CPIO Backup Return Codes

[Jean-Pierre Radley]

Michael B typed (on Fri, Jul 18, 2003 at 02:09:12PM -0700):
| Im assuming there is some significance to the return codes that CPIO
| backup generates, however I am not sure what each code means. Is there
| a list that explains the codes in human language?

Its man page says that 0 is success, anything else is failure.
Maybe, maybe, the error codes are actually systgem error codes; if so,
(and unless you and I caould read the source code, we can't know one way
or the other), then 'man S Intro' decodes them to some extent.

--
JP

[Stephen M. Dunn]

In article <9f062509.0307181309.26642e49@posting.google.com > [email]mbitton@cs-dist.com[/email] (Michael B) writes:
$Im assuming there is some significance to the return codes that CPIO
$backup generates, however I am not sure what each code means. Is there
$a list that explains the codes in human language?

The man page, at least on 5.0.5, simply says 0 is success, >0 is
failure.

What codes do you get back? Do any of them match standard error
codes from errno.h?
--
Stephen M. Dunn <stephen@stevedunn.ca>

>>>----------------> [url]http://www.stevedunn.ca/[/url] <----------------<<<

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[John DuBois]

In article <9f062509.0307181309.26642e49@posting.google.com >,
Michael B <mbitton@cs-dist.com> wrote:

>Im assuming there is some significance to the return codes that CPIO
>backup generates, however I am not sure what each code means. Is there
>a list that explains the codes in human language?

A cursory search produces:

1 - bad argument, inode table full, error reading file list, out of memory,
IO error, etc.
2 - various invokation syntax & bad argument errors, input archive corrupted,
IO error, etc.
4 - User hit 'q' whence asked to select next media
255 - usage error

Other than the above, the exit status is 0 unless you are extracting an
archive, in which case it is equal to the number of archive read IO errors that
occurred. This will only ever be 0 or 1 unless you give -k, in which case it
may be higher.

John
--
John DuBois [email]spcecdt@armory.com[/email] KC6QKZ/AE [url]http://www.armory.com/~spcecdt/[/url]

[Michael B]

> A cursory search produces:

>
> 1 - bad argument, inode table full, error reading file list, out of memory,
> IO error, etc.
> 2 - various invokation syntax & bad argument errors, input archive corrupted,
> IO error, etc.
> 4 - User hit 'q' whence asked to select next media
> 255 - usage error
>
> Other than the above, the exit status is 0 unless you are extracting an
> archive, in which case it is equal to the number of archive read IO errors that
> occurred. This will only ever be 0 or 1 unless you give -k, in which case it
> may be higher.
>
> John

Thanks for the feedback - sometimes I get a 1, sometimes a 4. Most of
the time it returns a 0, but lately I have started seeing the 1 and 4
return codes. I was curious as to what they meant. Any idea as to what
is causing each of the codes? Could it be files that are in use or
something similar? Bad backup media? Other? :)
Thanks again for the feedback!

[tony@aplawrence.com]

Michael B <mbitton@cs-dist.com> wrote:

>> A cursory search produces:
>>
>> 1 - bad argument, inode table full, error reading file list, out of memory,
>> IO error, etc.
>> 2 - various invokation syntax & bad argument errors, input archive corrupted,
>> IO error, etc.
>> 4 - User hit 'q' whence asked to select next media
>> 255 - usage error
>>
>> Other than the above, the exit status is 0 unless you are extracting an
>> archive, in which case it is equal to the number of archive read IO errors that
>> occurred. This will only ever be 0 or 1 unless you give -k, in which case it
>> may be higher.
>>
>> John

>Thanks for the feedback - sometimes I get a 1, sometimes a 4. Most of
>the time it returns a 0, but lately I have started seeing the 1 and 4
>return codes. I was curious as to what they meant. Any idea as to what
>is causing each of the codes? Could it be files that are in use or
>something similar? Bad backup media? Other? :)

Well, why don't you use a GOOD backup program like one of the
supertars - [url]http://aplawrence.com/Reviews/supertars.html[/url] - where
the errors are explained?

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[John DuBois]

In article <9f062509.0307201154.111254e9@posting.google.com >,
Michael B <mbitton@cs-dist.com> wrote:

>> A cursory search produces:
>>
>> 1 - bad argument, inode table full, error reading file list, out of memory,
>> IO error, etc.
>> 2 - various invokation syntax & bad argument errors, input archive corrupted,
>> IO error, etc.
>> 4 - User hit 'q' whence asked to select next media
>> 255 - usage error
>>
>> Other than the above, the exit status is 0 unless you are extracting an
>> archive, in which case it is equal to the number of archive read IO errors that
>> occurred. This will only ever be 0 or 1 unless you give -k, in which case it
>> may be higher.
>>
>> John

>
>Thanks for the feedback - sometimes I get a 1, sometimes a 4. Most of
>the time it returns a 0, but lately I have started seeing the 1 and 4
>return codes. I was curious as to what they meant. Any idea as to what
>is causing each of the codes? Could it be files that are in use or
>something similar? Bad backup media? Other? :)

1 could be just about anything - see above.

Another look at the code shows me that you'll also get exit status 4 if cpio
runs to the end of the tape and there is no tty input available (e.g. if it is
being run from cron).

John
--
John DuBois [email]spcecdt@armory.com[/email] KC6QKZ/AE [url]http://www.armory.com/~spcecdt/[/url]