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From: njs@scifi.UUCP (Nicholas J. Simicich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt
Subject: Re: Backup info for RT Wanted
Message-ID: <635@scifi.UUCP>
Date: 22 Jul 89 04:44:59 GMT
References: <12237@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: njs@scifi.UUCP (Nicholas J. Simicich)
Organization: Nick Simicich, Peekskill, NY
Lines: 41

In article <12237@well.UUCP> gors@well.UUCP (Gordon Stewart) writes:
>
>Hello, I am trying to figure out how to do regular backups on 
>an IBM RT running AIX 2.2.1.  I would like to use "backup" format
>since it appears to be much faster than tar, as well as having an
>incremental backup system built into the command.  I can't seem
>to give the backup command more than one volume to back up at once.

The backup command can back up files by name, in which case it can
cross file systems, or it can back up file systems, either as images
or by inode.  The incremental mode is a file system backup, by inode
as I recall.  If you wanted to do a global backup of changed files,
you'd have to make up a list of the files you wanted to back up, and
back them up by name.

>Nor does it appear to have a flag which allows incremental storage
>on my tape.  Is there any way of backing up several volumes to the
>same tape?

Yes, but only if you write all of the files before you reposition the
tape.  These tapes cannot be read or repositioned and then written to,
and you can't append to a file.  Now were you to run several backup
commands in a row, you could write several successive files to the
same tape.  But this is not a property of the backup command.  It is
controlled by the device name.  /dev/rmt0 rewinds after.  /dev/rmt4
rewinds neither on open or close.  /dev/rmt8 retensions before and
rewinds after.  /dev/rmt12 retensions before but does not rewind.

If you were backing up a bunch of file systems, to a single tape, you
might write the first file to /dev/rmt12, the intermediates to
/dev/rmt4, and the last one to /dev/rmt0.

>  Does anyone out there have a script which controls the
>level of your back up by the current date.  

I use a fancy tar driver, myself.
 
(.....)

-- 
Nick Simicich --- uunet!bywater!scifi!njs --- njs@ibm.com (Internet)