NAME

backup - automates copies of remote filesystems

SYNOPSIS

backup [ <options> ]

DESCRIPTION

This script is designed to take advantage of the fact that disk is cheap. The idea is to have a system with enough disk to make a duplicate of whatever data you care about.

By default, this will be done filesystem-by-filesystem with rsync running over ssh, but the mechanism is flexible enough to back up just about anything.

OPTIONS

--extraflags=flags

Add flags to rsync (or whatever the backup command is set to).

In the past, this was especially useful for occasionally running rsync with --delete (--extraflags=--delete), but now that this program saves backup copies of everything, that's part of the default command.

To add multiple options, use --extraflags="--option1 --option2" or use --extraflags multiple times.

--host=host

Only backup host. (This can be used multiple times to backup multiple hosts.)

The default is to backup all hosts.

--maxchildren=number

Backup up to number systems at once.

--backupdir=path

The script creates directories under path for each system.

--configfile=filename

Use filename for the config file. The default is /etc/backup.conf.

--configdir=path

Look for files describing what will be backed up under path. The default is /etc/backup.d.

This script will look for directories named monthly, weekly, daily, and unscheduled under this directory. The files must be under those directories.

--verbose

Makes rsync more verbose (equivalent to

--extraflags="--verbose
--progress"

). In a future revision, it might also make this script a bit more verbose.

--debug

Spews lots of debugging information as the program runs. It might be useful when debugging problems, or it might not.

This is equivalent to adding ``debug=yes'' to the config file.

--timeout

Sets the I/O timeout in seconds for rsync.

--daily

Run daily backups. This is the default if no hosts or other schedule (--weekly or --monthly) are specified.

--weekly

Run weekly backups.

--monthly

Run monthly backups.

FILES

/etc/backup.conf

Configuration options can be given in this file in the form

    parameter = value

debug: Setting this option to ``yes'' is equivalent to adding --debug to the command-line.
default command: This can be used to specify an alternative default command. Certain special strings can be used, including DEFAULT. See COMMANDS.
backupdir: This is equivalent to the --backupdir command-line option.
maxchildren: This is equivalent to the --maxchildren command-line option.
configdir: This is equivalent to the --configdir command-line option.
timeout: This is equivalent to the --timeout command-line option.

/etc/backup.d/*

Each host to be backed up should have a file under this directory. The file's name must be the name of the host to backup.

The format of the file is

    /path/to/backup     command

The command is optional.

COMMANDS

Any commands to run specified in the configuration files will have the following substitutions performed on them:

DEFAULT: This will be replaced with the default command.
EXTRAFLAGS: This will be replaced with any flags specified with --extraflags on the command line.
HOST: This will be replaced with the name of the host being backed up.
PATH: This will be replaced with the path being backed up.

All commands are run from the directory where backups for that host and filesystem should be stored.

AUTHOR

Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org>