Backup script

rcmonroig · 04-17-2007, 04:30 PM

I am trying to create and automate a simple backup script to backup my home directory to a CD-RW in Fedora Core 6. Is there a special trick for accesing the CD-RW and copying the backup files to it. Anyone know of a simple backup script.

jschiwal · 04-17-2007, 05:44 PM

I would recommend using kdar. It can perform incremental backups and can also pause after each slice is created, in case the backup would be greater than 650MB. This allows you to burn the slice and and delete it if you don't have room for the entire backup. This is likely the case when backing up a full home directory. You can also save a script to use the dar command instead.

DAR stands for Disk ARchiver as TAR stands for Tape ARchiver.

rcmonroig · 04-18-2007, 04:02 AM

Can you recommend a short script to test it out?

IBall · 04-18-2007, 04:12 AM

If you want to do it manually (ie write your own script) try something like this:

Code:

#! /bin/bash
# Create a tarball of your home directory
tar -czvf /tmp/backup.tar.gz /home/username/

# Make a CD image of the tarball
mkisofs -r -o cdImage.iso /tmp/backup.tar.gz

# Blank the CDRW
cdrecord dev=/dev/hdd blank=[all,fast,session]

# Write the CD Image to the CDRW
cdrecord -v speed=32 dev=/dev/hdc -data cdImage.iso

You will probably need to add some error checking and prompting to that

Also, don't forget to delete the tarball from /tmp after you have verified the integrity of the backup. You could use MD5SUM for this.

I hope this helps
--Ian

jschiwal · 04-21-2007, 12:58 AM

If you set up kdar, you can export a bash script which uses dar to do the same thing.
Example:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# Run this script to create an archive using the following dar command.

dar -v -c "/media/disk/backups/matrix/dar_backups/diff_apr19-2007" -R "/" -A "/media/disk/backups/matrix/dar_backups/matrix_diff_Apr19-2007" -s 4613734400 -D -y -m 150 -Z "*.avi" -Z "*.bz2" -Z "*.gif" -Z "*.gz" -Z "*.jpg" -Z "*.mov" -Z "*.mpg" -Z "*.pbm" -Z "*.pdf" -Z "*.png" -Z "*.pnm" -Z "*.Z" -Z "*.zip" -X ".*" -X ".*~" -X "*~" -X "*.dar" -P "tmp/dar_backups" -P "dev/pts" -P "home/jschiwal/.beagle" -P "home/jschiwal/.imgseek" -P "home/jschiwal/.kde"  -P "media" -P "proc" -P "sys" -P "tmp" -P "var/tmp"

It will contain you options in a number of arguments, such as -R for the root of the backup; -P to exclude directories; -Z to avoid compression for certain filetypes; -s for the slice size, etc.
You could read through "man dar" and do it manually, but it would be easier to use kdar to set up a script.
You could perhaps use kdar for the first full backup and the first differential backup, and use a script when you feel that it is working correctly.