What Is ``tbku``?
=================


How Does ``tbku`` Work?
=======================

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.

Customizing
===========

As "shipped", 'tbku' is setup with defaults that make sense for
FreeBSD.  It is pretty simple to modify it for other operating
systems like Linux in the variable assignments below.  Typically,
the program locations and the tape device name have to be changed as
you move 'tbku' across various systems.


Updates & Support
=================

To get the latest version of 'tbku', go to:

   For Updates See:  http://www.tundraware.com/Software/tbku


Author
======

    Tim Daneliuk - tbku@tundraware.com

    Comments and/or improvements welcome!


Document Information
====================

This document was produced using the very useful ``reStructuredText``
tools in the ``docutils`` package.  For more information, see:

    http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html

This document is Copyright (c) 2008, TundraWare Inc., Des Plaines, IL
Permission is hereby given to freely distribute, copy, or otherwise
disseminate this document without charge, so long as you do so without
modifying it in any way.


$Id: tbku.txt,v 1.102 2008/03/18 22:44:08 tundra Exp $