[Info-vax] Backing up scattered files

[David Froble]

Rich Jordan wrote:
> An old request just came up again; we need to back up a group of
> several dozen files, scattered across multiple directories on one
> disk, into a single saveset on a schedule; quiescing the apps is
> handled beforehand.  This is on an Alpha V7.3 system, no upgrade
> possible.  The filenames and paths vary enough that even wildcarding
> won't get the input spec to a valid size.
> 
> It occurred that I could set up an a new directory and create a file
> entry for each of the desired files in it, regardless of the source
> directories (on the same disk).  Then backup [newdir]*.* to the
> saveset. The docs recommend caution though.
> 
> The path and filenames in the saveset would be 'wrong' from the point
> of view of the production system, and I still need to do one saveset
> per source disk that way, but any reason why this would not work?
> Restoring the files would also need to be tested.
> 
> I expect it might be a good idea to SET FILE/ENTER create the file
> entries, perform the backups, and SET FILE/REMOVE the entries as part
> of the same procedure so I don't leave 'unexpected' files around for
> someone who doesn't know the system to delete to 'recover space' or
> the like.
> 
> Thoughts appreciated.
> 

Kind of hard to consider this without some general idea of the number of files involved.

Unless the files to be included change often, you only need to set up the BACKUP command 
once, no matter how hugh it is.