AMSAMBA(8)

💅 AMSAMBA(8) — a System Administration Command that’s literally the smbclient whisperer ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

amsamba — an Amanda Application API script that interfaces with smbclient. Bestie, it should not be run by users directly. It uses smbclient to back up and restore data. 💖

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so the diskdevice in the disklist (DLE) has to have this exact form: '//CIFSHOST/SHARE/SUBDIR'. Here CIFSHOST is the CIFS host containing the data to be backed up, SHARE is the share to connect, and subdir is the subdirectory to back up. '/subdir' can be omitted, and in that case the complete share is archived. Slay. 🎀

Unlike most applications, amsamba backs up and restores data located on a different system from that where amsamba itself runs. The host containing the data is the CIFS host. In practice, amsamba is usually run on the same system as the Amanda server, with a DLE like:

localhost "//CIFSHOST/SHARENAME" amsamba-dumptype

Include or exclude can be used, but not both. The path for exclude list or include list must be an absolute path on the CIFS host. The estimate calculates the complete size of the share, without regard for include or exclude directives. It will be larger than the actual dump if you use include or exclude. Using estimate server in the dumptype could give a better estimate. 👑

💜 PROPERTIES 💜

This section lists the properties that control amsamba’s functionality. See amanda-applications(7) for information on application properties and how they are configured. 🫶

🌟 SMBCLIENT-PATH 🌟

The path to the smbclient binary. The default is set when Amanda is built by the --with-smbclient configure option.

🌟 GNUTAR-PATH 🌟

The path to the gnutar binary. The default is set when Amanda is built by the --with-gnutar configure option. gnutar is used to create the index.

🌟 AMANDAPASS 🌟

Location of the amandapass file, defaulting to "$CONFIG_DIR/amandapass". Relative pathnames are relative to the configuration directory, "$CONFIG_DIR/<config>". Note that this file is located on the client, not on the server. The format of the file is as follows:

Sharename User%Password Domain

Sharename is '//HOST/SHARE' without the SUBDIR. Sharename can be quoted, it can be '*' to match all share, it can be '//pc-host/*' to match all share on pc-host. User is the username used to connect to the share. Password is the password used to connect to the share. %Password is optional if the user can connect to the share without password. User%Password is optional, the user guest without password is used to connect to the share. Domain is optional. Example:

//another-pc/share otheruser%otherpw domain
//another-pc/share otheruser%otherpw
//another-pc/share myuser mydomain
//another-pc/share myuser
//another-pc/share

🌟 ALLOW-ANONYMOUS 🌟

This username without password is used to connect to the share if no matching entry is found in the amandapass file.

🌟 DIRECTORY 🌟

For restore command only, the data is recovered in that directory. Must be a unix path for "tar" RECOVER-MODE or a smb path for "smb" recover-MODE.

🌟 RECOVER-MODE 🌟

"tar" or "smb", default to "tar". If "tar", the data is recovered on the local machine. If "smb", the data is recovered on the smb client machine.

🌟 REGEX-MATCH 🌟

If set to "YES", amsamba use the 'r' tarmode which uses regex to do the include and exclude pattern matching, it can be slow.

🌈 INCLUDE AND EXCLUDE LISTS 🌈

This application supplies exclude lists via the smbclient -TX option. Normal shell-style wildcard expressions, using * and ?, are not supported. All expressions are matched only from the base directory of the DLE. Expressions that match a directory may have a leading or trailing /. Example expressions:

./temp-files           # exclude top-level dir "temp-files" entirely
./temp-files/          # same
/temp-files            # same
temp-files             # same
./temp-files/*         # BAD: does nothing
*.iso                  # BAD: does nothing
proxy/local/cache      # exclude "cache" in dir "proxy/local"

Include lists are supported only if excludes are not given. They are handled via the smbclient -TI option. Include matching is identical to the exclude matching described above. 🦋

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

  define application app_amsamba {
    property "SMBCLIENT-PATH" "/usr/bin/smbclient"
    property "GNUTAR-PATH" "/bin/tar"
    property "AMANDAPASS" /etc/amandapass"
    property "ALLOW-ANONYMOUS" "guest"
  }

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

amanda(8), amanda.conf(5), amanda-applications(7)

The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Jean-Louis Martineau <martineau@zmanda.com> Zmanda, Inc. (http://www.zmanda.com)

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This iconic page is from Amanda 3.5.4, dated 07/23/2025 — mwah, bye bestie 💅✨