AMSTATUS(8)

📦
version 3.5.4 · 8 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ AMSTATUS ✨ — aka amstatus(8) from the System Administration Commands 💅

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about the little command that tells you what your Amanda backup is actually doing right now 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

amstatus — display the state of an Amanda run. that's it, that's the girl 💖

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

amstatus [--file amdumpfile] [--[no]detail] [--[no]summary]
         [--[no]taped] [--[no]stats]
         [--[no]locale-independent-date-format] [--config] config

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so basically, amstatus gives you the current state of the Amanda run specified by the config configuration. if there's nothing actively running, she doesn't leave you on read — she summarizes the result of the last run. and plot twist: you can also use her to summarize the results of a previous run, which is giving time-travel energy ngl ⏳✨

for more details about Amanda itself, go read the amanda(8) man page. iykyk 💅

👑 OPTIONS 👑

quick thing before we dive in, and this is important so listen up: all options may be abbreviated to the shortest non-ambiguous sub-string. and if you give her no options at all? everything gets displayed. she's an overachiever, we love that for her 😭💖

  • [--config] config — specify the Amanda configuration you want to display the state for. this is the main character argument fr.
  • --file amdumpfile — specify an alternate file to use instead of the amdump or amflush file. like, "not that file, this file bestie" 📁
  • --detail — display a detail of each dles. every single one. she's thorough like that ✨
  • --summary — display a summary of the state of the run. the tl;dr version 🌈
  • --taped — display each tape used in the summary of the state of the run. tape girlies rise up 📼💅
  • --stats|statistics — display statistics about active-time of taper and dumpers. numbers!! we love a stats moment 🔥
  • --locale-independent-date-format — output the date in a locale independent format. the format is the same as executing:
date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z'

so no matter where in the world you are, the date stays consistent. global icon behavior 🌍👑

💜 EXAMPLE 💜

run the following command in a shell when a backup is running:

watch amstatus CONF --summary --notaped

look at her go 🫶 (and yes, --notaped up there is the no form of the [--[no]…] situation from the synopsis — the options do be doing that 💀)

🔥 EXIT CODE 🔥

the exit code of amstatus is the ORed value of these, so multiple things can be true at once (multitasking icon):

  • 0 = success ✅
  • 1 = error 😭
  • 4 = a dle failed 💀
  • 8 = Don't know the status of a dle (RESULT_MISSING in the report) 🙈
  • 16 = tape error or no more tape 📼🚫

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

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

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Stefan G. Weichinger <sgw@amanda.org> — thank you for your service king 🫡💖

and that's the whole page babes!! this was Amanda 3.5.4, dated 08/26/2026, and honestly? she ate. periodt 💅✨ go back up your stuff 🌸

📦 where this page comes from