BACKUP_ADDDUMP(8)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ BACKUP_ADDDUMP(8) ✨

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about backup_adddump from the AFS Command Reference and honestly? it's giving "let me build you a whole dump hierarchy, no big deal" 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

backup_adddump — Defines a dump level in the dump hierarchy. periodt.

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

backup adddump -dump <dump level name>+
    [-expires <expiration date>+]
    [-localauth] [-cell <cell name>] [-help]

backup addd -d <dump level name>+
    [-e <expiration date>+]
    [-l] [-c <cell name>] [-h]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So the backup adddump command creates one or more dump levels in the dump hierarchy that lives in the Backup Database, and if you want, it can assign an expiration date to each one. And the way that all the dump levels in the Backup Database collectively constitute the dump hierarchy? iconic. that's the whole vibe. ✨

Use the -expires argument to associate an expiration date with each dump level. When the Backup System later creates a dump at that dump level, it uses the value you gave it to derive the dump's expiration date, and it records that on the label of the tape (or the backup data file). Here's the dramatic part: the Backup System refuses to overwrite a tape until after the latest expiration date of any dump that the tape contains, unless you use the backup labeltape command to relabel the tape. mm. and if a dump level doesn't have an expiration date at all? the Backup System treats dumps created at that level as expired as soon as it creates them. no cap. 😭

(quick note bestie: the Backup System does not automatically remove a dump's record from the Backup Database when the dump reaches its expiration date — it only does that if the tape containing the dump is recycled or relabeled. To remove expired and other obsolete dump records, use the backup deletedump command.) 🔥

You define either an absolute or a relative expiration date:

  • An absolute expiration date defines the month/day/year (and, optionally, hour and minutes) at which a dump expires. If the expiration date predates the dump creation time, the Backup System immediately treats the dump as expired.
  • A relative date defines the number of years, months, or days (or a combination of the three) after the dump's creation that it expires. When the Backup System creates a dump at the dump level, it calculates an actual expiration date by adding the relative date to the start time of the dump operation.

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • -dump <dump level name>+ — Names each dump level to add to the dump hierarchy. Precede full dump level names with a slash (for example, /full). To indicate an incremental dump level, precede it with an ordered list of the dump levels directly above it in the hierarchy (its parent dump levels), and use the slash as a separator. The parent dump levels must already exist — for example, the dump levels /full and /full/incremental1 must exist when the incremental dump level /full/incremental1/incremental2 is created.

Dump level names can have any number of levels, but cannot exceed 256 characters in length, including the slashes. The maximum length for any single level (the text between slashes) is 28 characters, not including the preceding slash.

All alphanumeric characters are allowed in dump level names. Do not use the period (.), though — because it's the separator between the volume set name and dump level name in the dump name assigned automatically by the backup dump command. It's best not to include other metacharacters either; if you're using them, enclose them in double quotes (" ") when issuing the backup adddump command outside interactive mode.

  • -expires <expiration date>+ — Defines the absolute or relative expiration date to associate with each dump level named by the -dump argument. Absolute expiration dates have the following format:
[at] {NEVER | <mm>/<dd>/<yyyy> [<hh>:<MM>] }

where the optional word at is followed either by the string NEVER — which means dumps created at the dump level never expire — or by a date value with a required portion (<mm> for month, <dd> for day, and <yyyy> for year) and an optional portion (<hh> for hours and <MM> for minutes).

Omit the hh:MM portion to use the default of midnight (00:00 hours), or provide a value in 24-hour format (for example, 20:30 is 8:30 p.m.). Valid values for the year range from 1970 to 2037; higher values are not valid because the latest possible date in the standard UNIX representation is in February 2038. The command interpreter automatically reduces later dates to the maximum value. 💀

Relative expiration dates have the following format:

[in] [<years>y] [<months>m] [<days>d]

where the optional word in is followed by at least one of: a number of years (maximum 9999) followed by the letter y, a number of months (maximum 12) followed by the letter m, or a number of days (maximum 31) followed by the letter d. If you're providing more than one of the three, list them in the indicated order. And if the date that results from adding the relative expiration value to a dump's creation time is later than the latest possible date in the UNIX time representation, the Backup System automatically reduces it to that date.

  • -localauth — Constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. The backup command interpreter presents it to the Backup Server, Volume Server and VL Server during mutual authentication. Do not combine this flag with the -cell argument. For more details, see backup(8).
  • -cell <cell name> — Names the cell in which to run the command. Do not combine this argument with the -localauth flag. For more details, see backup(8).
  • -help — Prints the online help for this command. All other valid options are ignored.

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

The following command defines a full dump called /1999 with a relative expiration date of one year:

% backup adddump -dump /1999 -expires in 1y

The following command defines an incremental dump called /sunday1/monday1 with a relative expiration date of 13 days:

% backup adddump -dump /sunday1/monday1 -expires in 13d

The following command defines two dump incremental dump levels, /Monthly/Week1 and /Monthly/Week2. Their parent, the full dump level /Monthly, must already exist. The expiration date for both levels is 12:00 a.m. on 1 January 2000.

% backup adddump -dump /Monthly/Week1 /Monthly/Week2 -expires at 01/01/2000

👑 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED 👑

The issuer must be listed in the /etc/openafs/server/UserList file on every machine where the Backup Server is running, or must be logged onto a server machine as the local superuser "root" if the -localauth flag is included. that's the whole vibe check, bestie 🫶

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

backup(8), backup_deldump(8), backup_deletedump(8), backup_listdumps(8), backup_setexp(8)

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

okay that's the whole page, you ate that fr fr 🍓

later bestie — this one's from OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27 💖✨🧚

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