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    Backup Package: exec_backup_main: Too many arguments; 'nknown option'

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    • Article Type: General
    • Product: Aleph
    • Product Version: 20

    Description:
    Our Aleph v20 Crontab has three backup jobs which are supposed to execute each Monday-Friday. They are not executing: there are no logs for the jobs in the /exlibris/backups/logs directory.

    We tried running this from the command line, as described in the The Ex Libris Backup Package Guide:

    1 Enter su to become a superuser.
    2 On the command line, type the following:

    /exlibris/backup/scripts/exec_backup_main a1

    In the above example, exec_backup_main will execute immediately with one
    parameter. This parameter is resolved in the bkp_init.dat file.

    We got this:

    [root@alapp20 ~]# /exlibris/backup/scripts/exec_backup_main a1
    starting exec_backup_main
    setenv: Too many arguments.
    [root@alapp20 ~]#

    After adding some echoes to the script, rather than getting the preceding, we got this:

    [root@alapp20 ~]# /exlibris/backup/scripts/exec_backup_main a1
    'nknown option: `-
    Usage: csh [ -bcdefilmnqstvVxX ] [ argument ... ].
    [root@alapp20 ~]#

    Resolution:
    As described in KB 8192-2183, when there are multiple values for a setenv, those values must be enclosed in double quotation marks.

    In this case the problem setenv was in the /exlibris/backup/conf/bkp_param.conf -- which exec_backup_main copies in. It had the following line:

    setenv BKP_MAIL joe.jones@abc.edu sam.smith@abc.edu

    Putting the values in double quotemarks:

    setenv BKP_MAIL "joe.jones@abc.edu sam.smith@abc.edu"

    permitted the exec_backup_main to run successfully.

    For the purpose of testing the scripts from the command line "exec_backup_main a4" is a good one to use since it can be run with Aleph and Oracle up. The hot backup ( "exec_backup_main a4") can also be run with Aleph and Oracle up.

    • Article last edited: 10/8/2013