RESTORE(8) BSD System Manager's Manual RESTORE(8)
restore - restore files or filesystems from backups made with dump
restore -i [-chmvy] [-b blocksize] [-f file] [-s fileno]
restore -R [-cvy] [-b blocksize] [-f file] [-s fileno]
restore -r [-cvy] [-b blocksize] [-f file] [-s fileno]
restore -t [-chvy] [-b blocksize] [-f file] [-s fileno] [file ...]
restore -x [-chmvy] [-b blocksize] [-f file] [-s fileno] [file ...]
(The 4.3BSD option syntax is implemented for backward compatibil-
ity but is not documented here.)
The restore command performs the inverse function of dump(8). A full
backup of a filesystem may be restored and subsequent incremental backups
layered on top of it. Single files and directory subtrees may be restored
from full or partial backups. restore works across a network; to do this
see the -f flag described below. Other arguments to the command are file
or directory names specifying the files that are to be restored. Unless
the -h flag is specified (see below), the appearance of a directory name
refers to the files and (recursively) subdirectories of that directory.
Exactly one of the following flags is required:
-i This mode allows interactive restoration of files from a dump.
After reading in the directory information from the dump, restore
provides a shell like interface that allows the user to move
around the directory tree selecting files to be extracted. The
available commands are given below; for those commands that re-
quire an argument, the default is the current directory.
add [arg] The current directory or specified argument is added
to the list of files to be extracted. If a directory
is specified, then it and all its descendents are ad-
ded to the extraction list (unless the -h flag is
specified on the command line). Files that are on the
extraction list are prepended with a "*" when they
are listed by ls.
cd arg Change the current working directory to the specified
argument.
delete [arg]
The current directory or specified argument is delet-
ed from the list of files to be extracted. If a
directory is specified, then it and all its descen-
dents are deleted from the extraction list (unless
the -h flag is specified on the command line). The
most expedient way to extract most of the files from
a directory is to add the directory to the extraction
list and then delete those files that are not needed.
extract All files on the extraction list are extracted from
the dump. restore will ask which volume the user
wishes to mount. The fastest way to extract a few
files is to start with the last volume and work to-
wards the first volume.
help List a summary of the available commands.
ls [arg] List the current or specified directory. Entries that
are directories are appended with a "/". Entries that
have been marked for extraction are prepended with a
"*". If the verbose flag is set, the inode number of
each entry is also listed.
pwd Print the full pathname of the current working direc-
tory.
quit Restore immediately exits, even if the extraction
list is not empty.
setmodes All directories that have been added to the extrac-
tion list have their owner, modes, and times set;
nothing is extracted from the dump. This is useful
for cleaning up after a restore has been prematurely
aborted.
verbose The sense of the -v flag is toggled. When set, the
verbose flag causes the ls command to list the inode
numbers of all entries. It also causes restore to
print out information about each file as it is ex-
tracted.
-R restore requests a particular tape of a multi-volume set on which
to restart a full restore (see the -r flag below). This is useful
if the restore has been interrupted.
-r Restore (rebuild) a filesystem. The target filesystem should be
made pristine with newfs(8), mounted, and the user cd'd into the
pristine filesystem before starting the restoration of the ini-
tial level 0 backup. If the level 0 restores successfully, the -r
flag may be used to restore any necessary incremental backups on
top of the level 0. The -r flag precludes an interactive file ex-
traction and can be detrimental to one's health (not to mention
the disk) if not used carefully. An example:
# newfs /dev/rrp0g eagle
# mount /dev/rp0g /mnt
# cd /mnt
# restore rf /dev/rst8
Note that restore leaves a file restoresymtable in the root
directory to pass information between incremental restore passes.
This file should be removed when the last incremental has been
restored.
restore, in conjunction with newfs(8) and dump(8), may be used to
modify filesystem parameters such as size or block size.
-t The names of the specified files are listed if they occur on the
backup. If no file argument is given, the root directory is list-
ed, which results in the entire content of the backup being list-
ed, unless the -h flag has been specified. Note that the -t flag
replaces the function of the old dumpdir program.
-x The named files are read from the given media. If a named file
matches a directory whose contents are on the backup and the -h
flag is not specified, the directory is recursively extracted.
The owner, modification time, and mode are restored (if possi-
ble). If no file argument is given, the root directory is ex-
tracted, which results in the entire content of the backup being
extracted, unless the -h flag has been specified.
The following additional options may be specified:
-b blocksize
The number of kilobytes per dump record. If the -b option is not
specified, restore tries to determine the block size dynamically.
-c Normally, restore will try to determine dynamically whether the
dump was made from an old (pre-4.4) or new format filesystem. The
-c flag disables this check, and only allows reading a dump in
the old format.
-f file
Read the backup from file; file may be a special device file like
/dev/rst0 (a tape drive), /dev/rsd1c (a disk drive), an ordinary
file, or "-" (the standard input). If the name of the file is of
the form "host:file" or "user@host:file", restore reads from the
named file on the remote host using rmt(8).
-h Extract the actual directory, rather than the files that it
references. This prevents hierarchical restoration of complete
subtrees from the dump.
-m Extract by inode numbers rather than by file name. This is useful
if only a few files are being extracted, and one wants to avoid
regenerating the complete pathname to the file.
-s fileno
Read from the specified fileno on a multi-file tape. File number-
ing starts at 1.
-v Normally restore does its work silently. The -v (verbose) flag
causes it to type the name of each file it treats preceded by its
file type.
-y Do not ask the user whether to abort the restore in the event of
an error. Always try to skip over the bad block(s) and continue.
If the following environment variable exists it will be utilized by
restore:
TMPDIR The directory given in TMPDIR will be used instead of /tmp to
store temporary files. Refer to environ(7) for more information.
TAPE Default tape device to use instead of /dev/rst0.
/dev/rst0 the default tape drive
/dev/rst* raw SCSI tape interface
/tmp/rstdir* file containing directories on the tape
/tmp/rstmode* owner, mode, and time stamps for directories
./restoresymtable information passed between incremental restores
Complains if it gets a read error. If -y has been specified, or the user
responds "y", restore will attempt to continue the restore.
If a backup was made using more than one tape volume, restore will notify
the user when it is time to mount the next volume. If the -x or -i flag
has been specified, restore will also ask which volume the user wishes to
mount. The fastest way to extract a few files is to start with the last
volume, and work towards the first volume.
There are numerous consistency checks that can be listed by restore. Most
checks are self-explanatory or can "never happen". Common errors are
given below.
Converting to new filesystem format
A dump tape created from the old filesystem has been loaded. It
is automatically converted to the new filesystem format.
<filename>: not found on tape
The specified file name was listed in the tape directory, but was
not found on the tape. This is caused by tape read errors while
looking for the file, and from using a dump tape created on an
active filesystem.
expected next file <inumber>, got <inumber>
A file that was not listed in the directory showed up. This can
occur when using a dump created on an active filesystem.
Incremental dump too low
When doing an incremental restore, a dump that was written before
the previous incremental dump, or that has too low an incremental
level has been loaded.
Incremental dump too high
When doing an incremental restore, a dump that does not begin its
coverage where the previous incremental dump left off, or that
has too high an incremental level has been loaded.
Tape read error while restoring <filename>
Tape read error while skipping over inode <inumber>
Tape read error while trying to resynchronize
A tape (or other media) read error has occurred. If a file name
is specified, its contents are probably partially wrong. If an
inode is being skipped or the tape is trying to resynchronize, no
extracted files have been corrupted, though files may not be
found on the tape.
resync restore, skipped <num> blocks
After a dump read error, restore may have to resynchronize it-
self. This message lists the number of blocks that were skipped
over.
environ(7), dump(8), mount(8), newfs(8), rmt(8)
The restore command appeared in 4.2BSD.
restore can get confused when doing incremental restores from dumps that
were made on active filesystems.
A level 0 dump must be done after a full restore. Because restore runs in
user code, it has no control over inode allocation; thus a full dump must
be done to get a new set of directories reflecting the new inode number-
ing, even though the content of the files is unchanged.
The temporary files /tmp/rstdir* and /tmp/rstmode* are generated with a
unique name based on the date of the dump and the process ID (see
mktemp(3)), except when -r or -R is used. Because -R allows you to res-
tart a -r operation that may have been interrupted, the temporary files
should be the same across different processes. In all other cases, the
files are unique because it is possible to have two different dumps
started at the same time, and separate operations shouldn't conflict with
each other.
MirBSD #10-current July 1, 1997 3