/sbin/dump returned 1

The amdump command fails with error message:

FAIL dumper backupclient /home 20051119 0 [/sbin/dump returned 1]
 sendbackup: start [localhost:/home level 0]
 sendbackup: info BACKUP=/sbin/dump
 sendbackup: info RECOVER_CMD=/usr/bin/gzip -dc |/sbin/restore -f... -
 sendbackup: info COMPRESS_SUFFIX=.gz
 sendbackup: info end
 |   DUMP: You can't update the dumpdates file when dumping a
subdirectory
 |   DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.
sendbackup: error [/sbin/dump returned 1]

Solution

The dump-binary can only handle filesystems. It cannot dump sub-directories only. Use GNU-tar as the backup/restore method for DLEs that are subdirectories inside of a mounted filesystem.

Choose the dump-program by setting the parameter "program" which can have one of the two values

program [DUMP|GNUTAR]

If you use GNU-tar you may define a DLE like

backupclient /home root-tar

If you use DUMP you should define your DLE like

backupclient hda4 root-tar

Also refer to the manpage of amanda.conf and the commented template-file inside of the AMANDA-tarball.