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Archive Usage:

 

Utility for archiving files and directories to the IBM Distributed Storage Manager.

COMMAND SUMMARY:
archive <file | directory> [-nosubdirs] [-description="description"]
archive -query [file | directory] [-nosubdirs] [-node=NODE] [-description="description"]
archive -delete <file | directory> [-rmsubdirs] [-node=NODE] [-description="description"]
archive -retrieve <file | directory> [destination] [-nosubdirs] [-node=NODE] [-description="description"]
archive -access -add <file | directory> username [-nosubdirs] [-node=NODE]
archive -access [-del] [-node=NODE]
DESCRIPTION

Archive is a front end to the IBM adsm software. It provides a simplified interface to archive and restoration operations. It also tries to hide some of the complexities and irregularities of dsm.

The simplest operation is to archive a specific file or directory. The file or directory will be archived to tape and tagged with a datestamp. By default, all subdirectories will also be backed up if a directory is specified. By default, archived files will be stored for 3 years. The

The file or directory can be restored by using the -retrieve switch. If multiple copies of a file exist in the archive, the desired one can be restored by using the -description flag. The user will be prompted if trying to restore over an existing file. To restore to a location other than the path originally archived, a destination directory or file can be used.

A default description will be added to all files and directories which are archived. This consists of the creation time and date of the form:

"USERNAME:Archive Date: MM/DD/YYYY Time: HH:MM:SS"

It is advisable to provide your own unique descriptions. Remember to enclose the description in quotes.

The -query option will display all the files and directories already archived by the user. If a file or directory isn't provided, the user will be prompted for the filesystem from which query should return results. A response such as "/usr" should be entered from the provided listing  as opposed to a number.

The -delete option will permanently remove archived files and directories. Remember that the default is to remove all subdirectories too. You will be prompted before any final deletion is performed.

The -access option allows you to grant, view, and delete permissions for other users to retrieve your files. Unfortunately, it is inflexible in that you cannot specify groups of users. You must specify one user at a time using the -add flag. Used alone, it displays the existing access permissions. The -del flag will allow the user to choose which permission sets to delete.

[-node=NODE]:

The optional -node=NODE option can be used to access archives from decommissioned hosts. Currently these hosts are LEGO and HAL. When using the -node=NODE option with archive, the command is executed as if it were running on said NODE. This allows someone for example to access an old archive on host1 from host2 by using the -node=host1 option. One can also set up and delete access permissions on a remote hosts filespace. For example, if user1 wanted to give user2 access to something archived on host1 while logged into host2, user1 would do the following from host2:

archive -access -add [file|directory] user2 -node=host1 
SYMLINKS:

Older versions of the software were not too friendly in handling symlinks. This has changed, and now symlinks will be archived without any special handling. The symlink itself will be archived rather than the file it links to.

Examples:

$ archive /usr1/scv/ejones/mysrc See results...
$ archive -query See results...
$ archive -retrieve /usr1/scv/ejones/mysrc/file3 /tmp See results...
$ archive -delete /usr1/scv/ejones/mysrc See results...


Bugs:

Script tries to be smart and tacks on trailing slash to directories if needed. If the user has an existing file or directory with the same name as one of the opposite type in the archive, retrieve, query and delete may act strangely.

We also inherit some from the dsm software:
-Interrupting the archiving (Ctrl-C) causes a hang. The dsm software never returns.
-Empty subdirectories remain in the archive until the parent is deleted.

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OIT | CCS | November 2, 2007  
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