Restoring clip library backups

Summary

This solution provides instructions on recovering libraries that become corrupted.
For an overview of clip libraries and of the way the applications create automatic backups, see this article: About clip library backups.

Restoring Backup Files

Warning: Make sure there is no local or remote connection to the framestore while performing these operations.

1. Create a backup of the current directory structure so full recovery to the current state is possible.
   Note: Make sure that no one is accessing the framestore over wire or remote framestore.
   cp -rp /usr/discreet/clip/<framestore volume>/<project>*  /usr/tmp/backup
    
2. Start troubleshooting the library, by navigating to the appropriate directory hosting the library files: 
   cd /usr/discreet/clip/<framestore volume>/<project>/workspace*
   
   The backup files have the same name and extension as the original file, but with a different numeric suffix indicating the age of the back-up.
   
   For example, a library called "MyFolder" will have four files in the workspace folder:
   
   MyFolder.000.clib
   MyFolder.001.clib
   MyFolder.002.clib
   MyFolder.003.clib
   
   The file with a 000 suffix is the active library. The rest are backups: 001 is the most recent and 003 is the oldest.
    
3. Copy the files or directories from the backup directory as required, one file at a time
   cp -p <name of library>.001.clib  <name of library>.000.clib 
    
   For example: cp -p Default.001.clib  Default.000.clib 
   
   Note: If Clip History is active you also need to make sure that the history files match and are also recovered. 
   
4. Launch the application with the –Z option and verify if the problem is fixed. If not, redo step 3 using the next library backup file, until you have used all the backup files:
    
   For example: cp -p Default.002.clib  Default.000.clib
   
   Note: If you try all the backup files without success, you can use the bak.tar files copied over to /usr/tmp/backup. Be sure to extract the files under /usr/tmp/backup and copy them over from there.
    
5. Run vic (volume integrity check) after performing these steps.  See the following article for instructions: Using vic (Volume Integrity Check).
    
6. Clean up your backup directory when the recovery completes.

Notes:

• When copying files as root, use the -p ( permission) option to make sure permissions are properly set.
• Make sure you have enough disk space to perform the copy.  (df -h, du -sh *)
• Do not copy the backups to any folder under /usr/discreet/clip, as vic traverses all sub-directories within that directory, which will result in false errors or further problems.