rdup-simple(1) - Linux man page

Name

rdup-simple - create a hard linked backup

Synopsis

rdup-simple [ +DAYS ] [ OPTION ] DIR|FILE [ DIR|FILE ] DESTINATION

Description

rdup-simple is a front end for 'rdup-snap' and 'rdup'. It will backup all directories and files given on the command line. It will create a hard linked backup directory structure under the specified directory.

With the optional +DAYS argument you can specify how far backup rdup-simple looks back for previous backups. This should be a number in the range 1..99. It defaults to 8 days.

rdup-simple will create the directory '~/.rdup' and will store its administrative files there.

This program does not need to be run with root permissions.

The last argument of rdup-simple is used as the destination.

For the naming of the files in '~/.rdup' the destination argument is taken and hashed some what. If a destination equals a previous destination the internal book keeping files for that destination are used by rdup-simple. Note that rdup-simple does not check what encryption and/or compression options you may have used for a previous backup. If you naively forget to provide a '-k KEY' option to a new backup run, those files will be put in your backup file system without encryption.

The following destinations are supported:

ssh://user@host/directory: Use 'ssh' as a protocol and 'user' as the remote user name. Store the backup in 'directory' on the remote server 'host'.
Note: when doing a remove backup as a normal ssh user the ownership of the backup is not preserved on the remove host. All files and directories will belong to 'user'. See the -a flag for a work around.
ssh://host/directory: Use 'ssh' as a protocol and the current username as the remote user name. Store the backup in 'directory' on the remote server 'host'.
file:///directory: Use '/directory' to store the backup, 'file://' is optional. Note: there are 3 slashes here.
/directory: Use '/directory' to store the backup.
directory: Use 'directory' in the current directory for the backup.

Making a backup

Making a backup is as simple as:

rdup-simple ~ /adm /vol/backup/$HOSTNAME

~ and /adm are the directories to be backed up. Multiple directories or files are allowed on the command line.

The backup will be stored in '/vol/backup/$HOSTNAME'.

For the backup a YYYYMM directory is created. In this directory specific day-dumps are placed. So the first dump in October 2006, will created in 200610/01 and the second in 200610/02, etc.

You can use incremental dumps forever, there is no need to do a full dump every once in a while.

Note that rdup-simple calls rdup-snap-link. This small utility will actually hardlink copy the previous backup. The return value of rdup-snap-link will determine if a full or incremental dump will be performed.

Remote backups

rdup-simple ~ /adm ssh://miekg@remote/vol/backup/$HOSTNAME

Note: for remote backups to work, the receiving machine must have rdup installed. Also note: there is no colon between the hostname and the directory. Remote backup will create a pipeline of the form:

rdup -c DIR|FILE | ssh

user@remotehost rdup-snap -c -b backupdir

There is no provisioning for ssh so unless you have configured ssh to work without a passphrase you will be asked to supply one. Also note that the PATH on the remote host should be set in such a way that all the rdup-util scripts can be found.

Options

-k keyfile Encrypt the files while backing up with keyfile. This option inserts rdup-crypt keyfile in the pipeline.

-a: Enable extended attributes. Write the uid/gid to the extended user attributes r_uid and r_gid.
-f: Force a full dump.
-g: GPG encrypt the files. This option inserts rdup-gpg in the pipeline. Note that when you need to restore you will be prompted for your GPG passphrase for every encrypted file! Unless you have configured 'gpg-agent'. See the -a flag of rdup-restore.
-x: See -x in rdup(1).
-z: Compress the files while backing up. This option inserts rdup-gzip in the pipeline.
-v: Echo the files processed to standard error.
-H: Make hourly backups. The backup directory will be extended with a hour string: YYYY/MM/HH.
-h: Show a short help message.
-V: Show the version.