man > db5.3_hotbackup(1)

DB5.3_HOTBACKUP(1)                     General Commands Manual                    DB5.3_HOTBACKUP(1)

NAME
       db5.3_hotbackup - Create "hot backup" or "hot failover" snapshots

SYNOPSIS
       db5.3_hotbackup [-cDuVv] [-d data_dir ...] [-h home] [-l log_dir] [-P password] -b backup_dir

DESCRIPTION
       The  db5.3_hotbackup  utility creates "hot backup" or "hot failover" snapshots of Berkeley DB
       database environments.

       The db5.3_hotbackup utility performs the following steps:

              1.     If the -c option is specified, checkpoint the source home database environment,
                     and remove any unnecessary log files.

              2.     If the target directory for the backup does not exist, it is created with  mode
                     read-write-execute for the owner.

                     If  the target directory for the backup does exist and the -u option was speci‐
                     fied, all log files in the target directory are removed; if the -u  option  was
                     not specified, all files in the target directory are removed.

              3.     If  the  -u  option was not specified, copy application-specific files found in
                     the database environment home directory, or any directory specified  using  the
                     -d option, into the target directory for the backup.

              4.     Copy all log files found in the directory specified by the -l option (or in the
                     database  environment  home directory, if no -l option was specified), into the
                     target directory for the backup.

              5.     Perform catastrophic recovery on the hot backup.

              6.     Remove any unnecessary log files from the hot backup.

       The db5.3_hotbackup utility does not resolve pending transactions that are  in  the  prepared
       state. Applications that use DB_TXN->prepare should specify DB_RECOVER_FATAL when opening the
       environment,  and  run  DB_ENV->txn_recover to resolve any pending transactions, when failing
       over to the hot backup.

OPTIONS
       -b     Specify the target directory for the backup.

       -c     Before performing the snapshot, checkpoint the source database environment and  remove
              any  log files that are no longer required in that environment.  To avoid making cata‐
              strophic failure impossible, log  file  removal  must  be  integrated  with  log  file
              archival.

       -d     Specify  one  or more source directories that contain databases; if none is specified,
              the database environment home directory will be searched for database files.  As data‐
              base files are copied into a single backup directory, files named the same, stored  in
              different  source  directories, could overwrite each other when copied into the backup
              directory.

       -h     Specify the source directory for the backup, that is, the  database  environment  home
              directory.

       -l     Specify a source directory that contains log files; if none is specified, the database
              environment home directory will be searched for log files.

       -P     Specify  an  environment  password.  Although Berkeley DB utilities overwrite password
              strings as soon as possible, be aware there may be a window of vulnerability  on  sys‐
              tems  where  unprivileged  users can see command-line arguments or where utilities are
              not able to overwrite the memory containing the command-line arguments.

       -u     Update a pre-existing hot backup snapshot by copying in new log files.  If the -u  op‐
              tion is specified, no databases will be copied into the target directory.

       -V     Write the library version number to the standard output, and exit.

       -v     Run in verbose mode, listing operations as they are done.

       -D     Use  the data directories listed in the DB_CONFIG configuration file in the source di‐
              rectory.   This option has three effects: First, if they do  not  already  exist,  the
              specified data directories will be created relative to the target directory (with mode
              read-write-execute  owner).  Second,  all files in the source data directories will be
              copied to the target data directories.  If the DB_CONFIG file specifies  one  or  more
              absolute  pathnames, files in those source directories will be copied to the top-level
              target directory. Third, the DB_CONFIG configuration file  will  be  copied  from  the
              +source  directory to the target directory, and subsequently used for configuration if
              recovery is run in the target directory.

       Care should be taken with the -D option and data directories which are named relative to  the
       source  directory  but  are  not subdirectories (that is, the name includes the element "..")
       Specifically, the constructed target directory names must be meaningful and distinct from the
       source directory names, otherwise running recovery in the target directory might corrupt  the
       source data files.

       It  is  an  error to use absolute pathnames for data directories or the log directory in this
       mode, as the DB_CONFIG configuration file copied into the target directory would  then  point
       at the source directories and running recovery would corrupt the source data files.

       The  db5.3_hotbackup  utility uses a Berkeley DB environment (as described for the -h option,
       the environment variable DB_HOME, or because the utility was run in a directory containing  a
       Berkeley  DB environment).  In order to avoid environment corruption when using a Berkeley DB
       environment, db5.3_hotbackup should always be given the chance to detach from the environment
       and exit gracefully.  To cause db5.3_hotbackup to release all environment resources and  exit
       cleanly, send it an interrupt signal (SIGINT).

       The db5.3_hotbackup utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

ENVIRONMENT
       DB_HOME
              If  the  -h option is not specified and the environment variable DB_HOME is set, it is
              used as the path of the database home, as described in DB_ENV->open.

AUTHORS
       Oracle Corporation. This manual page was created based on the HTML documentation for  db_hot‐
       backup  from  Sleepycat, by Thijs Kinkhorst <thijs AT kinkhorst.com>, for the Debian system (but
       may be used by others).

                                           28 January 2005                        DB5.3_HOTBACKUP(1)