backmeup

Description

A backup script, which is actually a convenience wrapper for the dar disk archiving tool, written in zsh.

dar is an extremely powerful program, but has a lot of options and different use cases that can overwhelm the casual user. backmeup strives to simplify the backup process by making some decisions for you and allowing you to specify just the most basic parameters. It allows you to set up an automated backup process quickly and then move on to other things, with the peace of mind of knowing that your data is being backed up.

Dependencies

Requires zsh, dar, awk, cut, df, du, echo, grep, mkdir, realpath, tail, uname

Compatibility

backmeup was written on Debian Linux, although it should work fine on other GNU-based distros, and could easily be adapted to MacOS X and BSD-based Unices.

Usage

backmeup

-f configuration file

-d backup directory

-t backup type

Arguments

backup type is full | diff

full does a complete backup of everything specified in the configuration file

diff does an incremental backup of everything specified in the configuration file based on the changes made since the last full backup

Example

backmeup -f ~/.backmeup.cfg -d /media/tsawyer/BACKDUMP/backup/phobos -t diff

What It Does

The script assumes you are backing up to a single volume.

It first checks to make sure the volume has enough free space (this is based on a hardcoded minimum of 25% free space - see the variable named MIN_FREE_PERCENT which is set to .25).

If the drive is more than 75% full, the script begins deleting prior backups starting with the oldest, until there is enough free space.

Once it's satisified that there is enough free space, it invokes dar according to the configuration (see below).

The script is hardcoded to use an archive size of 512 megabytes. This can be changed by modifying the MAX_SIZE variable in the script.

Configuration

The backup directories and the filename patterns to ignore are specified in a separate configuration file.

Where the configuration file lives and what it's named is up to you, but you need to tell the script where it's located using the -f option.

The contents of the file are actually dar options and are passed straight through.

In short, the -g flag includes specific directories, and the -P flag omits specific directories. (See the dar documentation for more options that may be included in this file.)

Example configuration file contents:

# include
-g usr/local/etc 
-g usr/local/sbin 
-g etc
-g home/tsawyer

# ignore
-P home/tsawyer/.VirtualBox
-P home/tsawyer/.adobe
-P home/tsawyer/.cabal
-P home/tsawyer/.cache
-P home/tsawyer/.claws-mail
-P home/tsawyer/.config
-P home/tsawyer/.cpan
-P home/tsawyer/.cpan
-P home/tsawyer/.dvdcss
-P home/tsawyer/.eclipse
-P home/tsawyer/.emacs.d/.cache
-P home/tsawyer/.googleearth
-P home/tsawyer/.gradle
-P home/tsawyer/.ivy2
-P home/tsawyer/.java
-P home/tsawyer/.kde
-P home/tsawyer/.kube/cache
-P home/tsawyer/.kube/http-cache
-P home/tsawyer/.local 
-P home/tsawyer/.local/share/Trash
-P home/tsawyer/.m2
-P home/tsawyer/.m2/repository
-P home/tsawyer/.m2/wrapper
-P home/tsawyer/.minikube
-P home/tsawyer/.mozilla
-P home/tsawyer/.mutt
-P home/tsawyer/.npm
-P home/tsawyer/.p2
-P home/tsawyer/.pia_manager
-P home/tsawyer/.ps
-P home/tsawyer/.sbt
-P home/tsawyer/.scalaide
-P home/tsawyer/.secondlife/cache
-P home/tsawyer/.ssb
-P home/tsawyer/.ssh
-P home/tsawyer/.stack
-P home/tsawyer/.steam
-P home/tsawyer/.thumbnails
-P home/tsawyer/.var
-P home/tsawyer/.wine
-P home/tsawyer/.xfce4-session.verbose-log
-P home/tsawyer/.zoom

Use backmeup with a scheduler such as cron to ensure that your data is always being replicated.