# Backup solution for ext2fs and UFS on FreeBSD?



## execve (Dec 11, 2013)

I was forced to move my /usr to EXT2 since I needed to dual boot the system on FreeBSD and Linux for different applications and needed read/write to the home directory. What I did not realize is that my backup solution would stop working  I have been using dump/restore as a backup solution with the -L option so that I could take backups while the system is running. 

But now after moving to EXT2, I obviously cannot use dump anymore . Is there a better way to make a backup which could also be incremental in nature? I could always do a full tar backup and survive, but I would really like to have the ability to have incremental backups which I could then schedule via cron.

All the other filesystems to backup are UFS2 -- any suggestions?


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## ShelLuser (Dec 11, 2013)

First I'd give it a try anyway. I know that dump is mentioned to only support UFS and I also don't think it's going to work, but it wouldn't hurt giving it a try. The reason for me saying this is because I could imagine that something could have changed without too many people noticing it (also because the use of ext2 on FreeBSD isn't exactly very mainstream). But do note; I highly doubt it.

Alas, other than net/rsync I can't come up with a good alternative. It most certainly isn't as extensive as dump but if you combine its use with tar and its support for either gzip or bzip2 then it should be doable to create a comparable situation.

It most certainly would be able to address the incremental backup problem.


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## execve (Dec 11, 2013)

Thanks for the reply.

Of course I tried it . But it didn*'*t work.


```
# /sbin/dump -C32 -b64 -0anL -h0 -f /tmp/usr.dump /usr
  DUMP: WARNING: Cannot use -L on an unmounted filesystem.
dump: /usr: unknown file system
```

From all the alternatives I could find, I am now looking at sysutils/duplicity; I still need to study it carefully to check if there are any problems with it.


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## wblock@ (Dec 11, 2013)

dump for ext2 does exist: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?...entOS+Linux/i386+5.5&arch=default&format=html.

sysutils/e2fsprogs has dumpe2fs, maybe the same thing.


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## SirDice (Dec 12, 2013)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> dump for ext2 does exist: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?...entOS+Linux/i386+5.5&arch=default&format=html.


That's a CentOS man page 

Almost all UNIX(-like) systems have a dump/restore and they usually all only support the filesystem of the OS where it's for. So Solaris' dump can dump Solaris' UFS, Linux dump can dump EXT2 etc. I haven't looked for it but maybe the Linux subsystem of FreeBSD has dump too. Perhaps that one works.


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## execve (Dec 12, 2013)

Even before reading this, I had checked my FreeBSD system, and found dumpe2fs and got very excited, but on checking found that it is an EXT2 counterpart to dumpfs.  I'm still playing around with duplicity -- but it is never going to be possible to take a clean consistent backup and I now sorely miss the snapshot support which is available on UFS filesystems and I used to take for granted. The other dump for EXT2 I found was on http://dump.sf.net , but it didn*'*t build out of the box; I need to check that one.  The other option I am re-considering is to try the EXPERIMENTAL UFS rw support in the Linux kernel. I will keep you all posted on that.


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## wblock@ (Dec 12, 2013)

SirDice said:
			
		

> wblock@ said:
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> ...



Yes, cited as evidence that it exists.  I'd think it would run under Linux emulation, making the next step finding out if it is already in one of the linux- ports.  Which led me to dumpe2fs, but that's apparently not it.  I don't have it in /compat/linux, so it would have to be an add-on.


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