DUMP (dump and restore backup commands) Dump examines files in a filesystem, determines which ones need to be backed up, and copies those files to a specified disk, tape or other storage medium. Subsequent incremental backups can then be layered on top of the full backup. You might want to read this post by Linus: http://lwn.net/2001/0503/a/lt-dump.php3 and the counter-argument on http://dump.sourceforge.net/isdumpdeprecated.html SLACKWARE ISSUES WITH DUMP/RESTORE/RMT Dump package conflicts with these two files from the tar package: the rmt man page: /usr/man/man8/rmt.8.gz and the restore application: /usr/sbin/restore Installing the dump package will overwrite these files. Should you remove the dump package, you may note that the two files referred to above will not be removed because they are "shared" with the tar package. You will need to reinstall the stock tar package. With regards to rmt, the tar package installs it to /sbin/rmt while the dump package installs it in /usr/sbin/rmt - these two are not identical. You can be sure to call the relevant rmt application by qualifying the full path to the desired rmt executable.