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Eric Martin | 11 May 2004 03:40
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Dump v.s. Star

At my work, I'm trying to make a case to replace routine backups on Linux hosts
now running dump, with star.  Currently dump is the preferred method of my
supervisor, becuase it's low-level (fast), and a non-root user, like some
random, non-priviledged account for example, can backup entire filesystems. 
With tar--or star--is there a way to back up an entire partition, not as root,
and without imposing default ACL's for the entire partition?  I guess I need to
know how to make the argument for star v.s. dump, if there is one.  Thanks,

M.E.

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Joerg Schilling | 11 May 2004 12:05
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Re: Dump v.s. Star

>From: Eric Martin <emm <at> ams.org>

>At my work, I'm trying to make a case to replace routine backups on Linux hosts
>now running dump, with star.  Currently dump is the preferred method of my
>supervisor, becuase it's low-level (fast), and a non-root user, like some

Well, star is not low level and it is much faster than ufsdump and friends.

>random, non-priviledged account for example, can backup entire filesystems. 
>With tar--or star--is there a way to back up an entire partition, not as root,
>and without imposing default ACL's for the entire partition?  I guess I need to
>know how to make the argument for star v.s. dump, if there is one.  Thanks,

Wou are talking about a general OS design problem. Sorry, but the fact that
UNIX designers failed to create a decent security framework for backups and 
instead just did write a quick and ugly solution that just breaks all layering
is not the problem of star.

OS designers just need to implemen a _clean_ way of what ufsdump does by 
breaking layering:

	There needs to be a way to tell the OS: 

	"Hey, I am a backup application run by a user that has the permissions
	to do backups. Please grant me read only access to all files for
	a backup."

Here is my proposal for the problem:

/*--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
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Joerg Schilling | 14 May 2004 14:31
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Re: Dump v.s. Star

Hi all,

just an information about the request for being able to do backups
what contain all files without the need for being root.

The latest Solaris 10 edition allows to configure RBAC in a way that it
grants a specific program (e.g. star) if run bu a specific user the right
to read any file.

Jörg

--

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David Kewley | 28 May 2004 03:30
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copy diff dir1 dir2

I have two test directory trees, testdir and testdir2:

> find
.
./testdir
./testdir/subdir1
./testdir/subdir1/junk1
./testdir/subdir1/junk2
./testdir/subdir2
./testdir/subdir2/junk3
./testdir/subdir2/junk4
./testdir/junk5
./testdir/junk6
./testdir2
./testdir2/subdir1
./testdir2/subdir1/junk2
./testdir2/subdir2
./testdir2/subdir2/junk3
./testdir2/subdir2/junk4
./testdir2/junk5
./testdir2/junk6

The only difference between testdir and testdir2 is that
testdir2/subdir1/junk1 doesn't exist.  I'm trying to use star to
find that difference, but I get errors:

> star -copy -diff -vv ./testdir2 ./testdir
diffopts=perm,type,nlink,uid,gid,uname,gname,size,data,rdev,hardlink,symlink,sparse,mtime,ctime,dir,acl,xattr,fflags
Release     star 1.5a40 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
Archtype    exustar
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Joerg Schilling | 28 May 2004 16:19
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Re: copy diff dir1 dir2

>From: David Kewley <kewley <at> gps.caltech.edu>

>I have two test directory trees, testdir and testdir2:

>> find
>.
>./testdir
>./testdir/subdir1
>./testdir/subdir1/junk1
>./testdir/subdir1/junk2
>./testdir/subdir2
>./testdir/subdir2/junk3
>./testdir/subdir2/junk4
>./testdir/junk5
>./testdir/junk6
>./testdir2
>./testdir2/subdir1
>./testdir2/subdir1/junk2
>./testdir2/subdir2
>./testdir2/subdir2/junk3
>./testdir2/subdir2/junk4
>./testdir2/junk5
>./testdir2/junk6

>The only difference between testdir and testdir2 is that
>testdir2/subdir1/junk1 doesn't exist.  I'm trying to use star to
>find that difference, but I get errors:

>> star -copy -diff -vv ./testdir2 ./testdir
>diffopts=perm,type,nlink,uid,gid,uname,gname,size,data,rdev,hardlink,symlink,sparse,mtime,ctime,dir,acl,xattr,fflags
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David Kewley | 28 May 2004 17:49
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Re: copy diff dir1 dir2

Joerg Schilling wrote on Friday 28 May 2004 07:19:
> From: David Kewley <kewley <at> gps.caltech.edu>
> 
> >I have two test directory trees, testdir and testdir2:

<snip>

> >The only difference between testdir and testdir2 is that
> >testdir2/subdir1/junk1 doesn't exist.  I'm trying to use star to
> >find that difference, but I get errors:
>
> >> star -copy -diff -vv ./testdir2 ./testdir
> 
>diffopts=perm,type,nlink,uid,gid,uname,gname,size,data,rdev,hardlink,symlink,sparse,mtime,ctime,dir,acl,xattr,fflags
> >Release     star 1.5a40 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu)
> >Archtype    exustar
> >Dumpdate    1085707585.435069000 (Thu May 27 18:26:25 2004)
> >Volno       1
> >Blocksize   20
> >star: No such file or directory. Cannot stat 'testdir2/'.

<snip>

> This is as expected... it would happen exactly the same if you would
> use two star instances from the command line.
> 
> Please read the man page of star.
> 
> Until the examples from the announcement files appear in the EXAMPLES
> section, read the AN-* files for more help.
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Eric Martin | 28 May 2004 21:36
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Forward Compatibility?

I know this is asking the improbable, but here goes...

I'm wondering whether I can restore a star archive created with version 
1.5a40 using version 1.5a08, when the archive was created using the 
level=X flag.  I've tested this, and no surprise the a08 version can't 
restore the a40 version because thge level support wasn't implemented in 
a08.  The reason I'm even trying this is we want to use the latest 
version with "true incremental dump" support, but in case we lose the 
filesystem, be able to restore using the version of star (a08) that 
comes on the RH Enterprise 3.0 CD.  If there's no way for a08 to 
recognize the additional header information, then I'll most likely just 
get by without using levels.  Cheers,

Eric
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David Kewley | 28 May 2004 21:41
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Re: copy diff dir1 dir2

OK, I found what works.

Using the same example directory tree as in my first email, this does 
not work:

  star -copy -diff -vv ./testdir ./testdir2

I believe it fails because "testdir/" is the first part of the path of 
every file in the create-side, but "testdir2/" is the first part of the 
path of every file in the diff-side.  But the error messages (even with 
-debug) do not help much, at least not for a person who is not used to 
dealing with the subtleties of using directory names in this context.

This does work:

  cd testdir2 ; star -copy -diff -vv -C ../testdir . .

because now the paths in the two sides have the same first parts.

This works also (different directories being compared):

  cd testdir2 ; star -copy -diff -vv -C ../testdir subdir1 .

It's a little weird that in the first example the last two arguments are 
the same, but not in the second example.  This is illustrated further 
by the fact that the following DOES NOT WORK (only the last argument is 
changed from the preceding example):

  cd testdir2 ; star -copy -diff -vv -C ../testdir subdir1 subdir1
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