scanner

The scanner program directly reads Backup media (such as backup tapes, optical disks, or files) to confirm the contents of a volume, to extract a save set from a volume, or to rebuild the Backup online indexes. You can only run this command as root. You must specify a device, which is usually one of the device names used by the Backup server. If the device is a tape drive, it must be a nonrewinding type.

If you invoke the scanner program without options (or only the -v option), the volume on the specified device is scanned and a table of contents is generated. The table of contents contains information about each save set found on the volume. By default, one line of information is written to standard output for each save set found on the volume. The information provides the client name, save set name, save time, level, size, files, ssid, and flag.

The following example describes the format and options available for the scanner program:

scanner [-Bimnpqv] [-s server] [-S ssid]

[-c client] [-N name] [-f file] [-r record]

[-t type] [-b pool] device [-x command argument-list] 

• Use the -b pool option to specify the pool to which the volume should belong. This option only applies to volumes backed up by versions of Backup that did not store pool information on the media.

• Use the -B option, without the -S option, to quickly scan the tape to the location of the start of the bootstrap save sets. When the entire tape has been scanned, the ssid and tape file location of the most recent bootstrap save set is printed to standard output.

• Use the -c client option to instruct scanner to only process save sets that came from the machine specified by client. You can specify more than one client name in the same command line. You can also use the -c option in conjunction with the -N option, but only if you also specify the -i or -x option.

• Use the -f file option to start the scan at a specific media file number. See "mminfo " for information on how to determine the media file number.

• Use the -i option to instruct scanner to rebuild both the client file indexes and media database from the volumes that are read. If you specify a single save set with the -S ssid option, only the entries from the specified save set are made to the client file index.

• Use the -m option to instruct scanner to rebuild only the media database for the volumes that are read.

• Use the -n option to run scanner without rebuilding the client file indexes or media database. This option provides a way to check the media without modifying the client file indexes or media database.

• Use the -N name option to process only save sets that match the specified name. The value of name should be a literal string. You can specify multiple names when you use this option in conjunction with the -c client option, but only if you also specify the -i or -x option.

• Use the -p option to print out information about each save set as it is processed.

• Use the -q option to display only error messages or messages of significance.

• Use the -r record option to start the scan at a specific media record number, to avoid a scan of potentially unused information. See "mminfo " for information on how to determine the media record number.

• Use the -s server option when you run the scanner program on a storage node, to specify the controlling Backup server.

• Use the -S ssid option to extract the save set specified by ssid. When you use this option in conjunction with the -i or -x options, you can specify multiple ssid values. The save sets selected are in addition to any selected by the use of the -c and -N options. If you also specify the -B option, the value of ssid is assumed to be that of the bootstrap save set; only one ssid can be specified in this case.

• Use the -x command option, with an optional list of command arguments, to specify a UNIX command to execute on each save set scanned. This option can only be specified once per scanner command line, after the device specification.

  Refer to the scanner(1m) man page for examples of scanner command usage and a list of common error messages.