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Date:      Mon, 27 Aug 2001 23:09:19 -0400
From:      "Bob Hall" <rjhalljr@starpower.net>
To:        FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: Using dvd-ram for backup
Message-ID:  <20010827230918.A525@starpower.net>
In-Reply-To: <20010827162122.B53928@sunbay.com>; from ru@FreeBSD.ORG on Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 04:21:22PM %2B0300
References:  <20010827085932.A211@starpower.net> <20010827162122.B53928@sunbay.com>

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On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 04:21:22PM +0300, Ruslan Ermilov wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 08:59:32AM -0400, Bob Hall wrote:
> > Has anyone used dvd-ram for backup? I've been searching the 
> > FreeBSD site and my books for several days, and I haven't 
> > been able to come up with the magic combination of keystrokes 
> > that will persuade FreeBSD to write to a dvd-ram device.
> > 
> > My system is 4.3 release. I've tried using newfs to create 
> > a Unix file system on the disk:
> > 	# newfs -v /dev/rcd0c
> > but I get an error message that it can't write the disk 
> > label. I've tried using disklabel and received the save 
> > message.
> > 
> I found this message to be harmless.  I.e., after newfs(8)
> run, I can use the `c' partition of the DVD RAM media as I
> would use it on my hard drive.  It was also my understanding
> that for DVD RAM, FreeBSD constructs a fake disklabel, on
> the fly, hence no need to write it to the media.
> 
> > I've tried 
> > 	# dump -f /dev/rcd0c /usr
> > but it tells me that I need 12 volumes. My entire file 
> > system takes up less than half of one side of a dvd disk.
> > 
> Haven't tried to dump(8) to it yet.

Thanks for the answer. Knowing that someone else had succeeded 
in writing to a dvd disk in spite of the disk label error 
message made all the difference. Funny how you can usually 
find the answer if you're certain that it exists, but if you 
have doubts, you'll never get it.

I wasn't able to get dump to write directly to the device, but 
I did get it to write to a plain old file.
   mount -t ufs -o rw /dev/cd0c /mnt
   dump -f - / | cat - >> /mnt/dump.archive
   dump -f - /usr | cat - >> /mnt/dump.archive
df shows the correct amount of space used in /mnt.

If I try
   dump -f /mnt/dump.test /usr
it informs me that I will need 22 tapes, so for some reason 
the pipe is necessary.

I haven't tried extracting the data out of the file yet. It's 
late and I have to go beddy-bye, so it will have to wait. I'm 
relatively new to Unix, so if anyone feels like posting suggestions, 
improvements, explanations, etc, by all means, do so. I'm really 
not sure why this has to be done this way, or how to proceed next.

Bob Hall
-- 
Know thyself? Absurd direction!
Bubbles bear no introspection.        -Khushhal Khan Khatak

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