Larry,

> >Other listers are correct you do have fbackup ( also tar and cpio ).
>
> I'm not sure whether I remember correctly or not, but wasn't tar and
> cpio happy to "backup" files that are being opened for writing, without
> any error message or warning (and without giving a consistent backup)?
>
> fbackup, I believe, at least reported those files that were accessed
> and did a couple of retries later, hoping to get a "clean" copy to the
> backup media. However, I'm not sure if you would end up with some kind
> of consistent state if some of the accessed files have a relationship
> with some of the other files.

All true. But this is a philosophical issue :-)

It is the responsibility of the administrator to ensure that
the state of the system is suitable for what you do.
Unix does not pretend to be more clever than the administrator
(it can't, since it does not have the same information) and only
moans on obvious problems. If you are root it gives you enough
rope to hang yourself :-)

This is a good thing, since it allows to do some clever things
instead of preventing them, but requires some experience.
To say it positive: It takes you seriously.

fbackup is a good example: When the file has been changed it retries
and finally refuses to backup the file at all (you can't restore it).
The warning is nice but getting no warning does not mean you are safe
either since fbackup certainly does not know the dependencies among
files
(as you noted). And it could leave you without a backup even if there
was not really a problem (it can't know either). Clever?

Of course a solution is available: Make a snapshot of the file
system or block device (using the Adv. VxFS option) and have
minimal support in the software to ensure an consistent state.


Just a different point of view
Michael

--
Michael Marxmeier           Marxmeier Software AG
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]  Besenbruchstrasse 9
Phone : +49 202 2431440     42285 Wuppertal, Germany
Fax   : +49 202 2431420     http://www.marxmeier.com/

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