The scripts foshalt, fossilize, fosreset, fossilstart are used to aid
in preserving fossil root scores and resetting fossils to known
states.  foshalt is simply an equivalent to fshalt.  fossilize
retrieves the fossil/last information from the given fossil (default
/dev/sdC0/fossil if unspecified) and stores the rootscore, fossil
location, and venti variable appended to the file /n/9fat/rootscor.
It also outputs this information in the form of parameters to the
utility to be run on the TARGET fossil's machine.  fosreset score
[fossil] [venti] formats a fossil to the given rootscore.

fossilize may be run on a running fossil to preserve its last
snapshot.  To make the rootscore current, issue 'fsys main snap -a' to
the console and allow that command to complete prior to fossilizing
the root score.

ventiprog is used to assist in progressive backup between ventis using
the wrarena command.  It works by continuously updating a saved
'wrcmd' stored in the 9fat, initially created by the user.  (see
venti-backup (8)).  Once the command is created, ventiprog can be
given a list of ventis and it will duplicate the new data since the
last time the command was run, store a record of this action in
/n/9fat/rootscor, and update the saved wrcmd.  An example wrcmd:

wrarena -h tcp!192.168.1.123!17034 -o 537665536 /dev/sdC0/arenas 0x14f55e1f

Here is an example of how all these tools work together to easily
backup your data and rootscores:

[All of these commands executed from the venti server with all
machines running the rootless namespace kit]

rx gridfour echo fsys main snap -a '>>/srv/fscons' 
# gridfour is the main fossil server 

sleep 600 
# give 10 minutes for the snapshot tocomplete, this is just a heuristic 

rx gridfour fossilize>>/n/9fat/rootscor 
# save the rootscore from gridfour both in its 9fat
# and the local 9fat of the venti server 

ventis=(192.168.1.123 155.122.20.145 198.168.1.128) 
# provide a list of target ventis

ventiprog $ventis 
# backup all the new data since the last ventiprog command 

cp /n/9fat/rootscor /n/some/remote/backup
# archive the rootscores and offset data

This workflow is suitable for a cron job and keeps your fossil
rootscores available and venti data current so your environment can
re-rooted to a new venti/new fossil and still keep working with your
current active fs.

The fossilconf and venticonf scripts are slightly modified versions of
fossil/conf and venti/conf with less error checking to avoid
dependency on awk and cmp.