Why idle backups?? (was Re: Looking for shell script for backup on BSD 4.3)

[Ed McGuire]

In article <32749 at sparkyfs.istc.sri.com> zwicky at quetzalcoatl.erg.sri.com.UUCP (Elizabeth Zwicky) writes:
> The danger of doing active dumps is *NOT* theoretical; I have seen
> missing files more than once, and completely mangled tapes at least
> once. It may be acceptable to you if you do frequent dumps at
> low-usage times

We do that.  Now is there any easy way to validate an active dump?
I have in mind something on the order of attempting an interactive
restore of the last file dumped.  I'd be curious to see just what
fraction of our dumps are invalid due to a change in the file system
during the dump.  If I find that there are too many, then I will
probably go to single-user mode dumps.
-- 
peace.  -- Ed
"Vote.  Because it's the Right Thing."