Dump (program)

Dump is a traditional Unix program that is used for file system backups. Under Unix system V is called the program ufsdump. dump has been adapted to a variety of file systems that are similar to UFS, especially on Linux.

Dump operates at the block level, ie below the Dateisystemabstrahierung such as files or folders. With the help of a dump a file system to a tape or another disk can be backed up. It is often used on the network through the pipe an SSH connection for backup. Here are compression programs such as LZO, gzip, bzip2 or xz used, which differ in diffusion rate, compression rate and / or speed of operation.

The first version of a dump tools appeared in AT & T UNIX version 6

Before file system snapshots were possible, dump had compared to the normal programs such as tar or rsync the advantage of the unamended attribute of the last access, as this will only switch access using file system.

When performing a backup with dump the file system must not be in use because changes to the file system would lead to inconsistencies This problem can be avoided by the use of file system snapshots.

The counterpart of the dump program restore, which is used for recovery.

Use

Dump [ - 0123456789acLnSu ] [- B records ] [- b blocksize ] [- C cache size ] [-D dumpdates ] [-d density ] [- f file | -P pipecommand ] [-h level] [-s feet ] [- T date] filesystem dump- W | -w see also

• Tar
• Cpio
• Rsync