Restoring bru Archives

Restoring bru Archives

This section describes how to restore bru backups of filesystems and individual files.

Restoring a Filesystem With bru

Complete information on using the bru command and all its options is available in the bru(1) reference page. This command extracts the entire contents of a backup tape:

bru -x

Restoring Individual Files With bru

To restore an individual file, type:

bru -x filename

If the file already exists on the filesystem, bru compares its modification date with that of the copy on tape. If the version of the file in the filesystem is more recent than the one on tape, bru does not extract the archived file. Note that filename must exactly match what bru -t displays.

To overwrite a file no matter what the modification dates are, use the -u option. With -u, you must specify what kinds of files to overwrite:

b for block special files
c for character special files
d for directories
l for symbolic links
p for fifos (named pipes)
r for regular files

For example, to force updating of any regular files on the archive, enter:

bru -xur