Hello all!
I asked:
> This is a simple question. It seems to me that our backup system,
> which is a home brewn hack using vdump, updates the last access time
> of the files backed up. The man page (for vdump) doesn't mention this,
> but one could argue that it should be either way. One drawback is
> that the user cannot any longer use 'find' to weed out stuff he
> didn't use for a long time (longer time than since the last level 0
> backup). Is this by design or am I fundamentally misguided here? The
> OS level is 4.0A with the latest patch kit if that makes a
> difference.
The best formulated answer comes from Martyn Johnson
<Martyn.Johnson_at_cl.cam.ac.uk>:
> Since vdump opens files in the normal way, rather than accessing the
> raw disc as dump did, this effect is inevitable.
> You don't say whether you are dumping AdvFS or UFS partitions.
> If you are using UFS, you can always go back to dump.
> If you are using AdvFS, you can solve the problem by dumping a clone
> fileset instead of the the partition itself. A clone fileset is a
> read-only snapshot, and reading the files in it will not update the
> access times in the main filing system. There is the added advantage
> that your dumps will always be self consistent and you will avoid all
> of the problems inherent in dumping a live filing system. You will
> need a licence for the "AdvFS utilities" to do this; we get it as
> part of the educational licencing deal.
Thanks also to: <alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com>, Kirk Rafferty
<krafferty_at_worldnet.att.net>, Hernando Barragan <damian_at_mox.uniandes.edu.co>,
"Jason Neil" <Jason_Neil_at_CITYMAX.CO.UK>
As a side note, Jason pointed out that this misfeature is mentioned in the
3.2C man-page for vdump.
Regs,
Simon.
Simon Tardell, voice +46 8 162688 fax +46 8 347817
Fysikum, Stockholms universitet simon_at_physto.se, simon_at_tardell.se
Received on Thu Aug 14 1997 - 12:00:31 NZST