Symptoms: Restore does not restore (some?) files that have symlinks to them, saying instead, for example: restore: ./etc/gtk/gtkrc.hu: cannot create special file: Invalid argument ./etc/gtk/gtkrc.iso-8859-2: not found on tape /etc/gtk/gtkrc.iso-8895-2 does show up when listing the dump with restore -t, but will not be created with restore -r. Repeat by: dump 0f - | restore rf - Solution: upgrade to dump0.4b7 (I tried http://perso.cybercable.fr/pop/dump/dump-0.4b7-1.src.rpm and it did not exhibit the bug).
I have just run into similar but more serious problems under rh6.1. After a hard disk crash I am unable to restore the file systems fully from a level 0 dump. Files end up in the wrong place, etc. etc., many files are missing and other problems occur as well, some related to both hard and symbolic links. I used both versions 0.4b4 as well as 0.4b11 from the rawhide RPMS.
Did you use dump 0.4b11 in order to create the dump or you were just trying to restore an old tape (made with an older version of dump) ? Stelian.
I just used it to restore the dump: It solved the symlink problem, which was rather serious....
Then it's hard to say if it's a bug in restore 0.4b11 or in the older dump (although the tape format didn't change between releases). Maybe you should 0-dump your filesystem again, using the latest version, and try to restore it. If you get any error again, please contact my, we'll try to find the causes. Stelian.
This problem appears to be resolved by upgrading to the latest dump in Raw Hide. Thanks for the help. BTW, I just built dump-0.4b12-1 in Raw Hide.