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.TH rsync-backup 8 "7 October 2012" rsync-backup
+.SH NAME
+rsync-backup \- back up files using rsync
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rsync-backup
.RB [ \-nv ]
The configuration file is simply a Bash shell fragment: configuration
commands are shell functions.
.TP
+.BI "addhook " hook " " command
+Arrange that the named
+.I hook
+runs the given
+.IR command .
+See
+.B runhook
+for more details.
+.TP
.BI "backup " "fs\fR[:\fIfsarg\fR] ..."
Back up the named filesystems. The corresponding
.IR fsarg s
may be required by the snapshot type.
.TP
+.BI "defhook " hook
+Define a new hook named
+.IR hook .
+See
+.B addhook
+and
+.B runhook
+for more information.
+.TP
.BI "host " host
Future
.B backup
in this case.
This command clears the
.B like
-list, and resets the retention policy to its default (i.e., the to
+list, the remote
+.B user
+name, and resets the retention policy to its default (i.e., the to
policy defined prior to the first
.B host
command).
Expiry considers each existing dump against the policy lines in order:
the last applicable line determines the dump's fate \(en so you should
probably write the lines in decreasing order of duration.
+.RS
.PP
Groups of
.B retain
policy: at the start of each
.B host
stanza, the policy is reset to the default.
+.RE
.TP
.BI "retry " count
The
.B fshash
mismatch will be retried up to
.I count
-times before being declared a failure.
+times before being declared a failure. The default is to retry once,
+clearing mismatching files from the
+.BR fshash (1)
+caches before the second attempt.
+.TP
+.BI "runhook " hook " " args\fR...
+Invoke the named
+.IR hook .
+The individual commands on the hook are run, in order, as
+.RS
+.IP
+.I command
+.IR args ...
+.PP
+If any command fails (returns nonzero) then no other hooks are run and
+.B runhook
+fails with the same exit code.
+.RE
.TP
.BI "snap " type " " \fR[\fIargs\fR...]
Use the snapshot
arguments, which may be supplied here. This command clears the
.B retry
counter.
+.TP
+.BI "user " name
+Specify the user name on the remote host. Without this, calls to
+.BR ssh (1)
+and
+.BR rsync (1)
+won't specify any user name, so the default (probably from the
+.BR ssh_config (5)
+file) will apply.
.SS Configuration variables
The following shell variables may be overridden by the configuration
file.
.TP
+.B HASH
+The hash function to use for verifying archive integrity. This is
+passed to the
+.B \-H
+option of
+.BR fshash ,
+so it must name one of the hash functions supported by your Python's
+.B hashlib
+module.
+The default is
+.BR sha256 .
+.TP
+.B INDEXDB
+The name of a SQLite database initialized by
+.BR update-bkp-index (8)
+in which an index is maintained of which dumps are on which backup
+volumes. If the file doesn't exist, then no index is maintained. The
+default is
+.IB localstatedir /lib/bkp/index.db
+where
+.I localstatedir
+is the state directory configured at build time.
+.TP
.B MAXLOG
The number of log files to be kept for each filesystem. Old logfiles
are deleted to keep the total number below this bound. The default
value is 14.
.TP
+.B METADIR
+The metadata directory for the currently mounted backup volume.
+The default is
+.IB mntbkpdir /meta
+where
+.I mntbkpdir
+is the backup mount directory configured at build time.
+.TP
.B RSYNCOPTS
Command-line options to pass to
.BR rsync (1)
.I mntbkpdir
is the backup mount directory configured at build time.
.TP
-.B HASH
-The hash function to use for verifying archive integrity. This is
-passed to the
-.B \-H
-option of
-.BR fshash ,
-so it must name one of the hash functions supported by your Python's
-.B hashlib
-module. The default is
-.BR sha256 .
-.SS Hook functions
-The configuration file may define shell functions to perform custom
-actions at various points in the backup process.
+.B VOLUME
+The name of the current volume. If this is left unset, the volume name
+is read from the file
+.IB METADIR /volume
+once at the start of the backup run.
+.SS Hooks
+The configuration file can modify the behaviour of the backup in two
+main ways: by adding commands to hooks (see the
+.B addhook
+command); and by redefining shell functions.
+.PP
+The following hooks are defined.
.TP
-.BI "backup_precommit_hook " host " " fs " " date
+.BI "commit " host " " fs " " date
+Called during the commit procedure. The backup tree and manifest have
+been renamed into their proper places. Typically one would use this
+hook to rename files created in a corresponding
+.B precommit
+command.
+.TP
+.BI "end " rc
+The backup has completed;
+.B rsync-backup
+will exit with status
+.IR rc .
+.TP
+.BI "precommit " host " " fs " " date
Called after a backup has been verified complete and about to be
committed. The backup tree is in
.B new
A typical action would be to create a digital signature on the
manifest.
.TP
+.BI "setup " host " " fs " " date
+Called when a backup of a particular filesystem is about to start. It
+can return with code 99 to skip the backup.
+.TP
+.B "start"
+Invoked before performing any actual dumps (the first time
+.B host
+is run).
+.PP
+The following shell functions can be redefined by users.
+.TP
.BI "backup_commit_hook " host " " fs " " date
-Called during the commit procedure. The backup tree and manifest have
-been renamed into their proper places. Typically one would use this
-hook to rename files created by the
-.B backup_precommit_hook
-function.
+Called from the
+.B commit
+hook for compatibility.
+.TP
+.BI "backup_precommit_hook " host " " fs " " date
+Called from the
+.B precommit
+hook for compatibility.
.TP
.BR "whine " [ \-n ] " " \fItext\fR...
Called to report `interesting' events when the
.PP
So don't use those names for your hosts.
.PP
-The next layer down contains a directory for each filesystem on the given host.
+The next layer down contains a directory for each filesystem on the
+given host.
.PP
The bottom layer contains a directory for each dump of that filesystem,
named with the date at which the dump was started (in ISO8601
.IB yyyy \(en mm \(en dd
format), together with associated files named
.IB date .* \fR.
+There is also a symbolic link
+.B last
+referring to the most recent backup of the filesystem.
.SH SEE ALSO
+.BR check-bkp-status (8),
.BR fshash (1),
.BR lvm (8),
.BR rfreezefs (8),
.BR rsync (1),
-.BR ssh (1).
+.BR ssh (1),
+.BR update-bkp-index (8).
.SH AUTHOR
Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>
~mdw / rsync-backup / blobdiff