AWIT-DBACKUP(8)

💖 AWIT-DBACKUP 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're talking about dbackup — the per-directory backup utility from AWIT-DBackup that lives in section 8 of the System Manager's Manual. she's powerful, she's tidy, she's lowkey iconic, and by the end of this page you're gonna be obsessed. no cap. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

dbackup — AWIT-DBackup is a powerful per-directory backup utility.

that's it. that's the whole name section. short. sweet. main character energy. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

dbackup [GENERAL_OPTIONS] [--backup BACKUP_OPTIONS | --restore RESTORE_OPTIONS] [SRC] [DST]

so like, you give her some general options, then you tell her whether you're doing a --backup or a --restore (pick one bestie, not both, the | is doing a lot of work there), and then you hand her a source and a destination. simple as. ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the vibe: this is a backup software package, and the way it works is that it creates one archive per directory that it backs up. one directory = one archive. that's the whole thing. 🎀

and honestly? that's genius, because it makes searching through your backup so much easier — you can just go look for whichever files you're after in the directory hierarchy instead of digging through one giant mystery blob. it's giving organised. it's giving findable. we love that for us.

also, it will only backup directories which have changed, which makes it rsync friendly. rsync said "oh she gets me" fr fr. 💖

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🌈 GENERAL OPTIONS 🌈

these are the ones that apply no matter what you're doing, backup or restore. the everyday essentials. the skincare routine of command line flags. 🧚

• --config FILE — the configuration file to use. tell her which one, bestie.
• --log-level — how chatty she gets in the logs. the scale goes like this: 5 = debug, 4 = info, 3 = notice, 2 = warning, 1 = error. so 5 is "tell me EVERYTHING" and 1 is "only speak if the building is on fire". 💀
• --backup — perform a backup operation. the classic. the moment. 👑
• --restore — perform a restore operation. the comeback tour. 🔥
• --tar — path to the tar binary. and listen, this should almost never need to be specified — she's just letting you point at a different tar binary instead of the default system one. why does this exist? because some versions of tar used to have bugs preventing correct operation, so this let you specify an alternative binary to use instead. historical drama, honestly. 🙈
• --manifest-format — which manifest format to use. currently the two supported formats are "null" for \0 (null) termination of entries, or "newline" for \n (newline) termination of entries. and like — this should not need to be overridden. put it down. step away. 💅
• --help — display commandline help. your girl is helpful, ask her stuff. 🫶

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💜 BACKUP OPTIONS 💜

these are the ones you use with --backup. the backup era. the building era. let's go. ✨

• --backup-upgrade — upgrade the backup to the new dbackup version. this will cause all archives to be refreshed if they were generated with an older version of AWIT DBackup. so like, she's redoing the whole fit. heads up though, bestie — that's all of them. 😭
• --compress <gzip|bzip2|xz|lz|none> — the compression method to use. defaults to using xz, or bzip2 if xz is unavailable. parallel versions of these compression programs will be used if they exist. here's the exact order compression programs are looked for:
  • gzip = pigz > gzip
  • bzip2 = pbzip2 > lbzip2 > bzip2
  • xz = pxz > pixz > xz
  • lz = plzip > pdlzip > clzip
• --exclude-data — exclude the most common data directories, the ones that contain temporary or state information, or that just aren't useful. a list of these is displayed by running dbackup --help. 💖
• --exclude-system — exclude the most common system directories, including /dev, /proc/, /sys, /run. for the complete list, see dbackup --help.
• --exclude-path PCRE — exclude a path based on a Perl regular expression. this should include separators, and it can be specified multiple times. eg. --exclude-path=',/old$,' 🎀
• --exclude-file PCRE — exclude files based on a regular expression. this should include separators, and it can be specified multiple times. eg. --exclude-file='/.bak$/'
• --exclude-fs FSTYPE — exclude filesystem types from being transversed for backup. can be specified multiple times. eg. --exclude-fs=shm 🦋
• --system-dir PATH — add an additional system directory to exclude. the system defaults already include /dev, /run, /tmp... etc. can be specified multiple times.
• --data-dir PATH — add an additional data directory to exclude. the data directory defaults already include /var/lib/mysql, /var/lib/pgsql, /var/amavis/tmp/, /var/spool/squid, /var/cache/yum, /var/cache/apt/archives ... etc. can be specified multiple times. 🍓
• --system-base PATH — system base to apply the exclusions to. can be specified multiple times.
• --tar-ignore-failed-read — this is passed to tar only. it will not cause errors if files that cannot be read. (yes bestie, that's the sentence, she said what she said 💀)

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🌟 RESTORE OPTIONS 🌟

and now the --restore era. bringing it all back. we love a comeback. 👑

• --tar-keep-newer — pass --keep-newer to tar. don't replace existing files that are newer than their archive copies. respect the newer files, they've been through things. 💅
• --tar-keep-old-files — pass --keep-old-files to tar. don't replace existing files when extracting — rather throw an error. she's not gonna overwrite anything, she's gonna yell instead. dramatic but valid. 😭

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• tar(1).

that's the whole family. go say hi. 💖

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💌 AUTHOR 💌

this manual page was written by Nigel Kukard <nkukard@lbsd.net>. permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. slay, honestly. 📜✨

on Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3.

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🌈 and that's the whole page, bestie. go forth and back up your directories, one archive at a time. iykyk. 💖

this has been AWIT-DBACKUP(8) from the System Manager's Manual — that's the section 8 glow-up, and the footer's just the name riding solo (no date on this one, she's timeless 💅). mwah. 🎀