tar to Perform Full Dumps@UNREVISED
Full dumps should only be made when no other people or programs
are modifying files in the filesystem. If files are modified while
tar is making the backup, they may not be stored properly in
the archive, in which case you won't be able to restore them if you
have to. (Files not being modified are written with no trouble, and do
not corrupt the entire archive.)
You will want to use the --label=archive-label (-V archive-label) option to give the archive a volume label, so you can tell what this archive is even if the label falls off the tape, or anything like that.
Unless the filesystem you are dumping is guaranteed to fit on one volume, you will need to use the --multi-volume (-M) option. Make sure you have enough tapes on hand to complete the backup.
If you want to dump each filesystem separately you will need to use
the --one-file-system (-l) option to prevent tar from crossing
filesystem boundaries when storing (sub)directories.
The --incremental (-G) option is not needed, since this is a complete copy of everything in the filesystem, and a full restore from this backup would only be done onto a completely empty disk.
Unless you are in a hurry, and trust the tar program (and your
tapes), it is a good idea to use the --verify (-W) option, to make
sure your files really made it onto the dump properly. This will
also detect cases where the file was modified while (or just after)
it was being archived. Not all media (notably cartridge tapes) are
capable of being verified, unfortunately.
--listed-incremental=snapshot-file (-g snapshot-file) take a file name argument always. If the file doesn't exist, run a level zero dump, creating the file. If the file exists, uses that file to see what has changed.
--incremental (-G) @FIXME{look it up}
--incremental (-G) handle old GNU-format incremental backup.
This option should only be used when creating an incremental backup of
a filesystem. When the --incremental (-G) option is used, tar
writes, at the beginning of the archive, an entry for each of the
directories that will be operated on. The entry for a directory
includes a list of all the files in the directory at the time the
dump was done, and a flag for each file indicating whether the file
is going to be put in the archive. This information is used when
doing a complete incremental restore.
Note that this option causes tar to create a non-standard
archive that may not be readable by non-GNU versions of the tar
program.
The --incremental (-G) option means the archive is an incremental backup. Its meaning depends on the command that it modifies.
If the --incremental (-G) option is used with --list (-t), tar
will list, for each directory in the archive, the list of files in
that directory at the time the archive was created. This information
is put out in a format that is not easy for humans to read, but which
is unambiguous for a program: each file name is preceded by either a
`Y' if the file is present in the archive, an `N' if the
file is not included in the archive, or a `D' if the file is
a directory (and is included in the archive). Each file name is
terminated by a null character. The last file is followed by an
additional null and a newline to indicate the end of the data.
If the --incremental (-G) option is used with --extract (--get, -x), then when the entry for a directory is found, all files that currently exist in that directory but are not listed in the archive are deleted from the directory.
This behavior is convenient when you are restoring a damaged file system from a succession of incremental backups: it restores the entire state of the file system to that which obtained when the backup was made. If you don't use --incremental (-G), the file system will probably fill up with files that shouldn't exist any more.
--listed-incremental=snapshot-file (-g snapshot-file) handle new GNU-format incremental backup. This option handles new GNU-format incremental backup. It has much the same effect as --incremental (-G), but also the time when the dump is done and the list of directories dumped is written to the given file. When restoring, only files newer than the saved time are restored, and the direcotyr list is used to speed up operations.
--listed-incremental=snapshot-file (-g snapshot-file) acts like --incremental (-G), but when
used in conjunction with --create (-c) will also cause tar to
use the file file, which contains information about the state
of the filesystem at the time of the last backup, to decide which
files to include in the archive being created. That file will then
be updated by tar. If the file file does not exist when
this option is specified, tar will create it, and include all
appropriate files in the archive.
The file, which is archive independent, contains the date it was last
modified and a list of devices, inode numbers and directory names.
tar will archive files with newer mod dates or inode change
times, and directories with an unchanged inode number and device but
a changed directory name. The file is updated after the files to
be archived are determined, but before the new archive is actually
created.
GNU tar actually writes the file twice: once before the data
and written, and once after.
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