fscat_vxfs(1M)

DESCRIPTION

fscat provides an interface to a VxFS snapshot file system, similar to that provided by dd, invoked on the block or character special file of regular VxFS file systems. fscat works when executed on the special device of any VxFS file system.

On most VxFS file systems, the block or character special file for the file system provides access to a raw image of the file system to back up the file system to tape. On a snapshot file system, access to the corresponding block or character special file provides little useful information. fscat provides a stream of bytes representing the file system snapshot. This datastream is written by default to standard output, although the -f output-file option can be used to specify another destination. The datastream on standard output can be processed several ways, such as in a pipeline, or written to a tape.

By default, the output is a stream of bytes that starts at the beginning of the file system and continues to the last byte. On a snapshot file system, data is read from the file system using special ioctls on the mount point. On other VxFS file systems, data is read from the specified special file. Unless otherwise specified, data is written to standard output.

All numbers entered as option arguments can have 0 as a prefix to indicate octal, or 0x as a prefix to indicate hexadecimal. A b or B can be appended to indicate the value is in 512-byte blocks, a k or K to indicate the value is in kilobytes, an m or M to indicate the value is in megabytes, or a g or G to indicate the value is in gigabytes. An appended letter can be separated from the number by a space, in which case the letter and number should be enclosed in a set of quotes. For example:

All numbers entered as options must be in multiples of 512 bytes. For example, a value of 5713 as an offset is rejected.

SEE ALSO

dd(1), fs_vxfs(4), vxfsio(7).