NAME

       voldump - Dump an AFS volume without using the Volume Server

SYNOPSIS

       voldump -part <partition> -volumeid <volume id>
           [-file <dump file>] [-time <dump from time>]
           [-pad-errors] [-verbose] [-help]

       voldump -p <partition> -vo <volume id>
           [-f <dump file>] [-time <dump from time>]
           [-ve] [-h]

DESCRIPTION

       voldump dumps an AFS volume in the format used by vos dump without using the Volume Server.  It must be
       run on the file server machine and usually must be run as the superuser "root" to have permissions to
       read the file server data.  It's primary use is to recover data from a file server machine where the
       Volume Server cannot be started for some reason.

       The dump output will go to standard output, or to a file if -file is specified.  vos restore can be used
       to load the resulting dump into a new AFS volume.  voldump always does a full dump.

CAUTIONS

       Normally, use vos dump instead of this command.  voldump is a tool of last resort to try to extract data
       from the raw data structures stored on the file server machine and is not as regularly tested or used as
       the normal vos dump implementation.

       If the AFS volume being dumped changes while voldump is running, the results may be inconsistent.  If the
       File Server and Volume Server are running, stop them with bos shutdown or a similar method before running
       this command.

OPTIONS

       -part <partition>
           Names  the  partition  on which the volume to be dumped is located.  voldump does not take the normal
           full range of ways of specifying a partition.  Instead, partition must  be  either  a  single  letter
           between  "a"  and  "z", corresponding to /vicepa through /vicepz, or the full path to the file server
           partition.  "aa" is not recognized; use /vicepaa instead.

       -volumeid <volume id>
           Specifies the ID of the volume to dump.  The volume must be specified by numeric ID, not by name.

       -file <dump file>
           Specifies the output file for the dump.  If this option is not given, the volume will  be  dumped  to
           standard output.

       -time <dump from time>
           Specifies  whether  the  dump  is  full  or incremental. Omit this argument to create a full dump, or
           provide one of the valid values listed in vos_dump(1).

       -pad-errors
           When reading vnode data from disk, if voldump encounters an I/O error or unexpected EOF,  by  default
           voldump  will  print  an  error  and  exit.  If  -pad-errors  is  given, instead voldump will pad the
           unreadable region with NUL bytes, and continue with the dump.

           This option may be useful when trying to extract data from  volumes  where  the  underlying  disk  is
           failing,  or the volume data is corrupted. Data may be missing from files in the volume in such cases
           (replaced by NUL bytes), but at least some data may be extracted.

       -verbose
           Asks for a verbose trace of the dump process.  This trace information will be sent to standard error.

       -help
           Prints the online help for this command. All other valid options are ignored.

EXAMPLES

       The following command dumps the volume 1936964939 on the /vicepb partition to the file /tmp/volume.dump:

           % voldump -part /vicepb -volumeid 1936964939 -file /tmp/volume.dump

PRIVILEGE REQUIRED

       The issuer must have read access to the file server data stored in  the  specified  partition.   Usually,
       this means that the issuer must be the local superuser "root" on the file server machine.

SEE ALSO

       bos_shutdown(8), restorevol(1), volserver(8), vos_dump(1), vos_restore(1)

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright 2005 Russ Allbery <rra@stanford.edu>

       This  documentation  is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0.  This man page was written by Russ
       Allbery for OpenAFS.

OpenAFS                                            2025-05-19                                         VOLDUMP(8)