dump(8) file format

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 30 Jan 2015 20:23:51 +0100, Moritz Wilhelmy wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Just wondering: Is there any documentation regarding the format of FFS
> dumps generated by dump(8)?

The source code provides documentation. Have a look
at the contents of /usr/src/sbin/dump as well as
of /usr/src/sbin/restore. You could say that the
file /usr/src/sbin/restore/restore.h has a "file
format description" of dump files.



> I'd be interested in poking around in my disk dumps with a perl script
> or something. --- Perhaps one could even write a fuse file system that 
> can union-mount multiple layers of FFS dumps read-only?

That sounds a bit complicated, as the files are,
if I remember correctly, sequencial files, so you'd
probably have to "preprocess" the whole file. Note
that it's not a file archive, but a file _system_
dump. But maybe obtaining "header informations" is
sufficient for some imaginable purposes?


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...