RESTORE(8) — Unix Programmer’s Manual

NAME

restore − incremental filesystem restore

SYNOPSIS

/etc/restore key [ names ]

DESCRIPTION

Restore reads tapes dumped with the dump(8) command. Its actions are controlled by the key argument.

KEYS

The key is a string of characters containing at most one function letter, and possibly one or more function modifiers. Other arguments to the command are file or directory names specifying the files that are to be restored. Unless the h key is specified (see below), the appearance of a directory name refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories of that directory.

Function Letters

The function portion of the key is specified by one of the following letters:

i This mode allows interactive restoration of files from a dump tape. After reading in the directory information from the tape, restore provides a shell-like interface that allows the user to move around the directory tree selecting files to be extracted. The available commands are given below; for those commands that require an argument, the default is the current directory.

add [arg] The current directory or specified argument is added to the list of files to be extracted. If a directory is specified, then it and all its descendents are added to the extraction list (unless the h key is specified on the command line). Files that are on the extraction list are prepended with an asterisk ( ∗ ) when they are listed by ls.

cd arg Changes the current working directory to the specified argument.

delete [arg]
The current directory or specified argument is deleted from the list of files to be extracted. If a directory is specified, then it and all its descendents are deleted from the extraction list (unless the h key is specified on the command line). The most expedient way to extract most of the files from a directory is to add the directory to the extraction list and then delete those files that are not needed.

extract All the files that are on the extraction list are extracted from the dump tape. Restore will ask which volume the user wishes to mount. The fastest way to extract a few files is to start with the last volume, and work towards the first volume.

help Lists a summary of the available commands.

ls [arg] Lists the current or specified directory. Entries which are directories are appended with a slash ( / ). Entries which have been marked for extraction are prepended with ∗ . If the verbose key is set, the inode number of each entry is also listed.

pwd Prints the full pathname of the current working directory.

quit Restore immediately exits, even if the extraction list is not empty.

verbose The sense of the v key is toggled. When set, the verbose key causes the ls command to list the inode numbers of all entries. It also causes restore to print out information about each file as it is extracted.

r The tape is read and loaded into the current directory. This should not be done lightly; the r key should only be used to restore a complete dump tape onto a clear filesystem or to restore an incremental dump tape after a full level zero restore. Thus

/etc/newfs /dev/rrp0g eagle
/etc/mount /dev/rp0g /mnt
cd /mnt
restore r

is a typical sequence to restore a complete dump. Another restore can be done to get an incremental dump on top of this. Note that restore leaves a file “restoresymtab” in the root directory to pass information between incremental restore passes. This file should be removed when the last incremental tape has been restored. The sequence dump(8) followed by newfs(8) and restore is used to change the size of a filesystem.

R Restore requests a particular tape of a multi-volume set on which to restart a full restore (see the r key above). This allows restore to be interrupted and then restarted.

t The names of the specified files are listed if they occur on the tape. If no file argument is given, then the root directory is listed. This results in the entire contents of the tape being listed, unless the h key has been specified. Note that the t key replaces the function of the old dumpdir program.

x The named files are extracted from the tape. If the named file matches a directory whose contents had been written onto the tape, and the h key is not specified, the directory is recursively extracted. The owner, modification time, and mode are restored, if possible. If no file argument is given, then the root directory is extracted. This results in the entire contents of the tape being extracted, unless the h key has been specified.

Function Modifiers

The following characters may be used in addition to the letter that selects the function desired.

f The next argument to restore is used as the name of the archive, rather than /dev/rmt?. If the name of the file is − , restore reads from standard input. Thus, dump(8) and restore can be used in a pipeline to dump and restore a filesystem with the command

dump 0f − /usr | (cd /mnt; restore xf −)

h Restore extracts the actual directory, rather than the files that it references. This prevents hierarchical restoration of complete subtrees from the tape.

m Restore will extract by inode number rather than by filename. This is useful if only a few files are being extracted, and the user wants to avoid regenerating the complete pathname to the file.

v Normally restore does its work silently. The v (verbose) key causes it to print the name of each file it treats, preceded by its file type.

y Restore will not ask whether it should abort if it gets a tape error. It will always try to skip over the bad tape block(s) and continue as best it can.

DIAGNOSTICS

Messages are issued regarding bad key characters.

Issues messages if read errors are encountered. If y has been specified, or the user responds “y,” restore will attempt to continue the restore.

If the dump extends over more than one tape, restore will ask the user to change tapes. If the x or i key has been specified, restore will also ask which volume the user wishes to mount. The fastest way to extract a few files is to start with the last volume, and work towards the first volume.

There are numerous consistency checks that can be listed by restore. Most checks are self-explanatory or happen very rarely. Common errors are given below.

“Converting to new filesystem format.”
A dump tape created from the old filesystem has been loaded. It is automatically converted to the new filesystem format.

“filename : not found on tape”
The specified filename was listed in the tape directory, but was not found on the tape. This is caused by tape read errors while looking for the file, and from using a dump tape created on an active filesystem.

“Expected next file inumber, got inumber”
A file that was not listed in the directory showed up. This can occur when using a dump tape created on an active filesystem.

“Incremental tape too low”
When doing incremental restore, a tape that was written before the previous incremental tape, or that has too low an incremental level, has been loaded.

“Incremental tape too high”
When doing incremental restore, a tape that does not begin its coverage where the previous incremental tape left off, or that has too high an incremental level, has been loaded.

“Tape read error while restoring filename”

“Tape read error while skipping over inode inumber”

“Tape read error while trying to resynchronize”
A tape read error has occurred. If a filename is specified, then its contents are probably partially wrong. |050 ( |051 ) |052 ∗ |053 + |054 , |055 − |056 . |057 / | |060 0 |061 1 |062 2 |063 3 |064 4 |065 5 |066 6 |067 7 | |070 8 |071 9 |072 : |073 ; |074 < |075 = |076 > |077 ? | |100 @ |101 A |102 B |103 C |104 D |105 E |106 F |107 G | |110 H |111 I |112 J |113 K |114 L |115 M |116 N |117 O | |120 P |121 Q |122 R |123 S |124 T |125 U |126 V |127 W | |130 X |131 Y |132 Z |133 [ |134 \ |13, then no extracted files have been corrupted, though files may not be found on the tape.

“Resync restore, skipped num blocks”
After a tape read error, restore may have to resynchronize itself. This message lists the number of blocks that were skipped over.

FILES

/dev/rmt?the default tape drive
/tmp/rstdir∗file containing directories on the tape
/tmp/rstmode∗owner, mode, and time stamps for directories
./restoresymtabinformation passed between incremental restores

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