BACKUP_VOLINFO(8)

📦
version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💾 backup_volinfo(8) — the ✨ tea ✨ on your volume's dump history

okay bestie, pull up a chair because this is the manual page for backup_volinfo, a section 8 command (yes, the admin-y ones, very grown-up of you), and it is literally here to spill the entire dump history of a volume straight out of the Backup Database. no cap. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

backup_volinfo — displays a volume's dump history from the Backup Database. that's it, that's the job. iconic behavior honestly 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

backup volinfo -volume <volume name> [-localauth]
    [-cell <cell name>] [-help]

backup voli -v <volume name>
    [-l] [-c <cell name>] [-h]

so you got your long form and your little shorthand glow-up (voli, -v, -l, -c, -h), both valid, both slaying. pick whichever fits the vibe of your shell history. 🦋

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

the backup volinfo command shows you the dump history of the volume you point at. we're talking the date the volume got dumped, the tapes that are holding it — the whole receipts, fr fr.

pro tip from your girl: if the backup version of the volume was the one that got dumped, you gotta slap the .backup extension onto the volume name. don't forget it, or the command will be looking at you like 👁️👄👁️.

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -volume <volume name> — names the volume whose dump history you wanna see. if it was the backup or read-only version that got dumped, add the .backup or .readonly extension. (yes, this option plays both roles — it names it, and it also tells you to extend it. multitasking queen.)
  • -localauth — constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile file. then the backup command interpreter presents that ticket to the Backup Server, Volume Server and VL Server during mutual authentication. do not combine this flag with the -cell argument (they are not a compatible ship 🚫). for more deets, go read backup(8).
  • -cell <cell name> — names the cell where you want the command to run. do not combine this argument with the -localauth flag. again: not compatible, we do not mix. more details live in backup(8).
  • -help — prints the online help for this command. and here's the kicker: every other valid option just gets ignored when you use this. the help is the main character, periodt. 👑

🌈 OUTPUT 🌈

for every single Backup Database dump record that mentions your volume, you get a line. ordering? most recent down to least recent — newest tea first, as it should be.

each record shows up in a table with six columns:

  • dumpID — the dump ID of the dump that includes the volume.
  • lvl — the depth in the dump hierarchy of the dump level at which the volume was dumped. a value of 0 means a full dump. a value of 1 or greater means an incremental dump made at that specified depth in the dump hierarchy.
  • parentid — the dump ID of the dump's parent dump. a value of 0 means it's a full dump, which has no parent — and in that case, the value in the lvl column is also 0. they match, cute. 💕
  • creation date — the date and time at which the Backup System started the dump operation that created the dump.
  • clone date — for a backup or read-only volume, this is the time it was cloned from its read/write source. for a read/write volume, it's the same as the value in the creation date field. same energy, same timestamp.
  • tape name — the name of the tape holding the dump. it's either the permanent tape name, or an AFS tape name in the format volume_set_name.dump_level_name.tape_index, where:
    • volume_set_name is the name of the volume set associated with the initial dump in the dump set that this tape is part of.
    • dump_level_name is the name of the dump level at which the initial dump was backed up.
    • tape_index is the ordinal of the tape in the dump set.

and either type of name can be followed by a dump ID in parentheses. if that parenthetical shows up, it's the dump ID of the initial dump in the dump set that this appended dump belongs to. iykyk. 🫶

🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

here's part of the dump history of the Backup volume user.smith.backup — look at her go:

% backup volinfo -volume user.smith.backup
DumpID    lvl parentID  creation date    clone date       tape name
924600000 1   924427600 04/20/1999 05:20 04/20/1999 05:01 user_incr_2 (924514392)
924514392 1   924427600 04/19/1999 05:33 04/19/1999 05:08 user_incr_2
924427600 0           0 04/18/1999 05:26 04/18/1999 04:58 user_full_6
   .     .      .         .       .       .      .         .
   .     .      .         .       .       .      .         .

those little dots at the bottom? that's the table saying "and more, bestie, we just didn't print it all." 💀

🧚 PRIVILEGE REQUIRED 🧚

None. zero. zilch. you need absolutely nothing special to run this. go off, no keys required. 🔥

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

backup(8), backup_dumpinfo(8), backup_volrestore(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. shoutout to the whole conversion crew, we love an origin story 🌟

and that's the whole page, bestie! run backup volinfo, check your history, and remember: the flags don't mix, the help ignores everything else, and the most recent dump always walks in first. 💅

this has been your OpenAFS 2026-07-27 edition of BACKUP_VOLINFO(8). stay hydrated, back up your volumes, mwah 😘🌸

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