> Dump starts by getting info about any specified filesystem, using file
> metadata for its database of inodes to dump.  Dump does make sure to
> handle sparse files correctly.  (Files with holes like some db files.)
> Dump uses the fts functions to walk the inode list.
> 
> Now you can specify as your dump file /dev/<rawdisk> if it's really
> important to you.
it is not important but it would not pollute buffer cache...

wouldn't tar have the same speed?