thanks for the response.
tar is unavailable. it is a bin command.
I have tape backup, but was hoping for something less drastic than booting
from tape.

"brother_Matthius" <maciek.mazan@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1162936712.782935.88120@i42g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> FTP won't help - it does not retain file attributes. This is especially
> important for SUID files, like "su".
>
> I'd recommend tape restore, using maintenance mode after booting from
> AIX CD.
>
> You may also try to make a tar archive of the directory (tar vcf
> arch.tar /usr/bin). Then FTP it to the damaged host, and unpack with
> "tar vxf arch.tar".
> I cannot guarantee it will work, but you may give it a try if no backup
> is available.
>