them. Many others have asked the same thing previously, but > here we > go again. Why can't we have some "step_by_step" explanations & sample usage > rather than that impossibly vague synopsis stuff ?? Manpages are meant to be synopsis stuff for the clued or expert user to use for quick, brief references. They are not, generally, designed to be how-to's or tutorials (that's not to say some are not written to be, vinum(4,8), the Perl pages, shell pages, can be quite complete). Like you state, freebsddiary, bsdvault, etc. are resources for tutorials and more real examples. -- Crist J. Clark cjclark@alum.mit.edu To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message