UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I want to try using Ufsdump for backups .
The man pages state that the file systems should be inactive or be in the unmounted state .
But for that system should be in single User mode.
My query is that can we perform Ufsdump in run-level 3 ?
And if no should I have to reboot it in Single user mode or can i Just give command as
telinit s to get into single user

hi.

it`s no problem to make an ufs-dump to a mounted filesystem, but the meaning is this: if you want a "consistent" state of datas, no process have to write to a file you wanna back up; so when you are really shure NO process is writing to the datas you want to back up, you can run "ufs-dump" unmounted. (check if there are processes with "fuser <dir>" or freeware "lsof").

when you are not shure, go to single-user mode to "kick" all user-processes from the system. but when you wanna be really shure, umount the filesystems to backup, cause there are always systemprocesses writing to filesystems like /var.

best regards,
alex...

But will i Have to reboot to single user or giving command "telinit s" is sufficient

best boot to single user mode (init s).

cheers, alex...