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Name

ssbackup-batch - a tool for calling ssbackup

Synopsis

ssbackup-batch [options] config-file

Description

This manual page explains the ssbackup-batch tool. This tool is a frontend to ssbackup(8), an implementation of the snapshot-style-backup method that is described in http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/.

config-file is a configuration file that contains rules for making backups

Typically config-files (and exclude-files) are put into /etc/ssbackup/. and ssbackup-batch is executed daily by a crontab-entry like:


12 4 * * * /usr/sbin/ssbackup-batch /etc/ssbackup/config

or by a script in /etc/cron.daily/ like:


#!/bin/sh
/usr/sbin/ssbackup-batch /etc/ssbackup/config

which also works with anacron.

Options

--version
shows the version-number of ssbackup-batch and exits
-h, --help
shows a short help explaining the options
-v --print-plan
Print only a plan what would have been done, but do nothing at all.
-o, --check-only
pass the --check-only flag to ssbackup. (please there there)

Usage

A config file describes one or more recipes for backups. To understand the nomenclature please see ssbackup(8).

Lines starting with # are comments and have no effect as do empty lines.

lines starting with

basedir =

or

count =

specifiy these values globaly. They have effect for all following recipes.

a backup-recipe consists of a line starting with backup name followed by indented lines. All indented lines belong to this recipe only and have no global effect. name is the name of the backups. Indented lines can be:

source =
specifies the source to back-up. There must be a source in a recipe
basedir =
specifies the basedir, where the backups go. If given in a recipe as indented line it overwrites a global basedir temporarily.
count =
specifies the count (number of versions). If given in a recipe as indented line it overwrites a global count temporarily.
exclude =
specifies the exclude-file for rsync.

In a recipe everey kind of indented line can occur one time. If a indented line is given more than once the last one wins. It is not possible to give p.e. several exclude-files.

Examples

Example for a config-file.


basedir = /backup
count = 24
# Home Directory
backup home
       source = nfs://milkyway:/export/home/1 
       exclude = /etc/ssbackup/home.exclude
# Mail
backup mail 
       source = nfs://milkyway:/export/var/mail
# Temporary
backup data
       source = file:///scratch/project-data
       basedir = /data-backup
       count =  12

Security

ssbackup can easily destroy valuable data if called with wrong parameters, especially if called as root. So think twice bevor calling it, especially if you do it automatically via ssbackup-batch.

Bugs

There are probably bugs in ssbackup-batch It has not been testet widely and is in a ‘works for me’-state. It is provided ‘as is’ and there is no warranty for this software.

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 U SA

Author

M G Berberich <berberic@forwiss.uni-passau.de>

See Also

anacron(8), cron(8), crontab(1), python(1), ssbackup(8)


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