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 tbku.txt
 
**DESCRIPTION**
 
``tbku`` is a utility script for producing "tarball" backups of
some- or all of your file systems. It is useful both for producing
incremental backups and for systemwide images or "snapshots". The
some- or all of your files. It is useful both for producing
incremental backups or for systemwide images or "snapshots". The
script can be run either from the command line or, more typically,
as a ``cron`` job to automate system backup tasks.
 
The central benefit of using ``tbku`` over hand written ``tar``
commands is that ``tbku`` is "table driven". You specify the set
of files to back up in a table (a separate file). You can have as
many of these "filesets" as you wish, corresponding to different
kinds of backups you want done. ``tbku`` will do backups
automatically or manually, based on the name of the "fileset". This
considerably simplifies automating backups, keeping backup logs, and
generally maintaining an orderly backup environment.
 
``tbku`` was originally developed as a backup tool for FreeBSD
systems. Since then, it has been updated to also work with SUSE
Linux. ``tbku`` should work with little- or no modification on any
other Unix-like system.
 
 
**HOW tbku WORKS**
 
 
This program produces tarballs of backup "sets". The tarball is
written to $BKUDIR. By default, this is '/bku' but you can override
this with the $TBKUDIR environment variable to point to any
directory you wish. If the directory does not exist, 'tbku' will
create it for you when it runs.
 
A backup "set" consists of a related set of files and directories
that are all to be backed up together into a single tarball. The
file containing all the names of all the files and directories in a
given backup set is called the "fileset". 'tbku' expects to find
filesets in $FILESETDIR. By default, this is '/root/tbku', but you
can override this by setting the $TBKUSETS environment variable to
point to the directory of your choice.
 
Notice that if this directory does not exist OR if the fileset you
name does not actually exist, 'tbku' will appear to run, but will
produce an empty backup set with an error in it's log indicating
that it could not find the named fileset. A backup that fails for
this reason will also be flagged by having the "*" character in its
backup, log, and timestamp filenames.
 
The naming of filesets is important. Fileset names must end in
".backup name". If the name begins with $COMMON, then this program
understands that set to be done "automatically". That is, if
nothing is passed on the command line, the program does an
"automatic" backup - i.e., It processess ALL the filesets found in
the backup directory whose names begin with $COMMON.
 
The program can also be started with command line arguments. It
understands these to be the name of the backups desired. For
instance:
tbku foo bar baz
 
Will look for filesets ending in
 
".foo", ".bar", ".baz".
 
In this case, the program does not care what the beginning of the
fileset name is. This can potentially be a problem if you have two
filesets whose names end identically. Say you have 'manual.bku.foo'
and "auto.bku.foo" in your $FILESETDIR directory and you issue the
command "tbku foo". BOTH of these filesets will be processed since
they both have the backup name "foo". The last one to be processes
will be the one whose backup tarball ends in $BKUDIR. The simple
way to avoid this is to never name two filesets with the same ending
backup name.
 
Do NOT use the special setname ".allsets". This name is reserved.
When passed on the command line ("tbku allsets"), it does all of the
backup sets it finds regardless of whether they are set for
automatic or not.
 
If the setname is "tape", then output will be written to the device
or file specified in the $TAPEDEV variable instead of a file in the
backup directory.
servers. Since then, it has been updated to also work with SUSE
Linux, both servers and desktops. ``tbku`` should work with little-
or no modification on any other Unix-like system. For example,
``tbku`` will run without modification (other than default
locations) in a ``cywgin`` environment under MS-Windows.
 
 
**INSTALLING tbku**
 
To use ``tbku``, all you have to do is install the file somewhere in
your ``$PATH``. Typically, a good place for it is in
``/usr/local/bin``. Just make sure its permissions are 755 so all
users will be able to use it.
 
You may optionally want to put ``tbku.1.gz`` somewhere in your
``$MANPATH`` so this documentation will be available as a man page.
 
There is also a ``tbku`` port for FreeBSD users that automates the
installation and deinstallation of ``tbku``.
 
Once you've installed the program, you should verify that its
default settings are to your liking. If not, you can override them
via environment variables (described later in this document). For
interactive use, make sure the environment variables you want to set
are exported when you log in. If you're running ``tbku`` from a
``cron`` job, be sure to set the environment variables of interest
in the ``crontab`` file.
 
 
**USING tbku**
 
``tbku`` has to know just *what* you want backed up. You do
this by creating a so-called *fileset* in the appropriate
directory (default: ``$HOME/tbku/``). Filesets are just text
files that list all the files and/or directories that are
to be backed up together. For instance, suppose you had
a fileset called ``manual.fileset.homedirs`` that contained
just these three lines::
 
/root
/home
/usr/home
 
If you now run this command::
 
tbku homedirs
 
The files and/or contents of ``/root``, ``/home``, and ``/usr/home``
would be written to a tarball in the backup directory (default:
``/bku/``). By default, the resulting tarball's name has a long
string of text that includes the machine name, system type, OS type,
date, *and* the so-called *set name*. The "set name" is nothing
more than the suffix of the fileset used to produce the tarball, in
this case, ``homedirs``. Additionally, you also find a log of
the backup and "dot files" that tell you when the backup began
and when it ended. Here's part of what you might see if you did
an ``ls -al /bku``::
 
Mar 19 05:46 .mach.fake.org-FreeBSD-6.3-STABLE-i386-homedirs-begin
Mar 19 05:47 .mach.fake.org-FreeBSD-6.3-STABLE-i386-homedirs-end
Mar 19 05:46 mach.fake.org-FreeBSD-6.3-STABLE-i386-homedirs-20080319.tar.gz
Mar 19 05:46 mach.fake.org-FreeBSD-6.3-STABLE-i386-homedirs.log
 
 
**IMAGING WITH tbku**
 
It is possible to use ``tbku`` backups to completely (re)image a
machine. The general idea is to have ``tbku`` produce a tarball with
the entire system you want to "clone" in it. Then, you can dump that
onto a newly prepared filesystem on the target machine.
 
The ``tbku`` distribution contains separate documents that describe
in detail how to image both FreeBSD and SUSE Linux systems. You can also
read the documents on line at:
 
http://www.tundraware.com/Software/tbku
 
 
**CUSTOMIZING tbku**
 
``tbku`` is written to be "smart" enough to figure out where your
 
export TBKUTAPE-/tmp/faketape # Tape backups actually written to *file*
 
 
**OTHER**
 
``tbku`` is intended to make it easier/more automatic to
to backups. It is not, however, idiot-proof. There are
some general backup guidelines you should observe:
 
**NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER ... EVER**, trust a backup tool
until you've confirmed that it is correctly producing backups
**and** you can properly restore from them!
 
Always keep multiple copies of your backups. If ``tbku`` is
writing its backups to the same drive/system it runs on, **make
sure you also keep a copy of those backups "off system"**.
 
It's a pretty good idea to keep **multiple backup copies**, on
**different media** (disk, tape, DVD, thumbdrive), in **different
locations**.
 
 
**UPDATES & SUPPORT**
 
To get the latest version of 'tbku', go to:
information, see:
 
http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
 
``$Id: tbku.txt,v 1.105 2008/03/19 16:31:36 tundra Exp $``
``$Id: tbku.txt,v 1.106 2008/03/19 17:25:38 tundra Exp $``