> > I would never exclude these paths from regular backup.
>
> But isn't it likely that while NetBackup is writing into
> the db directory file sizes will change and hence a
> (normal) backup of those directories could be
> inconsistent?

Had I read the included mail at the end of the mail I was
replying to I would have seen that this is what Jason Ahrens
was implying:

> directories, I was thinking I should exclude these directories from regular
> backups. In theory, these directories are useless to backup to tape as their
> data is 'volatile' during an actual NetBackup backup, and must be backed up
> with bpbackupdb to be valid anyway.

I was in fact backing up the filesystem on which this
resides until a week or so ago when NB gave a `file
truncated, filling with nulls'-type message for some file
under the db directory.  I seem to have thrown that away
now, but at the time I thought it could only happen
because NB was manipulating files at the same time as it
was trying to back them up, hence the inconsistency.