From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon Sep 10 16:26:06 2007
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 70BE816A41B;
	Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:26:06 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from kientzle@freebsd.org)
Received: from kientzle.com (h-66-166-149-50.snvacaid.covad.net
	[66.166.149.50])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 26C9313C458;
	Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:26:05 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from kientzle@freebsd.org)
Received: from [10.0.0.222] (p54.kientzle.com [66.166.149.54])
	by kientzle.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id l8AGPYH7012979;
	Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:25:34 -0700 (PDT)
	(envelope-from kientzle@freebsd.org)
Message-ID: <46E56FFE.7000208@freebsd.org>
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:25:34 -0700
From: Tim Kientzle <kientzle@freebsd.org>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20060422
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Danny Braniss <danny@cs.huji.ac.il>
References: <E1ISdQi-000GkC-4v@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il>	<20070904233246.GA2409@epia-2.farid-hajji.net>	<E1ISnig-000Nbm-Ep@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il>	<043a01c7f202$a7ad0920$f7071b60$@co.uk>	<E1IU10R-000MRT-T8@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il>	<046801c7f229$a4534510$ecf9cf30$@co.uk>	<E1IUcXc-000NdZ-LH@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il>
	<E1IUePt-000P2R-RM@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il>
In-Reply-To: <E1IUePt-000P2R-RM@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-current@freebsd.org,
	'cpghost' <cpghost@cordula.ws>, 'Gavin Atkinson' <gavin@freebsd.org>
Subject: Re: dump problems
X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current
	<freebsd-current.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current>,
	<mailto:freebsd-current-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:26:06 -0000

Danny Braniss wrote:
> [dump] has been around since the beginin of time,
> or at least since Unix V6 :-), and it has been hacked ever since. but now that
> most of you never heard of 9track tapes, etc, I was wondering if there is a 
> point in hacking at
> it again. 
> pros: dump/restore has never failed me till now.
> cons: there are other programs tar/cpio/gtar/etc, but they each have their 
> nits.

I think there is real value in a backup/restore option
that is specifically designed for UFS volumes.  In
particular, it's the only way to be comfortably certain
that all UFS-specific attributes (ACLs, extended
attributes, etc) are correctly backed-up and restored.

Tar, cpio, and other similar programs are widely used
for purposes other than whole-system backup.
As such, they have to balance requirements that simply
aren't of interest to dump/restore.

Tim Kientzle