3 Copyright - AND NO WARRANTY - see notes at bottom of file for details.
5 This is a quick summary of the backup scripts, and some comments on
6 some of the config files: it's a bit patchy and might have the odd
7 ommission. The canonical source is the sources, as always :->
10 To run, the contents of /etc/chiark-backup should be:
12 warnings.*: files defining how many warnings you get as the system is
13 brought down to do backups. The defaults are fine.
15 settings.pl: generic config file: in particular, the name of the tape
18 tape.*: conventionally, each tape you're going to use in the backup
19 cycle has a tape number, a name and a config file. The tape numbers
20 in use at Relativity are digit strings like `512'. The name is a
21 combination of rotation set and volume number; rotation sets are
22 typically a single letter (`s', `t', `u', `v') at Relativity and
23 volumes a single digit (`0', `1', `2') at Relativity. You need at
24 least two tapes as the system won't write a backup on the same tape it
25 wrote the last one to.
27 There are also conventionally incremental tapes whose names are a
28 fixed letter (`k' in the current scheme) followed by a rotation
29 letter. At Relativity we have two of these, `ks' and `kt'.
31 Syntax of the tape.* files for full dump tapes:
36 where N is the name of the next tape in the *full dump* sequence
37 (which should be circular; eg
38 v0->v1->v2->s0->s1->s1->t0->t1->t2->u0->u1->u2->v0->...
39 and X is a filesystem group name (typically the same as the volume
42 Each defined filesystem group has a name and a config file
43 fsys.<name>. These files define what is backed up and how. The
44 filesystem `all' must also exist; it's used for incremental backups
45 (and it must exist even if you don't do incrementals).
48 Empty lines and lines starting '#' are comments and ignored.
49 Lines starting `excludedir' given regexps of things to exclude
50 (temp dirs, Netscape's cache, etc).
51 Lines starting `include' say to include another file when reading
53 Lines starting `prefix' give a command prefix necessary to
54 run things on a remote machine:
55 prefix <prefix-name> <command-part>
56 Other lines should be of the form
57 <directory name> <backup-type>
59 <directory name> <backup-type> <prefix-name>
61 The file (including any included files) must end with the word 'end'
64 Valid values for <backup-type> are `cpio' (uses cpio to produce
65 tar-format backups), `dump' (uses dump to dump entire filesystems;
66 <directory name> should be a mount-point for this), and `zafio' (uses
67 afio to compress each file as it is backed up). Only `dump' type
68 backups perform incremental backups.
70 expected-diffs is a config file to indicate which
71 filesystems should *not* be backed up. The scripts do a config
72 check which involves checking that:
73 * all filesystems to be backed up are present
74 * all filesystems that are present are backed up
75 expected-diffs allows you to make exceptions to this; backing
76 up your CDROM drive is a bit pointless, frex.
78 <prefixchar><mountpoint>
80 where <prefixchar> is ?, ! or nothing, and
81 <mountpoint> is <prefix>:<mountpoint> for a remote fs or
82 <mountpoint> for a local one
83 (examples: "mnementh:/cdrom", "/cdrom").
84 If <prefixchar> is nothing, the scripts will complain if the fs
85 is mounted. If it is !, they will complain if it is not mounted.
86 If ? they won't complain either way (useful for devices that are
87 not always mounted, like /cdrom).
90 You may also create `bringup-hook', a script (or program) which will
91 be run by `bringup' at the end.
94 Useful scripts (all in /usr/bin):
96 backup-checkallused: this only does a check of the configuration
97 files. It should give a cryptic summary of the configuration and
98 print 'configuration ok'. If not, fix your config files :->
99 You have to create the file /var/lib/chiark-backup/last-tape
100 containing the id of a tape; this helps backup-checkallused know where
101 to start iterating over tapes. Any tapeid will do. (But don't make
102 it the same as the one you want to back up to first.)
104 backup-loaded: this tells the scripts that a currently unlabelled tape
105 should be treated as tape X: eg:
107 will cause it to treat it as tape `b3'. NB: this won't override the
108 TAPEID label written on the tape; it's just for use with previously
109 unused tapes. This applies only to the next time the backup scripts
110 are invoked. You can say just
112 to go back to the default behaviour, which is to fail if the tape has
115 backup-driver: this is the script to actually run to do a backup. If
116 run from the command line, give it the argument 'test' - otherwise it
117 will attempt to run bringup to change runlevel, on the assumption that
118 it was run from inittab (see below). The status report email will be
119 sent to whatever the unqualified local-part `dump-reports' points to.
121 backup-takedown: This is for running a reduced level of system
122 services during backups. Usage: takedown <freq> where <freq> can be
123 `now', `soon' or nothing depending on number of warning messages
124 desired - these correspond to warnings.* files.
126 To use this you'll need to configure init:
127 * set up runlevel 5 to provide the level of services you want
128 (by tweaking the symlinks in /etc/rc5.d or equivalent)
129 * Add the following to /etc/inittab (tweak paths and VC number
132 # Runlevel 5 is set up to run a reduced level of services during
133 # backups. (currently this means: no squid, no webserver, no newsserver)
134 # We also run the backup script automatically on entering runlevel 5:
135 dm:5:once:backup-driver </dev/tty8 >/dev/tty8 2>&1
137 * takedown can be run from the command line or via cron.
139 backup-whatsthis: a simple script to display the TAPEID of the current
140 tape and optionally list its contents. This script is a bit of a hack
141 and may not be fully reliable:
144 whatsthis [--list [n]]
146 WARNING: it's currently hardwired to assume `cpio' type backups
147 when listing; it could be trivially hardwired to assume `zafio'
148 or with slightly more effort it could be done properly :->.
151 COPYRIGHT and LACK OF WARRANTY information
153 This file is part of chiark backup, a system for backing up GNU/Linux and
154 other UN*X-compatible machines, as used on chiark.greenend.org.uk.
157 Copyright (C) 1997-1998,2000-2001 Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
158 Copyright (C) 1999 Peter Maydell <pmaydell@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
160 This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
161 terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
162 Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
164 This is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
165 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
166 FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
169 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
170 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
171 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.