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



NAME
       db5.3_archive - Find unused log files for archiving purposes

SYNOPSIS
       db5.3_archive [-adlsVv] [-h home] [-P password]

DESCRIPTION
       The db5.3_archive utility writes the pathnames of log files that are no longer in use (for
       example, no longer involved in active transactions), to the standard output, one  pathname
       per  line.   These  log files should be written to backup media to provide for recovery in
       the case of catastrophic failure (which also requires a snapshot of the  database  files),
       but they may then be deleted from the system to reclaim disk space.

OPTIONS
       -a     Write all pathnames as absolute pathnames, instead of relative to the database home
              directories.

       -d     Remove log files that are no longer needed; no filenames  are  written.   Automatic
              log file removal is likely to make catastrophic recovery impossible.

       -h     Specify  a  home  directory  for  the database environment; by default, the current
              working directory is used.

       -l     Write out the pathnames of all the database log files,  whether  or  not  they  are
              involved in active transactions.

       -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
              systems  where unprivileged users can see command-line arguments or where utilities
              are not able to overwrite the memory containing the command-line arguments.

       -s     Write the pathnames of all the database files that need to be archived in order  to
              recover  the database from catastrophic failure.  If any of the database files have
              not been accessed during the lifetime of the current log files, db5.3_archive  will
              not include them in this output.

              It  is  possible  that  some  of  the files to which the log refers have since been
              deleted from the system.  In this  case,  db5.3_archive  will  ignore  them.   When
              db5.3_recover is run, any files to which the log refers that are not present during
              recovery are assumed to have been deleted and will not be recovered.

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

       -v     Run in verbose mode, listing the checkpoints in the log files as they are reviewed.

       Log cursor handles (returned by the DB_ENV->log_cursor method) may have open file descrip‐
       tors  for  log files in the database environment.  Also, the Berkeley DB interfaces to the
       database environment logging subsystem (for example,  DB_ENV->log_put  and  DB_TXN->abort)
       may allocate log cursors and have open file descriptors for log files as well.  On operat‐
       ing systems where filesystem related system calls (for example, rename and unlink on  Win‐
       dows/NT) can fail if a process has an open file descriptor for the affected file, attempt‐
       ing to move or remove the log files listed by db5.3_archive may  fail.   All  Berkeley  DB
       internal  use  of log cursors operates on active log files only and furthermore, is short-
       lived in nature.  So, an application seeing such a failure should be restructured to close
       any  open log cursors it may have, and otherwise to retry the operation until it succeeds.
       (Although the latter is not likely to be necessary; it is hard to imagine a reason to move
       or rename a log file in which transactions are being logged or aborted.)

       The  db5.3_archive 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 Berke‐
       ley DB environment, db5.3_archive should always be given the chance  to  detach  from  the
       environment  and  exit  gracefully.   To  cause  db5.3_archive  to release all environment
       resources and exit cleanly, send it an interrupt signal (SIGINT).

       The DB_ENV->log_archive method is the underlying method used by the db5.3_archive utility.
       See the db5.3_archive utility source code for an example of using DB_ENV->log_archive in a
       IEEE/ANSI Std 1003.1 (POSIX) environment.

       The db5.3_archive 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
       Sleepycat  Software, Inc. This manual page was created based on the HTML documentation for
       db_archive from Sleepycat, by Thijs Kinkhorst <thijs AT kinkhorst.com>, for the Debian system
       (but may be used by others).



                                         28 January 2005                         DB5.3_ARCHIVE(1)