AFCLIENT.CONF(8)

NAME
@clientconf@ - client side configuration file for afbackup

DESCRIPTION
This file needs not be edited by hand with an editor, instead the program @clientbindir@/afclientconfig can be used. If you are running X, the programs are the same, but start with an 'x'; (Tcl/Tk must be installed): and @clientbindir@/xafclientconfig. The parameters described below are the same for both versions. Entries consist of lines starting with the parameter name, then follows a colon and the value of the parameter. Comment lines can be inserted as desired starting with the # character.

ENTRIES

BackupHosts
    These are the hostnames of the machines where a server side of the backup service resides. Some kind of streamer device must be connected to these machines. The files and directories, that should be saved, are packed, eventually compressed, and then sent to the named machines, who writes them to the connected device. The named machines are tested for service availability. If a server is busy, the next one is tried. BackupPorts can be configured in the same order as the host entries supplied here. The servers in this list may be separated by whitespace and/or commas. If a backup server is the same host as the client, the use of the name localhost is encouraged.

BackupPorts
    These are the port numbers on the backup server machines, where the backup server processes listen. The default is 2988 or the number found in the file /etc/services (or in NIS if it is configured). Several ports can be supplied, positionally according to the backup server hosts supplied in the BackupHosts parameter. The numbers can be separated by whitespace and/or commas. If fewer numbers are supplied than backup servers, the default port 2988 applies for the rest. If more port numbers are given, the superfluous ones are ignored.

CartridgeSets
    The cartridge sets on the server side to use for backups. They must bes legal number between 1 and the number of cartridge sets configured on the appropriate server side. Several sets can be supplied, positionally according to the backup server hosts supplied in the BackupHosts parameter. The numbers can be separated by whitespace and/or commas. If fewer numbers are supplied than backup servers, the default set # 1 applies for the rest. If more cartridge set numbers are given, the superfluous ones are ignored.

RootDirectory
    This is the directory, the backup client changes to before packing the files and directories. Their names should be supplied relative to this directory, e.g. ./home .

DirsToBackup
    These are the names of files and directories, that should be saved. Wildcards in the usual manner are allowed (shell- style or glob-style). They should be supplied relative to the working directory, the client changes to when starting. Descending into directories can be limited to the actual filesystem by preceding the filename with the four characters stripped off the name before saving. Supplying a filename preceded with the four characters /../ (what makes no sense normally) or the option -r (and a space) forces the file contents to be saved regardless of the file type. This way raw partitions or similar things can be saved. The prefix /../ is stripped off the name before saving. These file contents are by default never compressed for safety reasons. If you want to force compression nonetheless, use //../ as prefix or precede the name with the option -R (and a space).

DirsToBackupX
    These are the names of files and directories, that should be saved as part X. Wildcards in the usual manner are allowed (shell-style or glob-style). They should be supplied relative to the working directory the client changes to when starting (See: RootDirectory). Descending into directories can be limited to the actual filesystem by preceding the filename with the four characters .//. or the option -m (and a space). The prefix .//. is stripped off the name before saving. Supplying a filename preceded with the four characters /../ (what makes no sense normally) or the option -r (and a space) forces the file contents to be saved regardless of the file type. This way raw partitions or similar things can be saved. The prefix /../ is stripped off the name before saving. These file contents are by default never compressed for safety reasons. If you want to force compression nonetheless, use //../ as prefix or precede the name with the option -R (and a space). These parameters may only be supplied if the parameter NumBackupParts is set greater than 1 (!). Otherwise they must be commented out to prevent a mismatch.

FilesToSkip
    These are the names of files, that should not be saved. Wildcards in the usual manner are allowed (shell-style or glob-style, furthermore path-patterns in the style of GNU's find program with option -path. Note, that e.g. a*d matches ab/cd). E.g. it does not usually make much sense to back up object files, as they can be easily reproduced from existing program sources.

DirsToSkip
    These are the names of directories, that should not be saved. Wildcards in the usual manner are allowed (shell-style or glob-style, furthermore path-patterns in the style of GNU's find program with option -path. Note, that e.g. a*d matches ab/cd). E.g. it does not usually make much sense to back up the lost+found directory or such only containing object files, as they can be easily reproduced from existing program sources.

ExcludeListFile
    A file with the name supplied here can be present in any directory. It should contain a list of file-/directory-names (or glob-style patterns), that should be skipped during backup. Each entry must be in an own line. The given names/patterns are valid only in the same directory, where the file resides. Thus each directory can have it's individual exclusion list."

NumBackupParts
    If you have to backup a large amount of files and the full backup can't be done during one run (e.g. over a weekend), you can divide the full backup into pieces. This number determines, how many pieces you need. If this number is not equal to 1, you have to supply which files and directories you want to save in which piece. You do so by setting the parameters DirsToBackupX with X equal to the number of the backup part the files belong to.

CompressCmd
    If you want your files to be compressed, you can supply the name of the program that should perform the compression here. If you do so, you MUST also supply the appropriate decompress- program. Note that this program may be specified with options but no shell-like constructions such as pipes, variables or wildcards. This program must read standard input and write to standard output.

UncompressCmd
    The counterpart to the compression program. You must either supply both compress- and uncompress-program or neither of them. Like the compress program, the uncompress-program must read standard input and write to standard output.

IndexFilePart
    The name of the file where the names of the saved files are stored. The current number is appended to this filename. The number is incremented each time a full backup starts.

CompressBackupedFiles
    This flag specifies, whether the files, that are saved, should be compressed with the given compression program.

CompressLogfiles
    This flag specifies, whether the filename logging files should be compressed with the given compression program.

DoNotCompress
    These patterns or filenames specify files, that no compression is attempted on. Normally compression is attempted on all files, and if a file cannot be compressed any further, it is saved uncompressed. This procedure is unefficient for already compressed files, so their value compression can be suppressed with this parameter. The value of this parameter must be a list separated by whitespace. Double quotes may enclose list elements.

NumIndexesToStore
    This number determines how many log files of previous full backups are saved. These files may serve for the restore of older files than those present in the actual backup. Of course there must be sufficient space to hold all the backups. It doesn't help to save all the saved filenames but not to have them available on tape.

LoggingFile
    The name of a file error messages or other notable events are written to.

VarDirectory
    The directory, where varying files should be put in. These files must not be deleted. The information they contain is necessary for restore.

EncryptionKeyFile
    The file containing the encryption key for authenticating the backup client to the server. This file must contain at least 5 characters and must not have read permission for group or world.

StartupInfoProgram
    This is the (shell-) command to run to save the startup information of an incremental or full backup, sometimes called bootstrap information. This program should read the standard input and do something reasonable with it, e.g. append it to some file. The produced information can be used to recover from a hard crash, when the files are lost, that are containing the names of the saved files. Therefore this information should not be saved locally on the client host, but e.g. on an NFS-mounted filesystem, a floppy disc or in a mail-file (then this command should be sth. like: mail someuser).

InitProgram
    A (shell-) command to be run before a backup is attempted. If this program returns an exit status unequal to 0, no backup is performed. This parameter makes only sense when backup is started remotely, cause in that case no shell- command can be supplied. If backup is started locally, there is no problem to run whatever is necessery before the backup explicitely.

ExitProgram
    This parameter may specify a (shell-) command to run at exit time of a full or incremental backup. The following patterns are replaced as explained: %l by the name of the file containing the filelists
    %r by the name of the file containing statistics (this file is automatically removed after execution of this program)
    %e by the overall exit status.

FILES

@serverlibdir@/@serverconf@
    Server configuration file

@serverlogdir@
    The directory for logging the server actions

@servervardir@
    Some internal state information of the server.

SEE ALSO
afclientconfig(8), xafclientconfig(8), full_backup(8), incr_backup(8), afverify(8), afrestore(8), print_errors(8), afclient.conf(8), afserver.conf(8), tar(1)

AUTHOR
afbackup was written by Albert Fluegel (af@muc.de). This manpage was extracted from the text docs by Christian Meder (meder@isr.uni-stuttgart.de).