backup.pl

http://github.com/goerz/backup.pl

Author: Michael Goerz

INTRO

This code is licensed under the GPL

Install

Store the backup.pl script anywhere in your $PATH.

Usage

You have to write a backup profile, and then call backup.pl as

backup.pl profile.bkp

An example profile is

# INCLUDE
find /home/goerz/ -newer /home/goerz/.backup.pl/dailybackup_timestamp
    
# EXCLUDE
find /home/goerz/Mail/
find /home/goerz/mbox
find /home/goerz/Sent
find /home/goerz/.vmware
find /home/goerz/.backup.pl

# VARIABLES
splitsize = 0
excludepattern = '\.svn'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/\.thunderbird/'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/\.kde/'
excludepattern = '\.svn'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/\.beagle/'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/mp3/'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/.google/desktop'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/\.googleearth\/Cache/'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/\.googleearth\/Registry'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/Music/'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/.thumbnails/'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/Trash'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/Download/'
excludepattern = 'backup\.spool'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/backup/'
excludepattern = '^/home/goerz/\.mozilla'
gzip = 1
outfile = /home/goerz/backup/daily
postcommand = touch /home/goerz/.backup.pl/dailybackup_timestamp

This call will backup a number of folders defined in the profile into one or more archive files.

Generally, a profile consists of three sections, #INCLUDE, #EXCLUDE, and #VARIABLES. The #INCLUDE section lists all directories that should be included in the backup (either directly or as a command yielding the desired directories as output), whereas the #EXCLUDE section defines exceptions, in the same way.

The #VARIABLES section defines options for the backup script. The possible options in this section are splitsize, excludepattern, gzip, outfile, precommand, postcommand:

splitsize         Max. size of one output archive. The backup will be split
                  into one or more archives, each at most with a size of 
                  splitsize
excludepattern    Any file matching this pattern is excluded from the
                  backup
outfile           Base name for the output. The actual output archive will
                  have the name outfile.TIME.NO.tgz, where TIME is a
                  timestamp, and NO is the number of the output file (in
                  case of split files)
precommand        A command to run before the actual backup
postcommand       A command to run after the actual backup