Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sun, 11 Mar 2001 21:59:28 -0800
From:      "Crist J. Clark" <cjclark@reflexnet.net>
To:        Doug Young <dougy@bryden.apana.org.au>
Cc:        Michael Conlen <meconlen@obfuscated.net>, Matthew Rudderham <matt@cape-breton-island.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: What Are Standard Procedures For System Backup
Message-ID:  <20010311215927.P50418@rfx-216-196-73-168.users.reflex>
In-Reply-To: <003b01c0aab4$400553a0$847e03cb@apana.org.au>; from dougy@bryden.apana.org.au on Mon, Mar 12, 2001 at 03:20:40PM %2B1000
References:  <NFBBJNNKKLIPPJPMCEAPEECOCBAA.meconlen@obfuscated.net> <022501c0aa4d$a96a65e0$0200a8c0@apana.org.au> <20010311172203.K50418@rfx-216-196-73-168.users.reflex> <003b01c0aab4$400553a0$847e03cb@apana.org.au>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
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




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010311215927.P50418>