Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!agate!ziploc!eps From: eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Don't backup from root ! Message-ID: <1097@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Date: 6 Jan 91 03:14:29 GMT References: <1092@toaster.SFSU.EDU> <1095@toaster.SFSU.EDU> Reply-To: eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) Organization: San Francisco State University Lines: 30 To those of you who sent e-mail, thanks, I'll try to summarize and clarify: + dump does indeed read raw devices. It's highly questionable to use this on your root filesystem. + On most UNIX systems, the root filesystem is fairly small (8-40MB), and contains only the kernel, essential utilities, and configuration/authorization information. For the most part, there is no need to back it up--it doesn't change (except for a handful of files, mostly in /etc), and if destroyed can be recreated from original distribution media. /usr and user files are not on the root, so they don't pose a problem. Swap space is often a separate partition as well. None of this is true for small NeXT systems. + Filesystems backed up with dump should be dismounted (or mounted read-only) and clean according to fsck. To back up a single-partition system, one would presumably have to boot from a diskette. (Lots of pitfalls here.) + dump will only work for ufs filesystems. + NeXT's rdump may not be interoperable with non-NeXT versions. My (limited) experience with NeXT 1.0 dump has not been favorable. Given that we have optical drives, Exabytes, and networked storage at our disposal, I haven't been in the awkward position many new NeXTstation owners will find themselves in. I'm sure it's a solvable problem, I just don't believe there are currently any adequate solutions. (Should I say, "shareware opportunity?") -=EPS=-