ftio(1) ftio(1)
NAME [Toc] [Back]
ftio - faster tape I/O
SYNOPSIS [Toc] [Back]
ftio -o|-O [achpvxAELM] [-B blksize] [-D type] [-e extarg]
[-K comment] [-L filelist] [-N datefile] [-S script] [-T tty]
[-Z nobufs] tapedev [pathnames] [-F ignorenames]
ftio -i|-I [cdfmptuvxAEMPR] [-B blksize] [-S script] [-T tty]
[-Z nobufs] tapedev [patterns]
ftio -g [v] tapedev [patterns]
DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back]
ftio is a tool designed specifically for copying files to tape drives.
It performs faster than either cpio or tar in comparable situations
(see cpio(1) and tar(1)). ftio uses multiple processes (to read/write
the file system and to write/read the tape device), with large amounts
of memory sharing between processes as well as a large block size for
reading and writing to the tape.
ftio is compatible with cpio in that output from cpio is always
readable by ftio, and output from ftio is readable by cpio, except as
explained in the "cpio Compatibility" section, later in the manpage.
ftio must be invoked with exactly one of the following options: -o, -
O, -i, -I, or -g. The -o and -O options specify that ftio is writing
"out" from file system to tape; the -i and -I options specify that
ftio is writing "in" from tape to file system. The -o, -O, -i, and -I
options can be followed by modifiers that must appear immediately
after the option with no spaces between the option and the modifier,
as in ftio -idxE (see Modifiers section below).
tapedev specifies the name of a device special file for the tape
device to which the output is written. A device on a remote machine
can be specified in the form
machine:device_special_file
ftio creates a server process from /usr/sbin/rmt on the remote machine
to access the tape device. If /usr/sbin/rmt does not exist on the
remote system, ftio creates a server process from /etc/rmt, on the
remote machine to access the tape device.
Options [Toc] [Back]
ftio recognizes the following options:
-o Copy (out) files from the file system to tapedev,
including path name and status information. If
pathnames are specified, ftio recursively descends
pathnames looking for files, and copies those
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files to tapedev. If pathnames are not specified,
ftio reads the standard input to obtain a list of
path names to copy. ftio can copy to multiple
tapes if required. For every tape used, ftio
generates a tape header containing the current
tape volume number, machine node name and type,
operating system name, release and version numbers
(all from the uname() system call; see uname(2)),
username of the person issuing the ftio command,
the time and date the command was executed, the
number of consecutive times the current media has
been used, a comment field, and other items used
internally by ftio. The tape header is separated
from the main body of the tape archive by an endof-file
mark. The tape header can be read by
invoking cat with the device file name as the
first argument (see cat(1)). Note, character and
block device special files written with the -o
option are not transportable to other HP-UX
implementations.
-O Copy out files in the same way as ftio -ocva, when
no modifiers are used with the -O. However, if
the .ftiorc file exists in the user's home
directory, ftio opens this file and scans for
lines preceded by O=. Options defined on matching
lines are passed to ftio as if they had been
specified on the command line. See EXAMPLES
section.
-i Extract (copy into the file system) files from
tapedev, which is assumed to be a tape and the
product of a previous ftio -o operation. Only
files with names that match patterns, according to
the rules of Pattern Matching Notation (see
regexp(5)), are selected. In addition, a leading
! within a pattern indicates that only those names
that do not match the remainder of the pattern
should be selected. Multiple patterns can be
specified. If no patterns are specified, the
default for patterns is * (that is, select all
files). The extracted files are conditionally
created and copied into the current directory
tree, based upon the options described below. The
permissions of the files are those of the previous
-o operation.
-I Extract (copy into the file system) files in the
same way as for ftio -icdmv, when no modifiers are
used with the -I. However, if the .ftiorc file
exists in the user's home directory, ftio opens
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this file, and scans for lines preceded by I=.
Options defined on matching lines are passed to
ftio as if they had been specified on the command
line. See EXAMPLES section.
-g Read the file list in tapedev. If patterns is
specified, only file names that match are printed.
Note that file names are always preceded by the
volume that ftio expected the file to be on when
the file list was created; thus only the last
volume is valid in this respect.
-e extarg Specifies the handling of any extent attributes of
the file[s] to be archived. Extent attributes
cannot be preserved when archiving files with
ftio. extarg takes one of the following values:
warn Issue a warning message and archive
the file without extent attributes.
ignore A file with extent attributes will
be archived, without preserving the
extent attributes and without
issuing a warning message.
force A file with extent attributes will
not be archived and a warning
message will be issued.
If -e is not specified, the default value for
extarg is warn.
-B blksize Specify the size (in bytes) of blocks written to
tape. This number can end with k, which specifies
multiplication by 1024. The use of larger blocks
generally improves performance and tape usage.
The maximum allowable block size is limited by the
tape drive used. A default of 16384 bytes is set
because this is the maximum block size on most
Hewlett-Packard tape drives.
-D type Descend a directory recursively, only if the file
system to which it belongs is type, where type can
be hfs, vxfs, or nfs.
-F ignorenames Arguments following -F specify patterns that
should not be copied to the tape. The same rules
apply to ignorenames as to patterns; see the
earlier description for ftio -i.
-K comment Specify a comment to be placed in the ftio tape
header.
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-L filelist Create a list of the files being backed up.
filelist specifies the output file. If pathnames
is specified, perform the file search and generate
a list of files prior to actually commencing the
backup. This list is then appended to the tape
header of each tape in the backup as a list of
files that ftio attempted to fit onto this tape.
The last tape in the backup contains a catalog
identifying where the files are in the archive
set. If pathnames is not also specified, the file
list is taken from standard input before the
backup begins. In addition to generating file
lists, the -L option implements tape
checkpointing, allowing the backup to restart from
a write failure on bad media.
-M Make fully compatible with cpio. That is, do not
generate or expect tape headers and change the
default block size to 5120 bytes. (See the cpio
Compatibility section below.)
-N datefile Only files newer than the file specified in
datefile are copied to tape.
-R Resynchronize automatically, when ftio goes out of
phase. This is useful when restoring from a
multi-tape backup from tapes other than the first.
By default, ftio asks the user if
resynchronization is required.
-S script Specify a command to be invoked every time a tape
is completed in a multi-tape backup. The command
is invoked with the following arguments: script
tape_no user_name. script is the string argument
script specified with the -S option. tape_no is
the number of the tape required, and user_name is
the user who invoked ftio. Typically, the string
script specifies a shell script which is used to
notify the user that a tape change is required.
-T tty Specify alternative to /dev/tty. Normally
/dev/tty is opened by ftio when terminal
interaction is required.
-Z nobufs Specify the number of blksize chunks of memory to
use as buffer space between the two processes,
where blksize is the size of blocks written to the
tape. More chunks is usually better, but a point
is reached where no improvement is gained, and
performance might deteriorate as buffer space is
swapped out of main memory. A default value of 16
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is set for nobufs, but using 32 or 64 might
improve performance if your system is not heavily
loaded. Best results are obtained when backups
are performed with the system in single-user mode
(see shutdown(1M)).
Modifiers [Toc] [Back]
The following modifiers can be used with certain options as indicated
in the SYNOPSIS:
a After files are copied to tape, reset their access time
to appear as though the files were not accessed by ftio.
c Write header information in ASCII character form, for
portability.
d When restoring files, create directories as needed.
f Copy in all files except those that match patterns.
h Archive the files to which symbolic links point, as if
they were normal files or directories. By default, ftio
archives the link itself.
m Retain previous file modification time and ownership of
file. Restoring modification time does not apply to
directories that are being restored.
p At the end of the backup, print the number of blocks
transferred, the total time taken (excluding tape rewind
and reel-change time), and the effective transfer rate
calculated from these figures. These values are printed
at the end of each tape if p is specified twice.
t Print only a table of contents of the input. No files
are created, read, or copied.
u Copy unconditionally (by default, ftio does not replace a
newer file with a older file of the same name).
v Be verbose. Print a list of file names and tape headers.
When used with the t modifier, the table of contents
looks the same as the output of the ls -l (ell) command
(see ls(1)).
x Save or restore device special files. ftio uses mknod(2)
to recreate these files during a restore operation.
Thus, this modifier is restricted to users with
appropriate privileges. This is intended for intrasystem
(backup) use. Restoring device files onto a different
system can be very dangerous.
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A If copying from tape (-i or -I option), print all file
names found on the tape archive, noting which files have
been restored. This is useful when the user restores
selected files, but wants to know which (if any) files
are on the tape.
If copying to tape (-o or -O option), the A modifier
suppresses warning messages regarding optional access
control list entries. ftio(1) does not back up optional
access control list entries in a file's access control
list (see acl(5)). Normally, a warning message is
printed for each file that has optional access control
list entries.
E When archiving, store all files having absolute path
names (that is, path names beginning with /) with path
names relative to the root directory (in other words,
remove the leading /). On restoration, any files in the
archive that had an absolute path name before archiving
are restored relative to the current directory.
L Same as the -L option, except that the file list is left
in the current directory as the file ftio.list, instead
of the file named in filelist.
P On restoration, use prealloc() to allocate disk space
beforehand for the file (see prealloc(2)). This vastly
improves the localization of file fragments.
When end-of-tape is reached, ftio invokes script if the -S option was
specified, rewinds the current tape, then asks the user to mount the
next tape.
To pass one or more metacharacters to ftio without having the shell
expand them, protect them either by preceding each of them with a
backslash (as in /usr\*), or enclosing them in protective single
quotes (as in '/usr*').
cpio Compatibility
ftio uses the same archive format as cpio. However, by default ftio
creates tape headers and uses a tape block size of 16KB. cpio by
default uses 512-byte blocks. When used with the -B option, cpio uses
5120 byte blocks. To achieve full compatibility with cpio in either
input or output mode, the user should specify the M modifier. ftio
-oM creates a single- or multi-tape archive that has no tape headers,
and, by default, the same block size as cpio -[o|i]B. An archive
created by a cpio -oB command can be restored using ftio -iM. If the
M modifier of ftio is combined with a -B 512 block-size specification,
full compatibility with cpio -[o|i] (no -B) is achieved.
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EXTERNAL INFLUENCES [Toc] [Back]
Environment Variables
LC_COLLATE determines the collating sequence used in evaluating
pattern matching notation for file name generation.
LC_CTYPE determines the characters matched by character class
expressions in pattern matching notation.
LC_TIME determines the format and contents of date and time strings.
LANG determines the language in which messages are displayed.
If LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, or LC_TIME is not specified in the
environment or is set to the empty string, the value of LANG is used
as a default for each unspecified or empty variable. If LANG is not
specified or is set to the empty string, a default of C (see lang(5))
is used instead of LANG. If any internationalization variable
contains an invalid setting, ftio behaves as if all
internationalization variables are set to C. See environ(5).
International Code Set Support [Toc] [Back]
Single-byte character code sets are supported.
EXAMPLES [Toc] [Back]
Copy the entire contents of the file system (including special files)
onto tape drive /dev/rmt/c0t0d0BEST:
ftio -ox /dev/rmt/c0t0d0BEST /
Restore all the files on /dev/rmt/c0t0d0BEST, relative to the current
directory:
ftio -idxE /dev/rmt/c0t0d0BEST
List the contents of a backup set created using ftio -o. Note that
use of the v modifier gives a more detailed listing, and displays the
contents of tape headers.
ftio -itv /dev/rmt/c0t0d0BEST
Show how to use the .ftiorc file:
Assume a .ftiorc file exists in the user's home directory and
contains the following:
# Sample .ftiorc file.
I= cdmuvEpp -B 16k -S /usr/local/bin/ftio.change
O= cavEpp -Z 8 -B 16k -S /usr/local/bin/ftio.change
Invoke ftio with the following command line to back up the user's
home directory and the operating system commands directory:
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ftio -O /dev/rmt/c0t0d0BEST /home/my_home /usr/sbin
Specifying the -O option causes ftio to check the .ftiorc file
for additional options. In this case, character headers are
generated, access times are reset, a listing of the files copied
are printed to standard output, all file names are copied to
/dev/rmt/c0t0d0BEST with path names relative to /, performance
data is printed when the backup is complete (and at every tape
change), and, if the backup goes beyond one media the script,
/usr/local/bin/ftio.change is invoked by ftio after each media is
completed.
WARNINGS [Toc] [Back]
Because of industry standards and interoperability goals, ftio does
not support the archival of files larger than 2GB or files that have
user/group IDs greater than 60K. Files with user/group IDs greater
than 60K are archived and restored under the user/group ID of the
current process.
ftio operates using System V shared memory and semaphores. The
resources committed to these functions are not freed automatically by
the system when the process terminates. ftio does this only when it
terminates normally, or when it terminates after receiving one the
following signals: SIGHUP, SIGINT, SIGTERM. Any other signal is
handled in the default manner described by signal(2). Note that the
behavior for SIGKILL is to terminate the process without delay. Thus,
if ftio receives a SIGKILL signal (as might be produced by the
indiscriminate use of kill -9 (see kill(1)), system resources used for
shared memory and semaphores are not returned to the system. If it
becomes necessary to terminate an invocation of ftio, use kill -15
instead. Current system usage of shared memory and semaphores can be
checked using the ipcs command (see ipcs(1)). Committed resources can
be removed using ipcrm (see ipcrm(1)).
AUTHOR [Toc] [Back]
ftio was developed by HP.
SEE ALSO [Toc] [Back]
cpio(1), find(1), ipcs(1), ipcrm(1), kill(1), ls(1), rmt(1M),
mknod(2), prealloc(2), signal(2), uname(2), acl(5), environ(5),
lang(5), regexp(5), mt(7).
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