Command Line Tools¶

Overview¶

Cedar Backup comes with three command-line programs: cback3, cback3-amazons3-sync, and cback3-span.

The cback3 command is the primary command line interface and the only Cedar Backup program that most users will ever need.

The cback3-amazons3-sync tool is used for synchronizing entire directories of files up to an Amazon S3 cloud storage bucket, outside of the normal Cedar Backup process.

Users who have a lot of data to back up — more than will fit on a single CD or DVD — can use the interactive cback3-span tool to split their data between multiple discs.

The `cback3` command¶

Introduction¶

Cedar Backup’s primary command-line interface is the cback3 command. It controls the entire backup process.

Syntax¶

The cback3 command has the following syntax:

Usage: cback3 [switches] action(s)

The following switches are accepted:

  -h, --help         Display this usage/help listing
  -V, --version      Display version information
  -b, --verbose      Print verbose output as well as logging to disk
  -q, --quiet        Run quietly (display no output to the screen)
  -c, --config       Path to config file (default: /etc/cback3.conf)
  -f, --full         Perform a full backup, regardless of configuration
  -M, --managed      Include managed clients when executing actions
  -N, --managed-only Include ONLY managed clients when executing actions
  -l, --logfile      Path to logfile (default: /var/log/cback3.log)
  -o, --owner        Logfile ownership, user:group (default: root:adm)
  -m, --mode         Octal logfile permissions mode (default: 640)
  -O, --output       Record some sub-command (i.e. cdrecord) output to the log
  -d, --debug        Write debugging information to the log (implies --output)
  -s, --stack        Dump a Python stack trace instead of swallowing exceptions
  -D, --diagnostics  Print runtime diagnostics to the screen and exit

The following actions may be specified:

  all                Take all normal actions (collect, stage, store, purge)
  collect            Take the collect action
  stage              Take the stage action
  store              Take the store action
  purge              Take the purge action
  rebuild            Rebuild "this week's" disc if possible
  validate           Validate configuration only
  initialize         Initialize media for use with Cedar Backup

You may also specify extended actions that have been defined in
configuration.

You must specify at least one action to take.  More than one of
the "collect", "stage", "store" or "purge" actions and/or
extended actions may be specified in any arbitrary order; they
will be executed in a sensible order.  The "all", "rebuild",
"validate", and "initialize" actions may not be combined with
other actions.

Note that the all action only executes the standard four actions. It never executes any of the configured extensions. 1

Switches¶

-h, --help: Display usage/help listing.
-V, --version: Display version information.
-b, --verbose: Print verbose output to the screen as well writing to the logfile. When this option is enabled, most information that would normally be written to the logfile will also be written to the screen.
-q, --quiet: Run quietly (display no output to the screen).
-c, --config: Specify the path to an alternate configuration file. The default configuration file is /etc/cback3.conf.
-f, --full: Perform a full backup, regardless of configuration. For the collect action, this means that any existing information related to incremental backups will be ignored and rewritten; for the store action, this means that a new disc will be started.
-M, --managed: Include managed clients when executing actions. If the action being executed is listed as a managed action for a managed client, execute the action on that client after executing the action locally.
-N, --managed-only: Include only managed clients when executing actions. If the action being executed is listed as a managed action for a managed client, execute the action on that client — but do not execute the action locally.
-l, --logfile: Specify the path to an alternate logfile. The default logfile file is /var/log/cback3.log.
-o, --owner: Specify the ownership of the logfile, in the form user:group. The default ownership is root:adm, to match the Debian standard for most logfiles. This value will only be used when creating a new logfile. If the logfile already exists when the cback3 command is executed, it will retain its existing ownership and mode. Only user and group names may be used, not numeric uid and gid values.
-m, --mode: Specify the permissions for the logfile, using the numeric mode as in chmod(1). The default mode is 0640 (-rw-r-----). This value will only be used when creating a new logfile. If the logfile already exists when the cback3 command is executed, it will retain its existing ownership and mode.
-O, --output: Record some sub-command output to the logfile. When this option is enabled, all output from system commands will be logged. This might be useful for debugging or just for reference.
-d, --debug: Write debugging information to the logfile. This option produces a high volume of output, and would generally only be needed when debugging a problem. This option implies the --output option, as well.
-s, --stack: Dump a Python stack trace instead of swallowing exceptions. This forces Cedar Backup to dump the entire Python stack trace associated with an error, rather than just propagating last message it received back up to the user interface. Under some circumstances, this is useful information to include along with a bug report.
-D, --diagnostics: Display runtime diagnostic information and then exit. This diagnostic information is often useful when filing a bug report.

Actions¶

You can find more information about the various actions in Basic Concepts. In general, you may specify any combination of the collect, stage, store or purge actions, and the specified actions will be executed in a sensible order. Or, you can specify one of the all, rebuild, validate, or initialize actions (but these actions may not be combined with other actions).

If you have configured any Cedar Backup extensions, then the actions associated with those extensions may also be specified on the command line. If you specify any other actions along with an extended action, the actions will be executed in a sensible order per configuration. The all action never executes extended actions, however.

The `cback3-amazons3-sync` command¶

Introduction¶

The cback3-amazons3-sync tool is used for synchronizing entire directories of files up to an Amazon S3 cloud storage bucket, outside of the normal Cedar Backup process.

This might be a good option for some types of data, as long as you understand the limitations around retrieving previous versions of objects that get modified or deleted as part of a sync. S3 does support versioning, but it won’t be quite as easy to get at those previous versions as with an explicit incremental backup like cback3 provides. Cedar Backup does not provide any tooling that would help you retrieve previous versions.

The underlying functionality relies on the AWS CLI toolset. Before you use this extension, you need to set up your Amazon S3 account and configure AWS CLI as detailed in Amazon’s setup guide. The aws command will be executed as the same user that is executing the cback3-amazons3-sync command, so make sure you configure it as the proper user. (This is different than the amazons3 extension, which is designed to execute as root and switches over to the configured backup user to execute AWS CLI commands.)

Permissons¶

You can use whichever Amazon-supported authentication mechanism you would like when setting up connectivity for the AWS CLI. It’s best to set up a separate user in the IAM Console rather than using your main administrative user.

You probably want to lock down this user so that it can only take backup related actions in the AWS infrastructure. One option is to apply the AmazonS3FullAccess policy, which grants full access to the S3 infrastructure. If you would like to lock down the user even further, this appears to be the minimum set of permissions required for the aws s3 sync action, written as a JSON policy statement:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:ListBucket",
                "s3:PutObject",
                "s3:PutObjectAcl",
                "s3:DeleteObject"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket",
                "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket/*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

In the Resource section, be sure to list the name of your S3 bucket instead of my-bucket.

Syntax¶

The cback3-amazons3-sync command has the following syntax:

Usage: cback3-amazons3-sync [switches] sourceDir s3bucketUrl

Cedar Backup Amazon S3 sync tool.

This Cedar Backup utility synchronizes a local directory to an Amazon S3
bucket.  After the sync is complete, a validation step is taken.  An
error is reported if the contents of the bucket do not match the
source directory, or if the indicated size for any file differs.
This tool is a wrapper over the AWS CLI command-line tool.

The following arguments are required:

  sourceDir            The local source directory on disk (must exist)
  s3BucketUrl          The URL to the target Amazon S3 bucket

The following switches are accepted:

  -h, --help           Display this usage/help listing
  -V, --version        Display version information
  -b, --verbose        Print verbose output as well as logging to disk
  -q, --quiet          Run quietly (display no output to the screen)
  -l, --logfile        Path to logfile (default: /var/log/cback3.log)
  -o, --owner          Logfile ownership, user:group (default: root:adm)
  -m, --mode           Octal logfile permissions mode (default: 640)
  -O, --output         Record some sub-command (i.e. aws) output to the log
  -d, --debug          Write debugging information to the log (implies --output)
  -s, --stack          Dump Python stack trace instead of swallowing exceptions
  -D, --diagnostics    Print runtime diagnostics to the screen and exit
  -v, --verifyOnly     Only verify the S3 bucket contents, do not make changes
  -v, --uploadOnly     Only upload new data, do not remove files in the S3 bucket
  -w, --ignoreWarnings Ignore warnings about problematic filename encodings

Typical usage would be something like:

  cback3-amazons3-sync /home/myuser s3://example.com-backup/myuser

This will sync the contents of /home/myuser into the indicated bucket.

Switches¶

-h, --help

Display usage/help listing.

-V, --version

Display version information.

-b, --verbose

Print verbose output to the screen as well writing to the logfile. When this option is enabled, most information that would normally be written to the logfile will also be written to the screen.

-q, --quiet

Run quietly (display no output to the screen).

-l, --logfile

Specify the path to an alternate logfile. The default logfile file is /var/log/cback3.log.

-o, --owner

Specify the ownership of the logfile, in the form user:group. The default ownership is root:adm, to match the Debian standard for most logfiles. This value will only be used when creating a new logfile. If the logfile already exists when the cback3-amazons3-sync command is executed, it will retain its existing ownership and mode. Only user and group names may be used, not numeric uid and gid values.

-m, --mode

Specify the permissions for the logfile, using the numeric mode as in chmod(1). The default mode is 0640 (-rw-r-----). This value will only be used when creating a new logfile. If the logfile already exists when the cback3-amazons3-sync command is executed, it will retain its existing ownership and mode.

-O, --output

Record some sub-command output to the logfile. When this option is enabled, all output from system commands will be logged. This might be useful for debugging or just for reference.

-d, --debug

Write debugging information to the logfile. This option produces a high volume of output, and would generally only be needed when debugging a problem. This option implies the --output option, as well.

-s, --stack

Dump a Python stack trace instead of swallowing exceptions. This forces Cedar Backup to dump the entire Python stack trace associated with an error, rather than just propagating last message it received back up to the user interface. Under some circumstances, this is useful information to include along with a bug report.

-D, --diagnostics

Display runtime diagnostic information and then exit. This diagnostic information is often useful when filing a bug report.

-v, --verifyOnly

Only verify the S3 bucket contents against the directory on disk. Do not make any changes to the S3 bucket or transfer any files. This is intended as a quick check to see whether the sync is up-to-date.

Although no files are transferred, the tool will still execute the source filename encoding check, discussed below along with --ignoreWarnings.

-u, --uploadOnly

Implement a partial or “upload only” sync, instead of a full synchronization. Normally, synchronization would remove files that exist in S3 but do not exist in the directory on disk. With this flag, new files are uploaded, but no files are removed in S3.

-w, --ignoreWarnings

The AWS CLI S3 sync process is very picky about filename encoding. Files that the Linux filesystem handles with no problems can cause problems in S3 if the filename cannot be encoded properly in your configured locale. As of this writing, filenames like this will cause the sync process to abort without transferring all files as expected.

To avoid confusion, the cback3-amazons3-sync tries to guess which files in the source directory will cause problems, and refuses to execute the AWS CLI S3 sync if any problematic files exist. If you’d rather proceed anyway, use --ignoreWarnings.

If problematic files are found, then you have basically two options: either correct your locale (i.e. if you have set LANG=C) or rename the file so it can be encoded properly in your locale. The error messages will tell you the expected encoding (from your locale) and the actual detected encoding for the filename.

The `cback3-span` command¶

Introduction¶

Cedar Backup was designed — and is still primarily focused — around weekly backups. Most users who back up more data than fits on a single disc seem to either use Amazon S3 or stop their backup process at the stage step, using Cedar Backup as an easy way to collect data.

However, some users have expressed a need to write these large kinds of backups to disc — if not every day, then at least occassionally. The cback3-span tool was written to meet those needs. If you have staged more data than fits on a single CD or DVD, you can use cback3-span to split that data between multiple discs.

cback3-span is not a general-purpose disc-splitting tool. It is a specialized program that requires Cedar Backup configuration to run. All it can do is read Cedar Backup configuration, find any staging directories that have not yet been written to disc, and split the files in those directories between discs.

cback3-span accepts many of the same command-line options as cback3, but must be run interactively. It cannot be run from cron. This is intentional. It is intended to be a useful tool, not a new part of the backup process (that is the purpose of an extension).

In order to use cback3-span, you must configure your backup such that the largest individual backup file can fit on a single disc. The command will not split a single file onto more than one disc. All it can do is split large directories onto multiple discs. Files in those directories will be arbitrarily split up so that space is utilized most efficiently.

Syntax¶

The cback3-span command has the following syntax:

Usage: cback3-span [switches]

Cedar Backup 'span' tool.

This Cedar Backup utility spans staged data between multiple discs.
It is a utility, not an extension, and requires user interaction.

The following switches are accepted, mostly to set up underlying
Cedar Backup functionality:

  -h, --help     Display this usage/help listing
  -V, --version  Display version information
  -b, --verbose  Print verbose output as well as logging to disk
  -c, --config   Path to config file (default: /etc/cback3.conf)
  -l, --logfile  Path to logfile (default: /var/log/cback3.log)
  -o, --owner    Logfile ownership, user:group (default: root:adm)
  -m, --mode     Octal logfile permissions mode (default: 640)
  -O, --output   Record some sub-command (i.e. cdrecord) output to the log
  -d, --debug    Write debugging information to the log (implies --output)
  -s, --stack    Dump a Python stack trace instead of swallowing exceptions

Switches¶

-h, --help: Display usage/help listing.
-V, --version: Display version information.
-b, --verbose: Print verbose output to the screen as well writing to the logfile. When this option is enabled, most information that would normally be written to the logfile will also be written to the screen.
-c, --config: Specify the path to an alternate configuration file. The default configuration file is /etc/cback3.conf.
-l, --logfile: Specify the path to an alternate logfile. The default logfile file is /var/log/cback3.log.
-o, --owner: Specify the ownership of the logfile, in the form user:group. The default ownership is root:adm, to match the Debian standard for most logfiles. This value will only be used when creating a new logfile. If the logfile already exists when the cback3 command is executed, it will retain its existing ownership and mode. Only user and group names may be used, not numeric uid and gid values.
-m, --mode: Specify the permissions for the logfile, using the numeric mode as in chmod(1). The default mode is 0640 (-rw-r-----). This value will only be used when creating a new logfile. If the logfile already exists when the cback3 command is executed, it will retain its existing ownership and mode.
-O, --output: Record some sub-command output to the logfile. When this option is enabled, all output from system commands will be logged. This might be useful for debugging or just for reference. Cedar Backup uses system commands mostly for dealing with the CD/DVD recorder and its media.
-d, --debug: Write debugging information to the logfile. This option produces a high volume of output, and would generally only be needed when debugging a problem. This option implies the --output option, as well.
-s, --stack: Dump a Python stack trace instead of swallowing exceptions. This forces Cedar Backup to dump the entire Python stack trace associated with an error, rather than just propagating last message it received back up to the user interface. Under some circumstances, this is useful information to include along with a bug report.

Using `cback3-span`¶

As discussed above, the cback3-span is an interactive command. It cannot be run from cron.

You can typically use the default answer for most questions. The only two questions that you may not want the default answer for are the fit algorithm and the cushion percentage.

The cushion percentage is used by cback3-span to determine what capacity to shoot for when splitting up your staging directories. A 650 MB disc does not fit fully 650 MB of data. It’s usually more like 627 MB of data. The cushion percentage tells cback3-span how much overhead to reserve for the filesystem. The default of 4% is usually OK, but if you have problems you may need to increase it slightly.

The fit algorithm tells cback3-span how it should determine which items should be placed on each disc. If you don’t like the result from one algorithm, you can reject that solution and choose a different algorithm.

The four available fit algorithms are:

worst

The worst-fit algorithm.

The worst-fit algorithm proceeds through a sorted list of items (sorted from smallest to largest) until running out of items or meeting capacity exactly. If capacity is exceeded, the item that caused capacity to be exceeded is thrown away and the next one is tried. The algorithm effectively includes the maximum number of items possible in its search for optimal capacity utilization. It tends to be somewhat slower than either the best-fit or alternate-fit algorithm, probably because on average it has to look at more items before completing.

best

The best-fit algorithm.

The best-fit algorithm proceeds through a sorted list of items (sorted from largest to smallest) until running out of items or meeting capacity exactly. If capacity is exceeded, the item that caused capacity to be exceeded is thrown away and the next one is tried. The algorithm effectively includes the minimum number of items possible in its search for optimal capacity utilization. For large lists of mixed-size items, it’s not unusual to see the algorithm achieve 100% capacity utilization by including fewer than 1% of the items. Probably because it often has to look at fewer of the items before completing, it tends to be a little faster than the worst-fit or alternate-fit algorithms.

first

The first-fit algorithm.

The first-fit algorithm proceeds through an unsorted list of items until running out of items or meeting capacity exactly. If capacity is exceeded, the item that caused capacity to be exceeded is thrown away and the next one is tried. This algorithm generally performs more poorly than the other algorithms both in terms of capacity utilization and item utilization, but can be as much as an order of magnitude faster on large lists of items because it doesn’t require any sorting.

alternate

A hybrid algorithm that I call alternate-fit.

This algorithm tries to balance small and large items to achieve better end-of-disk performance. Instead of just working one direction through a list, it alternately works from the start and end of a sorted list (sorted from smallest to largest), throwing away any item which causes capacity to be exceeded. The algorithm tends to be slower than the best-fit and first-fit algorithms, and slightly faster than the worst-fit algorithm, probably because of the number of items it considers on average before completing. It often achieves slightly better capacity utilization than the worst-fit algorithm, while including slightly fewer items.

Sample run¶

Below is a log showing a sample cback3-span run.

================================================
           Cedar Backup 'span' tool
================================================

This the Cedar Backup span tool.  It is used to split up staging
data when that staging data does not fit onto a single disc.

This utility operates using Cedar Backup configuration.  Configuration
specifies which staging directory to look at and which writer device
and media type to use.

Continue? [Y/n]:
===

Cedar Backup store configuration looks like this:

   Source Directory...: /tmp/staging
   Media Type.........: cdrw-74
   Device Type........: cdwriter
   Device Path........: /dev/cdrom
   Device SCSI ID.....: None
   Drive Speed........: None
   Check Data Flag....: True
   No Eject Flag......: False

Is this OK? [Y/n]:
===

Please wait, indexing the source directory (this may take a while)...
===

The following daily staging directories have not yet been written to disc:

   /tmp/staging/2007/02/07
   /tmp/staging/2007/02/08
   /tmp/staging/2007/02/09
   /tmp/staging/2007/02/10
   /tmp/staging/2007/02/11
   /tmp/staging/2007/02/12
   /tmp/staging/2007/02/13
   /tmp/staging/2007/02/14

The total size of the data in these directories is 1.00 GB.

Continue? [Y/n]:
===

Based on configuration, the capacity of your media is 650.00 MB.

Since estimates are not perfect and there is some uncertainly in
media capacity calculations, it is good to have a "cushion",
a percentage of capacity to set aside.  The cushion reduces the
capacity of your media, so a 1.5% cushion leaves 98.5% remaining.

What cushion percentage? [4.00]:
===

The real capacity, taking into account the 4.00% cushion, is 627.25 MB.
It will take at least 2 disc(s) to store your 1.00 GB of data.

Continue? [Y/n]:
===

Which algorithm do you want to use to span your data across
multiple discs?

The following algorithms are available:

   first....: The "first-fit" algorithm
   best.....: The "best-fit" algorithm
   worst....: The "worst-fit" algorithm
   alternate: The "alternate-fit" algorithm

If you don't like the results you will have a chance to try a
different one later.

Which algorithm? [worst]:
===

Please wait, generating file lists (this may take a while)...
===

Using the "worst-fit" algorithm, Cedar Backup can split your data
into 2 discs.

Disc 1: 246 files, 615.97 MB, 98.20% utilization
Disc 2: 8 files, 412.96 MB, 65.84% utilization

Accept this solution? [Y/n]: n
===

Which algorithm do you want to use to span your data across
multiple discs?

The following algorithms are available:

   first....: The "first-fit" algorithm
   best.....: The "best-fit" algorithm
   worst....: The "worst-fit" algorithm
   alternate: The "alternate-fit" algorithm

If you don't like the results you will have a chance to try a
different one later.

Which algorithm? [worst]: alternate
===

Please wait, generating file lists (this may take a while)...
===

Using the "alternate-fit" algorithm, Cedar Backup can split your data
into 2 discs.

Disc 1: 73 files, 627.25 MB, 100.00% utilization
Disc 2: 181 files, 401.68 MB, 64.04% utilization

Accept this solution? [Y/n]: y
===

Please place the first disc in your backup device.
Press return when ready.
===

Initializing image...
Writing image to disc...

Previous: Installation • Next: Configuration

1: Some users find this surprising, because extensions are configured with sequence numbers. I did it this way because I felt that running extensions as part of the all action would sometimes result in “surprising” behavior. Better to be definitive than confusing.

Command Line Tools¶

Overview¶

The `cback3` command¶

Introduction¶

Syntax¶

Switches¶

Actions¶

The `cback3-amazons3-sync` command¶

Introduction¶

Permissons¶

Syntax¶

Switches¶

The `cback3-span` command¶

Introduction¶

Syntax¶

Switches¶

Using `cback3-span`¶

Sample run¶

cedar-backup3

Navigation

Related Topics

Command Line Tools¶

Overview¶

The cback3 command¶

Introduction¶

Syntax¶

Switches¶

Actions¶

The cback3-amazons3-sync command¶

Introduction¶

Permissons¶

Syntax¶

Switches¶

The cback3-span command¶

Introduction¶

Syntax¶

Switches¶

Using cback3-span¶

Sample run¶

The `cback3` command¶

The `cback3-amazons3-sync` command¶

The `cback3-span` command¶

Using `cback3-span`¶