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ftio(1)

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HP-UX 11i Version 3: February 2007
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NAME

ftio — faster tape I/O

SYNOPSIS

ftio -o|-O [achpvxAELM] [-B blksize] [-D type] [-e extarg] [-K comment] [-L filelist] [-N datefile] [-S script] [-T tty] [-Z nobufs] tapedev [pathnames] [-F ignorenames]

ftio -i|-I [cdfmptuvxAEMPR] [-B blksize] [-S script] [-T tty] [-Z nobufs] tapedev [patterns]

ftio -g [v] tapedev [patterns]

Remarks

Note: The fbackup, frecover, and ftio commands are deprecated for creating new archives. See WARNINGS for more information.

DESCRIPTION

ftio is a tool designed specifically for copying files to tape drives. It performs faster than either cpio or tar in comparable situations (see cpio(1) and tar(1)). ftio uses multiple processes (to read/write the file system and to write/read the tape device), with large amounts of memory sharing between processes as well as a large block size for reading and writing to the tape.

ftio is compatible with cpio in that output from cpio is always readable by ftio, and output from ftio is readable by cpio, except as explained in the "cpio Compatibility" section, later in the manpage.

ftio must be invoked with exactly one of the following options: -o, -O, -i, -I, or -g. The -o and -O options specify that ftio is writing "out" from file system to tape; the -i and -I options specify that ftio is writing "in" from tape to file system. The -o, -O, -i, and -I options can be followed by modifiers that must appear immediately after the option with no spaces between the option and the modifier, as in ftio -idxE (see Modifiers section below).

tapedev specifies the name of a device special file for the tape device to which the output is written. A device on a remote machine can be specified in the form

machine:device_special_file

ftio creates a server process from /usr/sbin/rmt on the remote machine to access the tape device. If /usr/sbin/rmt does not exist on the remote system, ftio creates a server process from /etc/rmt, on the remote machine to access the tape device.

Options

ftio recognizes the following options:

-o

Copy (out) files from the file system to tapedev, including path name and status information. If pathnames are specified, ftio recursively descends pathnames looking for files, and copies those files to tapedev. If pathnames are not specified, ftio reads the standard input to obtain a list of path names to copy. ftio can copy to multiple tapes if required. For every tape used, ftio generates a tape header containing the current tape volume number, machine node name and type, operating system name, release and version numbers (all from the uname() system call; see uname(2)), username of the person issuing the ftio command, the time and date the command was executed, the number of consecutive times the current media has been used, a comment field, and other items used internally by ftio. The tape header is separated from the main body of the tape archive by an end-of-file mark. The tape header can be read by invoking cat with the device file name as the first argument (see cat(1)). Note, character and block device special files written with the -o option are not transportable to other HP-UX implementations.

-O

Copy out files in the same way as ftio -ocva, when no modifiers are used with the -O. However, if the .ftiorc file exists in the user's home directory, ftio opens this file and scans for lines preceded by O=. Options defined on matching lines are passed to ftio as if they had been specified on the command line. See EXAMPLES section.

-i

Extract (copy into the file system) files from tapedev, which is assumed to be a tape and the product of a previous ftio -o operation. Only files with names that match patterns, according to the rules of Pattern Matching Notation (see regexp(5)), are selected. In addition, a leading ! within a pattern indicates that only those names that do not match the remainder of the pattern should be selected. Multiple patterns can be specified. If no patterns are specified, the default for patterns is * (that is, select all files). The extracted files are conditionally created and copied into the current directory tree, based upon the options described below. The permissions of the files are those of the previous -o operation.

-I

Extract (copy into the file system) files in the same way as for ftio -icdmv, when no modifiers are used with the -I. However, if the .ftiorc file exists in the user's home directory, ftio opens this file, and scans for lines preceded by I=. Options defined on matching lines are passed to ftio as if they had been specified on the command line. See EXAMPLES section.

-g

Read the file list in tapedev. If patterns is specified, only file names that match are printed. Note that file names are always preceded by the volume that ftio expected the file to be on when the file list was created; thus only the last volume is valid in this respect.

-e extarg

Specifies the handling of any extent attributes of the file[s] to be archived. Extent attributes cannot be preserved when archiving files with ftio. extarg takes one of the following values:

warn

Issue a warning message and archive the file without extent attributes.

ignore

A file with extent attributes will be archived, without preserving the extent attributes and without issuing a warning message.

force

A file with extent attributes will not be archived and a warning message will be issued.

If -e is not specified, the default value for extarg is warn.

-B blksize

Specify the size (in bytes) of blocks written to tape. This number can end with k, which specifies multiplication by 1024. The use of larger blocks generally improves performance and tape usage. The maximum allowable block size is limited by the tape drive used. A default of 16384 bytes is set because this is the maximum block size on most Hewlett-Packard tape drives.

-D type

Descend a directory recursively, only if the file system to which it belongs is type, where type can be hfs, vxfs, or nfs.

-F ignorenames

Arguments following -F specify patterns that should not be copied to the tape. The same rules apply to ignorenames as to patterns; see the earlier description for ftio -i.

-K comment

Specify a comment to be placed in the ftio tape header.

-L filelist

Create a list of the files being backed up. filelist specifies the output file. If pathnames is specified, perform the file search and generate a list of files prior to actually commencing the backup. This list is then appended to the tape header of each tape in the backup as a list of files that ftio attempted to fit onto this tape. The last tape in the backup contains a catalog identifying where the files are in the archive set. If pathnames is not also specified, the file list is taken from standard input before the backup begins. In addition to generating file lists, the -L option implements tape checkpointing, allowing the backup to restart from a write failure on bad media.

-M

Make fully compatible with cpio. That is, do not generate or expect tape headers and change the default block size to 5120 bytes. (See the cpio Compatibility section below.)

-N datefile

Only files newer than the file specified in datefile are copied to tape.

-R

Resynchronize automatically, when ftio goes out of phase. This is useful when restoring from a multi-tape backup from tapes other than the first. By default, ftio asks the user if resynchronization is required.

-S script

Specify a command to be invoked every time a tape is completed in a multi-tape backup. The command is invoked with the following arguments: script tape_no user_name. script is the string argument script specified with the -S option. tape_no is the number of the tape required, and user_name is the user who invoked ftio. Typically, the string script specifies a shell script which is used to notify the user that a tape change is required.

-T tty

Specify alternative to /dev/tty. Normally /dev/tty is opened by ftio when terminal interaction is required.

-Z nobufs

Specify the number of blksize chunks of memory to use as buffer space between the two processes, where blksize is the size of blocks written to the tape. More chunks is usually better, but a point is reached where no improvement is gained, and performance might deteriorate as buffer space is swapped out of main memory. A default value of 16 is set for nobufs, but using 32 or 64 might improve performance if your system is not heavily loaded. Best results are obtained when backups are performed with the system in single-user mode (see shutdown(1M)).

Modifiers

The following modifiers can be used with certain options as indicated in the SYNOPSIS:

a

After files are copied to tape, reset their access time to appear as though the files were not accessed by ftio.

c

Write header information in ASCII character form, for portability.

d

When restoring files, create directories as needed.

f

Copy in all files except those that match patterns.

h

Archive the files to which symbolic links point, as if they were normal files or directories. By default, ftio archives the link itself.

m

Retain previous file modification time and ownership of file. Restoring modification time does not apply to directories that are being restored.

p

At the end of the backup, print the number of blocks transferred, the total time taken (excluding tape rewind and reel-change time), and the effective transfer rate calculated from these figures. These values are printed at the end of each tape if p is specified twice.

t

Print only a table of contents of the input. No files are created, read, or copied.

u

Copy unconditionally (by default, ftio does not replace a newer file with a older file of the same name).

v

Be verbose. Print a list of file names and tape headers. When used with the t modifier, the table of contents looks the same as the output of the ls -l (ell) command (see ls(1)).

x

Save or restore device special files. ftio uses mknod(2) to recreate these files during a restore operation. Thus, this modifier is restricted to users with appropriate privileges. This is intended for intrasystem (backup) use. Restoring device files onto a different system can be very dangerous.

A

If copying from tape (-i or -I option), print all file names found on the tape archive, noting which files have been restored. This is useful when the user restores selected files, but wants to know which (if any) files are on the tape.

If copying to tape (-o or -O option), the A modifier suppresses warning messages regarding optional access control list entries. ftio(1) does not back up optional access control list entries in a file's access control list (see acl(5)). Normally, a warning message is printed for each file that has optional access control list entries.

E

When archiving, store all files having absolute path names (that is, path names beginning with /) with path names relative to the root directory (in other words, remove the leading /). On restoration, any files in the archive that had an absolute path name before archiving are restored relative to the current directory.

L

Same as the -L option, except that the file list is left in the current directory as the file ftio.list, instead of the file named in filelist.

P

On restoration, use prealloc() to allocate disk space beforehand for the file (see prealloc(2)). This vastly improves the localization of file fragments.

When end-of-tape is reached, ftio invokes script if the -S option was specified, rewinds the current tape, then asks the user to mount the next tape.

To pass one or more metacharacters to ftio without having the shell expand them, protect them either by preceding each of them with a backslash (as in /usr\*), or enclosing them in protective single quotes (as in '/usr*').

cpio Compatibility

ftio uses the same archive format as cpio. However, by default ftio creates tape headers and uses a tape block size of 16KB. cpio by default uses 512-byte blocks. When used with the -B option, cpio uses 5120 byte blocks. To achieve full compatibility with cpio in either input or output mode, the user should specify the M modifier. ftio -oM creates a single- or multi-tape archive that has no tape headers, and, by default, the same block size as cpio -[o |i]B. An archive created by a cpio -oB command can be restored using ftio -iM. If the M modifier of ftio is combined with a -B 512 block-size specification, full compatibility with cpio -[o|i] (no -B) is achieved.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Environment Variables

LC_COLLATE determines the collating sequence used in evaluating pattern matching notation for file name generation.

LC_CTYPE determines the characters matched by character class expressions in pattern matching notation.

LC_TIME determines the format and contents of date and time strings.

LANG determines the language in which messages are displayed.

If LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, or LC_TIME is not specified in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each unspecified or empty variable. If LANG is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default of C (see lang(5)) is used instead of LANG. If any internationalization variable contains an invalid setting, ftio behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to C. See environ(5).

International Code Set Support

Single-byte character code sets are supported.

EXAMPLES

Copy the entire contents of the file system (including special files) onto tape drive /dev/rtape/tape4QIC150:

ftio -ox /dev/rtape/tape4QIC150 /

Restore all the files on /dev/rtape/tape4QIC150, relative to the current directory:

ftio -idxE /dev/rtape/tape4QIC150

List the contents of a backup set created using ftio -o. Note that use of the v modifier gives a more detailed listing, and displays the contents of tape headers.

ftio -itv /dev/rtape/tape4QIC150

Show how to use the .ftiorc file:

  • Assume a .ftiorc file exists in the user's home directory and contains the following:

    # Sample .ftiorc file. I= cdmuvEpp -B 16k -S /usr/local/bin/ftio.change O= cavEpp -Z 8 -B 16k -S /usr/local/bin/ftio.change

  • Invoke ftio with the following command line to back up the user's home directory and the operating system commands directory:

    ftio -O /dev/rtape/tape4QIC150 /home/my_home /usr/sbin

  • Specifying the -O option causes ftio to check the .ftiorc file for additional options. In this case, character headers are generated, access times are reset, a listing of the files copied are printed to standard output, all file names are copied to /dev/rtape/tape4QIC150 with path names relative to /, performance data is printed when the backup is complete (and at every tape change), and, if the backup goes beyond one media the script, /usr/local/bin/ftio.change is invoked by ftio after each media is completed.

WARNINGS

The fbackup, frecover, and ftio commands are deprecated for creating new archives. In a future HP-UX release, creation of new archives with these commands will not be supported. Support will be continued for archive retrieval. Use the standard pax command (portable archive interchange) to create archives. See pax(1).

Because of industry standards and interoperability goals, ftio does not support the archival of files larger than 2GB or files that have user/group IDs greater than 60K. Files with user/group IDs greater than 60K are archived and restored under the user/group ID of the current process.

ftio operates using System V shared memory and semaphores. The resources committed to these functions are not freed automatically by the system when the process terminates. ftio does this only when it terminates normally, or when it terminates after receiving one the following signals: SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGTERM. Any other signal is handled in the default manner described by signal(2). Note that the behavior for SIGKILL is to terminate the process without delay. Thus, if ftio receives a SIGKILL signal (as might be produced by the indiscriminate use of kill -9 (see kill(1)), system resources used for shared memory and semaphores are not returned to the system. If it becomes necessary to terminate an invocation of ftio, use kill -15 instead. Current system usage of shared memory and semaphores can be checked using the ipcs command (see ipcs(1)). Committed resources can be removed using ipcrm (see ipcrm(1)).

AUTHOR

ftio was developed by HP.

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