HDDBACKUP(1) HDDBACKUP(1) NAME hddbackup - performs full or differential backups SYNOPSIS hddbackup level [-H, --help] [-V, --version] [-c, --compress=TYPE] [-d, --dir=DIR] [-e, --exclude=FILE] [-f, --exclude-from=FILE] [-g, --gpg=KEY] [-h, --host=HOST] [-l, --label=NAME] [-m, --cross-mp] [-q, --quiet] [-v, --verbose] [-z, --zip-here] directory DESCRIPTION hddbackup performs a backup of the directory tree rooted at directory at backup level level (a number in the range 0 to 9). The range of backup levels facilitates a variety of backup strategies. Level 0 always performs a full backup. Higher-level backups usually perform differential backups, which contain only the changes since the most recent backup of a lower level. So, for instance, yearly backups could be performed at level 1, monthly backups at level 3, weekly backups at level 5 and daily backups at level 7. Thus, the daily backups would only save changes since the beginning of the week, the weekly backups would only save changes since the beginning of the month, and the monthly backups would only save changes since the beginning of the year. In this example the even-num‐ bered backup levels remain for unscheduled backup events. When restoring, the most recent level 0 backup would have to be restored, followed by the most recent subsequent level 1 backup (if any), then by the most recent subsequent level 2 backup (if any), and so on. OPTIONS -H, --help Show usage message and quit. -V, --version Show version number and quit. -c, --compress=TYPE Compress using the specified compression format. Possible options are gz for gzip compression, bz2 for bzip2 compression, xz for xz compression, or none for no compression. The default is gz. -d, --dir=DIR Set the output directory for the archive files. If this option is not specified, the current working directory will be used. -e, --exclude=FILE Exclude the specified file or directory from the backup. This option may be specified multiple times. -f, --exclude-from=FILE Exclude the files listed in FILE from the backup. This option may be specified multiple times. -h, --host=HOST Specify the hostname whose filesystem is to be backed up. The transfer is done via SSH, so make sure that the remote machine is running an SSH server, and that the local machine has an SSH client installed. You need to setup authentication via an SSH key without a passphrase. If this option is not specified, then the local machine is backed up. -g, --gpg=KEY Specify the GPG key to be used for encryption. Make sure that the given key is in your keyring. If this option is not speci‐ fied, then the data is not encrypted. -l, --label=NAME Set the backup volume label. This option is required if the backup directory is different from /. Otherwise, the default volume label is the hostname of the machine being backed up. To generate the filename for the archive file, hddbackup appends three substrings to the volume label: the current date, the backup level, and the extension .tar{.gz,.bz2,}{.pgp,}. -m, --cross-mp Cross between filesystems when dumping. By default, hddbackup ignores mount points within the directory tree being backed up. This option causes hddbackup to include these mount points as though they were plain subdirectories. You can use the --exclude option to explicitly exclude mount points that you don’t want, such as /proc. -q, --quiet Suppress informational output. Warnings and errors are still printed. -v, --verbose Print all executed commands. -z, --zip-here For remote backups, perform compression locally. This has the advantage of decreased CPU load on the remote machine, but the disadvantage of increased network traffic. This option has no effect on local backups. EXAMPLES hddbackup 0 -e /tmp / Performs a full (level 0) backup of the local root directory, excluding /tmp. hddbackup 3 -e /tmp / Performs an differential (level 3) backup relative to the last backup of level 2 or less of the local root directory, i.e., relative to the most recent backup of level 2 or less, excluding /tmp. AUTHORS John-Paul Gignac , Joachim Reichel March 27, 2010 HDDBACKUP(1)