+This is a quick summary of IWJ's backup scripts and my config files:
+it's a bit patchy and might have the odd ommission. The canonical
+source is the sources, as always :->
+
+
+WARNING - this file is out of date !
+
+
+The three tarfiles in this directory should go in the following
+places (the paths can probably be configured/hacked, but this is
+where they are on my system and on chiark):
+
+etc.tgz : /etc/backup/
+lib.tgz : /usr/local/lib/backup/
+var.tgz : /var/local/backup/
+
+NOTE: these versions are not those used on chiark; they
+are somewhat modified by me (couple of extra features and
+lots of comments -- all errors in those are mine.)
+
+NB: you'll probably need to delete some of the files from
+var.tgz (in fact, I think you probably don't want any of
+them except maybe last-tape (which you want to change anyway).
+You'll also need to recompile readbuffer and writebuffer unless
+you're using SPARClinux :->
+
+Contents of /etc/backup/:
+warnings.* : files defining how many warnings you get as the
+system is brought down to do backups. The defaults are fine.
+settings.pl : generic config file: in particular, the name of
+the tape device is set here.
+tape.* : each tape you're going to use in the backup cycle
+has a name and a config file. Here the tapes are named 'a'-'e',
+although longer names should be OK. You need at least two
+tapes defined as the system won't write a backup on the same
+tape it wrote the last one to.
+
+Syntax of the tape.* files:
+filesystems X
+next N
+end
+
+where N is the next tape in the sequence (which should
+be circular; I have a->b->c->d->e->a...) and X is a
+filesystem-name (list of filesystems might work?).
+
+Each defined filesystem has a name and a config file
+fsys.<name>. These files define what is backed up and how.
+The filesystem 'all' must exist; it's used for incremental
+backups (and it must exist even if you don't do incrementals).
+I don't have any other filesystems defined as everything fits
+on one tape.
+
+Syntax of these files:
+Empty lines and lines starting '#' are comments and ignored.
+Lines starting 'excludedir' given regexps of things to exclude
+(temp dirs, Netscape's cache, etc).
+Lines starting 'prefix' give a command prefix necessary to
+run things on a remote machine:
+prefix <prefix-name> <command-part>
+Other lines should be of the form
+<directory name> <backup-type>
+for local backups, or
+<directory name> <backup-type> <prefix-name>
+for remote backups.
+The file must end with the word 'end' on a line of its own.
+
+Valid values for <backup-type> are 'cpio' (uses cpio to produce
+tar-format backups), 'dump' (uses dump to dump entire filesystems;
+<directory name> should be a mount-point for this), and [if you
+use my version of the scripts] 'zafio' (uses afio to compress
+each file as it is backed up). Only 'dump' type backups permit
+incremental backups.
+
+Finally, expected-diffs is a config file to indicate which
+filesystems should *not* be backed up. The scripts do a config
+check which involves checking that:
+ * all filesystems to be backed up are present
+ * all filesystems that are present are backed up
+expected-diffs allows you to make exceptions to this; backing
+up your CDROM drive is a bit pointless, frex.
+The format here is:
+<prefixchar><mountpoint>
+
+where <prefixchar> is ?, ! or nothing, and
+<mountpoint> is <prefix>:<mountpoint> for a remote fs or
+<mountpoint> for a local one
+(examples: "mnementh:/cdrom", "/cdrom").
+If <prefixchar> is nothing, the scripts will complain if the fs
+is mounted. If it is !, they will complain if it is not mounted.
+If ? they won't complain either way (useful for devices that are
+not always mounted, like /cdrom). '?' is an enhancement only
+present in my version of the scripts.
+
+Useful scripts: (all in /usr/local/lib/backup)
+checkallused: this only does a check of the configuration files.
+It should give a cryptic summary of the configuration and print
+'configuration ok'. If not, fix your config files :->
+
+loaded: this tells the scripts that a currently unlabelled tape
+should be treated as tape X: eg:
+loaded b
+will cause it to treat it as tape 'b'. [NB: this won't override
+the TAPEID label written on the tape; it's just for use with
+previously unused tapes.]
+
+driver : this is the script to actually run to do a backup.
+If run from the command line, give it the argument 'test'
+[otherwise it will attempt to run bringup to change runlevel,
+on the assumption that it was run from inittab (see below)].
+You'll need to edit this script to send the status report email
+to somewhere right for your system.
+
+takedown : Run this if you want to run a reduced level of system
+services during backups. Usage:
+takedown <freq>
+where <freq> can be 'now', 'soon' or nothing depending on number
+of warning messages desired. [configured via warnings.* files.]
+
+To use this you'll need to configure init:
+ * set up runlevel 5 to provide the level of services you want
+ (by tweaking the symlinks in /etc/rc5.d or equivalent)
+ * Add the following to /etc/inittab (tweak paths and VC number
+ if desired):
+
+# Runlevel 5 is set up to run a reduced level of services during
+# backups. (currently this means: no squid, no webserver, no newsserver)
+# We also run the backup script automatically on entering runlevel 5:
+# (I/O goes to VC 7, which is also the X server, but never mind -- we
+# very seldom run X anyway :->)
+dm:5:once:/usr/local/lib/backup/driver </dev/tty7 >/dev/tty7 2>&1
+
+ * takedown can be run from the command line or via cron.
+
+whatsthis: a simple script I hacked together to display the
+TAPEID of the current tape and optionally list its contents.
+Usage:
+whatsthis [--list [n]]
+
+WARNING: it's currently hardwired to assume 'cpio' type backups
+when listing; it could be trivially hardwired to assume 'zafio'
+or with slightly more effort it could be done properly :->
+
+That's all I can think of for now -- comments and
+questions to Peter Maydell <pmaydell@chiark.greenend.org.uk>