From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 21 10:04:15 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E1443106568D for ; Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:04:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F2598FC3B for ; Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:04:15 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r55.edvax.de (port-92-195-143-13.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.143.13]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id E8FE724CD9; Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:03:58 +0100 (CET) Received: from r55.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r55.edvax.de (8.14.2/8.14.2) with SMTP id o1LA3wgP001506; Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:03:58 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:03:58 +0100 From: Polytropon To: Aiza Message-Id: <20100221110358.9ec8b286.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <4B80ABBA.9000707@comclark.com> References: <4B80ABBA.9000707@comclark.com> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.7 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Dump questions X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2010 10:04:16 -0000 On Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:42:50 +0800, Aiza wrote: > 1. Using the -L flag to create a snapshot of the > live running file system. > > Does this mean that a complete copy of the file > system is written to .snap directory? No. The snapshot, quite incorrectly explained, is a saved delta between the file system on disk at a given state, to fixate further modifications (that are not included in the dump, of course). > Is this the limiting factor that forces a user > to use (single user mode) for running dump? Using SUM is for a feeling of comfort only. You can save the time needed for creating the snapshot by entering SUM - and, what's essential - unmount the partitions. This makes sure the underlying file systems aren't modified. > 2. What is the worse that will happen if dump is > run on live file system with out the -L flag? The dump could not be readable, which would imply that your backup is useless. > Can dump recognize this situation and issue > an error message? The dump program does what you tell it to do. It does not bother you with questions that you should have asked yourself already. :-) > 3. Can dump be told to only dump a particular > directory tree? IE /var/log or /usr/port? No. THe dump program operates on file systems. It does not have a concept of files and directories per se. If you plan to work with individual files and directories rather than partitions (file systems), check out tools like cpdup, rsync and the like. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...