backup [options] | |
-h|--help | print this help and exit |
-H|--Help | print full documentation via less and exit |
-V|--version | print version and exit |
-v|--verbose | print intermediate messages for debugging |
-d|--dir | show the backup directory path and exit |
-c|--conf=X | use X as configuration file; if X is -, don’t read any |
| configuration file and use defaults |
-f|--full | make a full backup |
-s|--show | Show a listing of the current backups |
-r|--restore=X | Restore file X in current directory |
-n|--named=X | make partial backup to X.zip |
BackupDir and DirsToSearch) tell where backups are stored and where files to be backed up are searched, respectively. The remaining variables are arrays of Bash regular expressions that act on the full pathnames of the file that are backup candidates. Important note: the Bash regular expressions (*ReToSkip below) will be automatically adapted by escaping any dots (.) in them: dots occur frequently and in unescaped form they stand for one character, while in the current context it is more useful to mean a literal dot.
BackupDir | |
| is the directory where archives are stored; For safety reasons you would normally make the backup directory a mount point for an other disk than the one(s) containing the information to be backed up. | |
DirsToSearch | |
| is an array of directories (including any subdirectories) to be searched. | |
DirReToSkip | |
| is an array of regexps matching directory names to be skipped; any directory for which the name matches one of these expressions will not be searched for files to backup; neither will any of its subdirectories. | |
ExtReToSkip | |
| is an array of regexps matching extensions; files with those extensions are skipped. | |
BaseReToSkip | |
| is an array of regexps matching basenames to be skipped; any file for which the basename matches any of these regexps will not be backed up. | |
FileReToSkip | |
| is an array of regexps matching filenames to be skipped; | |
Here is an overview of the default settings for these variables:
BackupDir=/backup/$(hostname -s) DirsToSearch=(/home /etc) DirReToSkip=(t temp tmp '[Cc]ache' .thumbnails) ExtReToSkip=(auk aux bak bku dep err 'lo[fgt]' msf old swp tmp toc tok) BaseReToSkip=(t) FileReToSkip=(~$ '#$')
Note that these defaults imply that the backups are produced in a directory on the root file system, which is unsafe, and results in a warning.
1. a file specified with the --conf option; if --conf=-
or |-c-| was specified, no configuration file will be read at all and the above defaults will be used.2.
~/.backup.conf, if it exists 3. /etc/backup.conf, if it exists Note that:
--verbose option, files skipped because of the values in these variables will be reported, together with the values of the
variable. Wild cards in those values will then be shown in their expanded
form, which may be confusing. So it might be wise to put values with wild
cards between quotes. This is why, for example, the '[Cc]ache' has been
quoted in the default settings.
# characters need quotation anyway.
.log extension by specifying
ExtReToSkip=(log) or with BaseReToSkip=('*.log') or with
FileReToSkip=('\.log$').
-h,--help | |
| prints help information and then exits | |
-H,--Help | |
| print full documentation via less and exit | |
-V,--version | |
| prints version and then exits | |
-f,--full | |
Generates a full backup. Without this option, a partial (incremental) backup is made, relative to the most recent backup in the backup directory, that is: in /backup/$(hostname␣-s) if you did not read a configuration file. Full backups will obtain filenames f001.zip, f002.zip, and so on. Similarly, partial backups are named p001.zip, p002.zip, and so on. | |
-c,--conf=X | |
Use the given X as configuration file; without this option, backup looks for ~/.backup.conf or, if that file does not exist, for /etc/backup.conf. If none of these is found, backup fails with an error message. See the section "Configuration files" above. The argument is optional; without it, backup reports the configuration file used, and exits. | |
-r,--restore=X | |
Don’t back up, but restore X in current directory from old
backups instead. Start backup with this option in the directory
where the file to be restored existed when it was backed up. You
will see a numbered listing of existing backups, from which you can
select one by typing its number.
If a file of that name already exists, it will be renamed by adding a |.ver0| extension or, if that exists, |.ver1| or |.ver2| et cetera. You can select all backups by typing |a|; this results in restoring all files with a datetime string attached to the name. Or you can type |q| to cancel your restore request.
-n,--named=X Set the name of the new backup file to X (instead of pxxx or fxxx). One application is to use this for an hourly backup by adding this entry to your crontab: 1 * * * * backup --named=t0$(date +%H) If the name has the format |txxx|, like in the above example, the backup will be relative to the most recent of all files |[fpt][0-9][0-9][0-9].zip|; otherwise it will be relative to the most recent of |p[0-9][0-9][0-9].zip|.
-s,--show | |
| Shows a listing of current backups with the number of files, size of the backup in characters and in human readable form, date, and time. | |
-v,--verbose | |
| print debugging messages while running. | |
description: | Sets the defaults, and then applies any changes defined in the |
configuration file if it exists (/etc/backup.conf by default) | |
globals set: | BackupDir DirsToSearch DirReToSkip ExtReToSkip |
BaseReToSkip FileReToSkip conffile | |
globals used: | BackupDir conffile Myname |
synopsis: | latestof fileglob |
description: | print the newest file matching the fileglob |
description: | Find the last full or (if the --full option was not used) |
partial backup file: that file is the reference file: it's mtime will be used, by setting selector to -newer␣<file>. If it's a full backup, selector is made empty. If there aren't any backups yet, the backup must be full, or an error message is issued. Also, sets the name for the new backup file to pnnn.zip or fnnn.zip, where nnn is one higher than that of the reference file. | |
globals set: | selector newbackup |
globals used: | full named |
synopsis: | human number_of_bytes |
description: | prints the number in human-readable form |
description: | show the current backups |
synopsis: | backupsof filename |
description: | Find basenames, without extension, of all archives containing |
| the given filename. Store them, with the size and time information, in backupsfound. | |
globals set: | backupsfound |
globals used: | workdir |
synopis: | extract filename index withdate |
description: | extract $workdir/filename from the indexth element of |
backupsfound appending the date of the element if withdate is true | |
globals used: | BackupDir backupsfound workdir |
synopsis: | restore filename |
description: | Restore the given filename in the current directory |
globals set: | COLUMNS |
globals used: | backupsfound REPLY workdir |
description: | Update archive listings where necessary |
synopsis: | list archive |
description: | Create a listing, sorted by decreasing size, of the contents of |
| the archive. Set the modification time of the archive and its listing to to the most recent regular file in the archive. |
synopsis: | verbarr name_of_array_variable |
description: | echo the name of the variable plus a colon and the array |
| contents in two columns of width 15 and 50 respectively. | |
globals used: | verbose |
synopsis: | excheck executable1 [executable2...] |
description: | check if all needed execs are there and getopt is GNU |
synopsis: | handle_options "$@" |
description: | Handle the options |
globals used: | Myname Version full show restore conffile verbose named |