Is dump dumb?

[Joe Bob Willie]

In article <12624 at mimsy.UUCP> chris at mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
>>In article <170 at cui.UUCP> petitp at cui.UUCP (PETITPIERRE Dominique) asks:
>>My feeling is that it's an important enough task that it merits the
>>attention of a live operator.
>
>I agree: if you want a reliable backup, you need something that can
>handle unanticipated situations

my ``live operator'' is in georgia for a week so i get to be the 
``live operator'' at 7am for an entire week.  arggg.

the single largest problem we have with dump is there is no simple
way to start a delayed dump.  at(1) runs jobs in the background
and sleep requires one to convert the delay into seconds.  rather
than having an operator (or me) come in at 7am, the first reel could
be started at 7 or so and let run for half an hour while i sleep ;-)

any unexpected events, such as write errors, would result in a
delay anyway, right?  so, any time lost to having to wait for a human
being might not be more than what it would have been had an operator
been here all along.

- john.
-- 
 jfh at rpp386.uucp	(The Beach Bum at The Big "D" Home for Wayward Hackers)
     "Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity"
                -- Hanlon's Razor