frecover(1M)

The backup media is read and the contents are loaded into the directories from which they were backed up. This option should only be used to recover a complete backup onto a clear directory or to recover an incremental backup after a full level-zero recovery (see fbackup(1M)). This is the default behavior.

The files identified by the -i, -e, and -g options (see below) are extracted or not extracted from the backup media. If a file to be extracted matches a directory whose contents have been written to the backup media, and the -h option is not specified, the directory is recursively extracted. The owner, modification time, and access control list (including optional entries, unless the -A option is specified) are recovered. If no file argument is given (including an empty graph file), all files on the backup media are extracted, unless the -h option is specified.

The index on the current volume is extracted from the backup media and is written to path.

The volume header on the current volume is extracted from the backup media and is written to path. The following fields from the header are extracted in the format label:value with one pair per line.

An interrupted full recovery can be continued using this option. frecover uses the information in file path to continue the recovery from where it was interrupted. The only command line option used by frecover with this option is -f. The values in path override all other options to frecover. Note also that only full recoveries are restarted with this option, because no history of include or exclude lists is stored in the restart file. If a partial recovery (i.e., using the -x option) is interrupted then restarted with this option, frecover continues recovering where the partial recovery left off, but restores all files on the backup media beyond this point.

config specifies the name of a configuration file to be used to alter the behavior of frecover. The configuration file allows the user to specify the action to be taken on all errors, the maximum number of attempts at resynchronizing on media errors (-S option), and the action to be taken on media errors. Each entry of a configuration file consists of an action identifier followed by a separator followed by the specified action. Valid action identifiers are error, chgvol, and sync. Separators can be either tabs or spaces. In the following sample configuration file, each time an error is encountered, the script /var/adm/fbackupfiles/frecovererror is executed. The script /var/adm/fbackupfiles/frecoverchgvol is executed each time the backup media is to be changed. The maximum number of resynchronization attempts is five.

path is interpreted as a graph to be excluded from the recovery. There is no limit on how many times the -e option can be specified.

device identifies the backup device to be used instead of the default /dev/rmt/0m or /dev/rtape/tape1_BEST on systems where legacy Device Special Files (DSF) is disabled. If device is -, frecover reads from standard input. Thus fbackup and frecover can be used in a pipeline to backup and recover a file system as follows:

If more than one output file is specified, frecover uses each one successively and then repeats in a cyclical pattern. Patterns can be used in the device name in a way similar to file name expansion as done by sh. The expansion of the pattern results in all matching names being in the list of devices used. A device on the remote machine can be specified in the form machine:device. frecover creates a server process, /usr/sbin/rmt, on the remote machine to access the tape device. If /usr/sbin/rmt does not exist on the remote system, frecover creates a server process from /etc/rmt on the remote machine to access the tape device. The pattern matching capability does not apply to remote devices. Only raw magnetic tapes can be remote devices. The fast search marks capability is not used when accessing remote DDS devices.

graph defines a graph file. Graph files are text files and contain the list of file names (graphs) to be recovered or skipped. Files are recovered using the -i option; so, for example, if the user wants to recover all of /usr, the graph file contains one entry:

It is also possible to skip files by using the -e option. For example, if a user wants to recover all of /usr except for the subgraph /usr/lib, the graph file contains two entries:

If the graph file is missing, frecover exits with an error message. An empty graph file results in recovering all files on the media.

Extract the actual directory, rather than the files that it references. This prevents hierarchical restoration of complete subtrees from the backup media.

path is interpreted as a graph to be included in the recovery. There is no limit on how many times the -i option can be specified.

Print a message each time a file marker is encountered. Using this option, frecover prints a message each time either a DDS fast search mark, a filemark (EOF), or a checkpoint record is read. Although useful primarily for troubleshooting, these messages can also be used to reassure the user that the backup is progressing during long, and otherwise silent, periods during the recovery.

Recover the file from the backup media irrespective of age. Normally frecover does not overwrite an existing file with an older version of the file.

Attempt to optimize disk usage by not writing null blocks of data to sparse files.

Normally frecover works silently. Verbose option. Displays the file type and name of each file processed.

Automatically answer yes to any inquiries.

Do not recover any optional entries in access control lists (ACLs). Normally, all access control information, including optional ACL entries, is recovered. This option drops any optional entries and sets the permissions of the recovered file to the permissions of the backed up file. Use this option when recovering files backed up from a system with ACLs on a system where ACLs are not present (see acl(5)).

Recover files without recovering leading directories. For example, this option would be used if a user wants to recover /usr/bin/vi, /usr/bin/sh, and /etc/passwd to a local directory without creating each of the graph structures.

Specifies the handling of any extent attributes backed up by fbackup. The -E option takes the following keywords as arguments:

(no recovery) Prevent frecover from actually recovering any files onto disk, but read the backup as if it was, in fact, recovering the data from the backup, producing the same output that it would on a normal recovery. This option is useful for verifying backup media contents in terms of validity (block checksum errors are reported), and contents (a listing of files can be produced by using the -N and -v options together). Note that the listing of files produced with the -N and -v options requires the reading of the entire backup, but is therefore a more accurate reflection of the backup's contents than the index stored at the beginning of the backup (which was created at the start of the backup session, and is not changed during the course of the backup).

Use the effective uid and gid for the owner and group of the recovered file instead of the values on the backup media.

frecover does not ask whether it should abort the recovery if it gets a media error. It tries to skip the bad block or blocks and continue. Residual or lost data is written to the file named by skip. The user can then edit this file and recover otherwise irretrievable data.

Recover files relative to the current working directory. Normally frecover recovers files to their absolute path name.

Default backup device.

Default backup device if legacy DSF is disabled.