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From: trwacs!epstein@uunet.uu.net (Jeremy Epstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Verification of backups.
Keywords: Miscellaneous
Message-ID: <1990Aug23.225319.10137@rice.edu>
Date: 15 Aug 90 13:45:20 GMT
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X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 308, message 15

> I have some people around here that were brought up in the VAX world.  In
> that dimension you can run a verify pass on a backup tape you just made to
> ensure that the backup tape is good.

I've never seen a verify on a UNIX system with two exceptions:

* When I worked for a hardware vendor, we added a verify option to cpio.
  Our tape controller had a habit of dropping bits, which was very annoying.
  Once it happened when we were making the master release tape...after that
  we always verified the release tape!  I've never seen anyone else add that
  option.  Perhaps this would be an idea to forward to POSIX???

* I added a verify option to a database backup program...same reason as
  above, but a different hardware vendor.  Who wants to discover an error
  500MB into a database backup, when you're doing the restore.

Any other experiences with verify options?

Jeremy Epstein			UUCP: uunet!trwacs!epstein
Trusted X Research Group	Internet: epstein@trwacs.fp.trw.com
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