AIX backup / restore

The commonly used mode of backup utility back up file systems by i-node. It uses the Level param of 0 - for full,
1 to 9 for incremental backups, and takes the predefined fileset as input (/, /home, /opt, /usr, /var, etc.).
If you want to use the ordinary directory, not the one of predefined filesets use the -i switch.
It takes the list of files from the standard input (back up by name), and when used in conjunction with hyphen sign
as the target device, it can be piped directly to dd, to put the output into the file.

$ find /etc | backup -i -f - | dd of=/backup/etc.bak

To list the content of backup archive use restore with the -T switch.

$ restore -Tq -f /backup/etc.bak

To restore the individually named file use -x switch.

# restore -xqf /backup/etc.bak /etc/passwd
x /etc/passwd

...or files (in verbose mode):

# restore -xqvf /backup/etc.bak /etc/passwd /etc/security/passwd
New volume on /backup/etc.bak:
 Cluster 51200 bytes (100 blocks).
    Volume number 1
    Date of backup: Thu Apr 29 12:22:13 2010
    Files backed up by name
    User root
x          560 /etc/passwd
x          288 /etc/security/passwd
    total size: 848
    files restored: 2

And to get back all the content of the specified subdirectory use the force of -d

# restore -xqdf /backup/etc.bak /etc/security
x /etc/security
x /etc/security/.idlck
x /etc/security/.ids
x /etc/security/.kst
x /etc/security/.profile
x /etc/security/acl
x /etc/security/aixpert
x /etc/security/aixpert/bin
x /etc/security/aixpert/bin/ISSServerSensor
x /etc/security/aixpert/bin/audit_report
x /etc/security/aixpert/bin/binaudit
[...]

Be aware that all the above actions has overwritten the original files.