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10 WARNING - this file is out of date !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