backup files to disk - with fbackup?

[perfman_1]

I would like to backup files/folders to a disk through fbackup. how do you do it?

Also, i want to know if fbackup will handle open files? if not, is there a better faster solution? want to stay free, ofcourse. :-)

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Fbackup can output to stdout so, yes, you can redirect the output to a file. Man fbackup will tell you everything you need to know. UNIX doesn't care about how many processes have a file open so fbackup will certainly backup an open file. Now, whether or not this backup is useful is another story. For example, backing up the files which comprise a running database may be perfectly accurate (in that the files are exactly copied) but also perfectly useless (in that you couldn't restore a functional database with the copies).

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi:

Specify the name of your disk file in lieu of a tape device -- '... -f /var/tmp/farchive'.

Yes, 'fbackup' can handle open files. A checksum is calculated as the backup begins and compared to that obtained after the file has been copied. If they differ, the file is copied again up through 'maxretries'. Should a static image of the file not be able to be taken, the file is marked "bad" in the archive and cannot be recovered from it. See the 'fbackup' manpages for more information.

Regards!

...JRF...