clone-dump-restore

[PJ]

I believe that my problems arise out of subliminal refuse syndrome: the
brain refuses to comprehend dump and restore TOs and FROMs.
In other words, I'm beginning to see that
dump -0af TO ( - or device/file) FROM (device or directory/file)
and
restore -rf  (TO curr.dir FROM device or file) 

or
dump -0af  - (FROM device or file) | restore  -rf - (TO device or directory)

or do I still not have it right?
It's the stdout and stdin that makes me stumble.
Do I really need to mount the partitions or can I just dump and restore
from device to device directly?
The manual says I should be able to dump & restore across the lan too...