Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!dkuug!iesd!iesd.auc.dk!fischer From: fischer@iesd.auc.dk (Lars P. Fischer) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Don't backup from root ! Message-ID: Date: 5 Jan 91 18:35:37 GMT References: <7u98u2w163w@questor.wimsey.bc.ca> <12886@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <1092@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Sender: news@iesd.auc.dk (UseNet News) Organization: Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Aalborg Lines: 37 In-reply-to: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU's message of 5 Jan 91 06:17:38 GMT >>>>> On 5 Jan 91 06:17:38 GMT, eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) said: Eric> (Anyone else interested in a CFD for comp.sys.next.humor?) Nah, NeXT is good laugh as is is ... :-) Eric> As a previous poster mentioned, this isn't VAX/VMS, and there Eric> ain't no such thing as READALL privilege. What good does read Eric> access to the raw device give you? Nothing!!! What were you Eric> planning to do? Image copy the bits? Good luck ever restoring Eric> anything from *that*. The only way you're going to get anything Eric> useful on backup media is if you read the disk ->through the Eric> filesystem<-. You know what it takes to do that? Eric> [dramatic pause] Eric> You have to be root! You write fine dramatic prose, but im sorry to report that it won't help you; you're quite wrong. "dump" actually reads the raw file system. It does *not* go through the file system. Why do you think you specify the raw SCSI device as an argument to dump? I've been a UNIX sysadm for quite a few years now, and I can't remember when I last did an ordinary dump as root. It has worked on just about every UNIX box I've come a cross -- even on a PC, but don't tell anyone I said that. Eric> If you can't use the standard tools without trashing things, Eric> write a front-end shell script that won't do anything too stupid. It has already been written. It's called "dump". Nice, isn't it? /Lars -- Lars Fischer, fischer@iesd.auc.dk | Q: How does a project get to be one CS Dept., Univ. of Aalborg, DENMARK. | year late? A: One day at a time.