Summary re: restore of quota files.
The quick answer is that it cant be done.
precis of problem.
I have backed up on tape a set of user directories and their
appropriate quota files.
A disk is lost/reconfigured, forcing a remake of the ADVfs file
domain. Restoring the data to the individual filesets is not a
problem, however, the quota files cannot be overwritten.
Whilst the userquota and groupquota options to the mount command
or in fstab allow the redirection of the quota querying tools
(like repquota) to alternate filenames, the filesystem still maintains
tracking information in the files occupying i-node 4 and 5. (the
default quota.user and quota.group.)
result.
Despite the best efforts of several very bright and experienced
unix administrators in a "can you delete this file" competition, the
advfs remained resolute in its defiance. The fundamental problem
appears to be that even when mounted without quotas enabled, the ADVfs
maintains this information anyway. The silver lining here is the
proof of the filesystems' robustness....
Eventually i gave up and re-entered all the quota information by
hand.
Replies from various list-members indicated similar problems. My
heart (or rather my fingers) goes out to the poor soul who had to
do this for > 13,000 users. The feature of restoring quota information
from backups will apparently not appear in vn 4.0 either.
Thanks go to;
Knut.Hellebo_at_nho.hydro.com
Stuart 'Zen' Bishop <zen_at_RMIT.EDU.AU>
Saul Tannenbaum <stannenb_at_emerald.tufts.edu>
"Richard L Jackson Jr" <rjackson_at_portal.gmu.edu>
andy
--
atp_at_mssly1.mssl.ucl.ac.uk Andy Phillips
atp_at_mssl.ucl.ac.uk Mullard Space Science Laboratory,
phillips_at_isass1.solar.isas.ac.jp Dept. Space and Climate Physics,
mssly1::atp University College London.
Received on Wed Jun 14 1995 - 21:21:45 NZST