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Manual Reference Pages  - mbin (1)

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NAME

mbin - buffer a binary data stream through multiple files

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Options
Examples
See Also
License
Copyright
Authors

mbin [options...]

mbin stands for Multiple Buffer INput. With the matching program mbout it provides a way to buffer large amounts of data to disk files which are then reassembled and written to the final target. In particular it is designed to buffer binary information destined for a streaming tape drive which must first be transmitted slowly over a network. Rather than writing the incoming data slowly to a tape drive, which results in stalling and increased drive wear, the data is first written into a buffer file. When that first buffer file is full mbin writes a lock file and a notification to the output. mbin then proceeds to write more input into the next buffer file. Simultaneously mbout will read the notification and copy the buffered data at full speed to the tape drive. When done copying data from a buffer file mbout will clear the associated lock file.

mbin writes the following information to its output, each on a separate line: the block size (an integer), the number of buffer files (an integer), the name of the first buffer file, the name of the second buffer file, etc., the name of the first lock file, the name of the second lock file, and so forth. This describes the buffers for the downstream program mbout. Then mbin writes a series of lines each of which contain this information: blocks_in_buffer buffer_file_number (two integers). This tells mbout that a block of data is ready to be copied. When mbin is done processing it writes either DONE message or ABORT message depending upon whether it completed processing normally or not. In response to either of those signals mbout will clean up by deleting all buffer and lock files. It will also close its output file and exit.

mbin may be obtained as part of the drm_tools package from: http://sourceforge.net/projects/drmtools/

On many operating systems mbin must be compiled with large file support if it is to read or write files above a few gigabytes in size. If compiled with the gcc compiler add the command line switches -D_LARGE_FILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 to include large file support. The -i option will show whether or not large files are supported.

-in <input_file>
	Read binary data from the specified file. (Default or - read from stdin.)
-out <out_file>
	Write status messages to the specified file. (Default or - write to stdout.)
-log <log_file>
	Write error messages to the specified file. (Default or - write to stderr.)
-bs <blocksize>
	Specify the blocksize in bytes. Note that if the end of the data stream does not come out to an even number of blocks it will be padded with zero bytes so that it is an even number of blocks. (Default is 10240 bytes).
-nb <N>	Specify the number of buffer files to use. The default is 2, the minimum is 1, and the maximum is 10. Under normal circumstances 2 should suffice.
-fN <name>
	Specify the name of the Nth buffer. By default the name is mbbuf1 and so forth. Use this option to place buffer files on different storage devices in order to minimize IO contention. Note that the lock file name is formed by appending _lock to the buffer name. That is, mbbuf1 has lock file mbbuf1_lock.
-s <blocks>
	Specify the default size in blocks of all buffers. The default value is 1572864 (15 Gb with the default blocksize).
-sN <blocks>
	Specify the size in blocks of the Nth buffer. This may be used to tailor the size of a buffer file to better fit the available storage space.
-h -help --help -? --??
	Print the help message. (Default - do not print help message.)
-i	Emit version, copyright, license and contact information.( Default - do not emit information.)

% mbin -h
	List the the command line options.
% (ssh remotemachine ’dump -f - filesystem’) | mbin | mbout > /dev/tapedrive
	Buffer the binary input from the remote machine through two 15Gb local files.
% (ssh remotemachine ’dump -f - filesystem’) | mbin -rr 3 -f2 /disk2/foo2 -f3 /disk3/foo3 -s 200000 -s3 100000 | mbout > /dev/tapedrive
	As above but use as buffer files mbbuf1 in the current directory, /disk2/foo2, and /disk3/foo3. Additionally set the size of the first two as 200000 blocks and the size of the third one as 100000. Since the blocksize was not specified it defaults to 10240 bytes per block.

mbout(1), buffer(1), mbuffer(1)

GNU General Public License 2

Copyright (C) 2006 David Mathog and Caltech.

David Mathog, Biology Division, Caltech <mathog@caltech.edu>