‘System administration command. This simple backup utility accesses ext2 and ext3 file devices directly, quickly backing up files without affecting file access times. files may be specified as a mount point or as a list of files and directories to back up. While you can use this on a mounted system, dump may write corrupted information to the backup when the kernel has written only part of its cached information. Dump maintains a record of which files it has saved in /etc/dumpdates, and will perform incremental backups after creating an initial full backup. Use the restore command to restore a dump backup.
Options
-a
Write until end-of-media. Default behavior when writing to tape drives.
-A file
Create a table of contents for the archive in the specified file.
-bblocksize
Block size in kilobytes to use in dumped records. By default, it is 10, or 32 when dumping to a tape with a density greater than 6250BPI.
-Bblocks
Specify number of blocks to write per volume.
-c
Treat target as a 1700-foot-long cartridge tape drive with 8000 bpi. Override end-of-media detection.
-d density
Specify tape density.
-D file
Write dump information to file instead of /etc/dumpdates.
-E file
Exclude inodes specified in file.
-f files
Write backup volumes to the specified files or devices. Use – to write to standard output. Separate multiple files with a comma. Use host:file or user@host:file to write to a networked host using either the rmt program or the program specified by the RMT environment variable.
-F script
Run script at the end of each volume other than the last. dump will pass the current device and volume number to the script. The script should return 0 to continue, 1 to prompt for a new tape, or any other exit value to abort the dump. The script will run with the processes real user and group ID.
-i inodes
Specify a comma-separated list of inodes to skip.
-I n
Ignore the first n read errors. dump ignores 32 read errors by default. Specify 0 to ignore all errors. You may need to do this when dumping a mounted filesystem.
-j[level]
Compress each block using the bzlib library at the specified compression level. By default dump uses level 2 compression.
-k
Use Kerberos authentication when writing to a remote system.
-L label
Write the specified volume label into the dump header.
-m
Save only metadata when backing up changed but not modified files.
-M
Create a multivolume backup. Treat any filename provided with -f as a prefix.
-n
Use wall to notify members of group operator when prompting for information.
-q
Abort the backup instead of prompting for information when operator input is required.
-Q file
Create Quick Access information in the specified file for use by restore.
-s n
Write only n feet of tape in a single volume. Prompt for a new tape upon reaching this limit.
-S
Calculate and print the amount of space required to perform the backup, then exit.
-T date’
