On Mon, Jun 26, 2006 at 03:56:53PM -0600, Jeff Ross wrote:
> Can someone please point me in the right direction (with a clue by four)
> on how to do this?
>
> (from the dump manpage)
>
> If dump receives a SIGINFO signal (see the ``status'' argument of
> stty(1)) whilst a backup is in progress, statistics on the amount com-
> pleted, current transfer rate, and estimated finished time, will be writ-
> ten to the standard error output.
>
> Here's what I'm trying to do.
>
> I have about 30GB of compressed windows crap from the samba server that I
> need to backup. Until I can get the users here to clean some of this
> cruft out, I'm doing level 0 dumps daily. This needs two DDS-4 tapes. If
> I cron this, the job always fails because there is no one here to change
> the tape in the wee hours of the morning.
>
> I can start the job during the day from a console, and when I do, I have
> to sort of monitor it to see when the first tape has been filled. When
> dump hits the end of the tape, it will wait until it gets a "yes" or "no"
> answer to the question about whether or not volume 2 is mounted. I can't
> just hit the eject button on the tape drive, though, I have to switch to
> another console, sudo mt rewind, and an eject /de/st0, then load the
> second tape, and switch back to the console with the job and enter "yes".
sudo mt rewoffl should suffice and is shorter, but that's beside the
point.
> I know there are improvements to this most primitive setup. I could do a
> level 0 and then daily level 1s and then the full dump should easily fit
> on one tape. But the base level is changing pretty rapidly, so if
> possible, I'd like to stick to level 0s and write a shell script that can
> monitor dump's progress. If it's possible to determine from the SIGINFO
> information that dump is waiting for a tape, I'l like to be able to issue
> the rewind and eject commands, and when that's done shoot an e-mail to me
> to remind to change the tape.
>
> And there I'm stuck. So, just how the heck do I get that SIGINFO
> information from dump?
I'd just listen on stdout. I haven't tested this, but how about a simple
shell/Perl/... script that waits for a line matching, say, /new tape/?
It can then run some commands, like the above.
Joachim
