mrb(8)
manage incremental snapshots with rsync/make.
DESCRIPTION
mrb
is a simple aid to creating efficient incremental snapshots of a set, or
sets, of directories whenever that may be required. It may be used as part
of a regular automated backup regime, or for manually checkpointing changes
at convenient points in time.
COMMANDS
The following commands are recognised
(where '
MODULE' is the name of one of your snapshot definitions):
- new-MODULE
-
Create a skeleton definition for a new snapshot 'MODULE'.
- dest-MODULE
-
Create the destination dir for 'MODULE'.
This directory must exist to create a snapshot.
- snap-MODULE
-
Create a snapshot of 'MODULE'.
- sync
-
Create snapshots of all defined modules.
If run as root this may be configured to include the modules
of other users too (see MRB_SYNC_USERS in ~/.mrb/defaults).
- help
-
Show mrb's own help text.
CONFIGURATION FILES
Per-user configuration
The following files may be used to specify global and local configuration
options.
- /etc/default/mrb
-
system default configuration.
- ~/.mrb/defaults
-
per-user configuration.
Per-user options
The following options control behaviour for all of a user's modules.
- MRB_SNAPSHOT_LOG
-
An optional file path where transfer details will be recorded. If unset
these details will not be logged.
- MRB_SYNC_USERS
-
A space separated list of users whose modules should be included in a sync.
This is mostly only useful for root, as mrb will assume the identity of
each user before creating snapshots of their modules. If unset, only
the invoking user's modules will be sync'ed.
- MRB_CONFDIR
-
An space separated list of the directories to search for module definition
(*.mrc) files. They will be searched in the order given, with new modules
added by default to the last one listed. There should be few reasons to
change the default value.
Per-module configuration
The default
MRB_CONFDIR value will search for module definitions in:
- /etc/mrb/*.mrc
-
- ~/.mrb/*.mrc
-
Those created by
new-MODULE
will be placed in this latter location by default.
Per-module options
In each case
module below is the name of the particular module that
the value set should apply to. These options should be defined in a file
named
module.
mrc.
- module_SRC
-
A space separated list of the files and (top level) directories to include
in the snapshots for this module.
- module_DEST
-
The directory root where snapshots of module should be stored.
- module_INCLUDE
-
An optional list of
rsync(1)
include patterns.
- module_EXCLUDE
-
An optional list of
rsync(1)
exclude patterns.
- module_FILTER
-
An optional list of
rsync(1)
filter patterns.
- module_FILTER_FILE
-
An optional filename for
rsync(1)
dir-merge filtering support.
- module_RSYNC_OPTIONS
-
Optional additional
rsync(1)
options to pass verbatim when it is invoked.
- module_PRECOMMAND
-
An optional shell command to invoke just prior to creating a new snapshot.
If the command does not return a successful exit status, then the snapshot
creation will be aborted before it begins. It may be used to mount removable
media or similar.
- module_POSTCOMMAND
-
An optional shell command to execute after making the snapshot. It will not
be called if the snaphot creation failed at an earlier stage, and its return
status may halt a sync operation if it fails with more modules still to process.
It may be used, for example, to unmount removable media again.
- module_USER
-
An optional user name to check that mrb is running as before performing
a snapshot. This can be used to ensure you have the correct permisson
to access the files being mirrored before you get too far.
