BACKUP_HELP(8)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 BACKUP_HELP(8) — the AFS Command Reference glow-up 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about backup_help 🌸 this is a page from the AFS Command Reference and it is literally the nicest little command in the whole backup suite because all it does is... tell you stuff. no vibes destroyed, no volumes touched. just knowledge. we love a supportive queen 👑

✨ NAME ✨

backup_help — displays help for backup commands 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

backup help [-topic <help string>+] [-admin] [-help]

backup h [-t <help string>+] [-a] [-h]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the backup help command is your personal hype-woman 💅 it shows you the complete online help entry — that's the short description plus the syntax statement — for every operation code you hand it via the -topic argument.

if you just... don't pass -topic? no worries, it's not gonna be weird about it. the output then includes the first line (name + short description) of the online help entry for every backup command. it's giving "here's the whole menu, gorg" 🍓

and if you're trying to find commands by keyword rather than by name? that's a different girl. use the backup apropos command for that, bestie. 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -topic <help string>+ — tells it which commands you want the full online help entry for. here's the trick though: you omit the backup part of the command name and just give the operation code 🎀 (for example, specify dump, not backup dump — ikyk). if you leave this argument out entirely, the output briefly describes every single backup command.
  • -help — prints the online help for this command. and listen: all other valid options are ignored when you do this. it's the main character now, periodt. 💅

✨ OUTPUT ✨

the online help entry for each backup command is made of the following two or three lines:

  • the first line names the command and briefly describes what it does 🌈
  • the second line lists aliases for the command, if there are any 👯
  • the final line, which starts with the string Usage, lists the command's options in the prescribed order. and ngl, these online help entries use the same symbols (brackets and everything) as the reference pages in this document — consistent queen 💖

✨ EXAMPLES ✨

here's the moment you've been waiting for — showing the online help entry for the backup dump command 🎬

% backup help dump
backup dump: start dump
Usage: backup dump -volumeset <volume set name> -dump <dump level name>
[-portoffset <TC port offset>]  [-at <Date/time to start dump>+]
[-append]  [-n]  [-file <load file>]  [-help]

see? iconic. ate and left no crumbs ✨

✨ PRIVILEGE REQUIRED ✨

None 🎀 (yes, really. you need zero special powers for this one. free education bestie 🧚)

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

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. shoutout to the whole crew 🫶

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this was OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27, and we are officially done. go forth and backup help responsibly (there is no irresponsible way, you're literally just reading) 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from