Re: tape eject

[Nigel Wade <nmw ion le ac uk>]

Andrew Robinson wrote:
> At 08:24 AM 4/30/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>
> > any reason why the command needs to be at the end of the backup line? or
> > can it be appended to the end of the   crontab    file?
>
>
> Well, you want it at the end of the backup file so the tape isn't 
> ejected before the backup is made. Ok, ok, I'll stop being silly. I can 
> think of two reasons to append it to the crontab line, neither hard and 
> fast. I do it because my backup command is a compiled program that I 
> cannot edit. Also, ejecting the tape is a separate operation from making 
> the backup. The semicolon makes this apparent. Bottom line, if you want 
> in your script, go right ahead.
>
> > but now that I have your interest .......
> > I would like to keep a record of all files which are backed up.
> > I can produce a list of files which are on the tape to the screen but not
> > get them sent to a file.
> > Now what I would LOVE to do is have a changing filename eg by adding the
> > date (yymmdd or just mmdd would do) to the backup filename
>
>
> You can use the date command to build a filename. Say something like
>
> backuplogname=backup_$(date +"%y%m%d")
> tar -cvf /dev/sd0 /usr > $backuplogname 2>&1
>
> By putting the year first in the backup log name, the files will sort in 
> chronological order with the ls command.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Andrew

Just an additional note to this. If your backup mechanism doesn't have any 
automatic verification procedure then reading back the tape contents *after* 
the backup to get the list of files backed up is a good way to verify that 
the tape is readable.


--
Nigel Wade, System Administrator, Space Plasma Physics Group,
            University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
E-mail :    nmw ion le ac uk
Phone :     +44 (0)116 2523548, Fax : +44 (0)116 2523555