Actions
backup [
CREATION OPTIONS] [
COMPRESSION OPTIONS] [
SELECTION OPTIONS] [
FILESYSTEM OPTIONS] [
USER GROUP OPTIONS] [
STATISTICS OPTIONS]
sourcedir targetdir
back-up a source directory to a target backup repository.
calculate [--method
average]
statfile1 statfile2[…]
calculate average across multiple statistics files
--method
average
there is currently only one method and it is the default, but it might change in the future.
complete [--cword
index] [--unique|--no-unique]
-- words[…]
outputs a list of fitting options given already entered parameters. This option is of no relevance to backup tasks, it is only to be used to support programmatic completion like in bash. See the documentation for more details if you plan to write your own completion code, e.g. for an alternative shell.
--cword
index
index where the cursor currently is within the list of words.
--unique,--no-unique
should parameters already entered by the user be offered again, or not?
compare [
SELECTION OPTIONS] [--method
method] [--at
time]
sourcedir targetdir
Compare a directory with the backup set at the given time. This can be useful to see how archived data differs from current data, or to check that a backup is current.
--method
method
method used to compare can be either
meta,
full or
hash, where the default is
meta, which is also how rdiff-backup decides which file needs to be backed-up. Note that with
full, the repository data will be copied in its entirety to the source side and compared byte by byte. This is the slowest but most complete compare method. With
hash only the SHA1 checksum of regular files will be compared. With
meta only the metadata of files will be compared (name, size, date, type, etc).
--at
time
at which
time of the back-up directory should the comparaison take place. The default is
now, meaning the latest version. See
TIME FORMATS for details.
info
outputs information about the current system in YAML format, so that it can be used in a bug report, and exits.
list
files [
--changed-since time|
--at time]
repository
list modified or existing files in a given back-up repository.
--changed-since
time
List the files that have changed in the destination directory since the given time. See
TIME FORMATS for the format of time. If a directory in the archive is specified, list only the files under that directory. This option does not read the source directory; it is used to compare the contents of two different rdiff-backup sessions. See
TIME FORMATS for details.
--at
time
List the files in the archive that were present at the given time. If a directory in the archive is specified, list only the files under that directory. See
TIME FORMATS for details.
list
increments [
--no-size|
--size]
repository
list increments with date in a given back-up repository.
--no-size,--size
Show or not the size of each increment in the repository. The default is to
not show sizes. When showing sizes, it becomes allowable to specify a directory within a repository, then only the cumulated sizes of that directory will be shown.
regress [
COMPRESSION OPTIONS] [
USER GROUP OPTIONS] [
TIMESTAMP OPTIONS]
repository
If an rdiff-backup session fails, this action will undo the failed directory. This happens automatically if you attempt to back-up to a directory and the last backup failed. You can use the
--force option to undo the last backup even if it wasn’t failed (starting with API 201, use
--api-version if necessary).
remove
increments --older-than time [
--size]
repository
Remove the incremental backup information in the destination directory that has been around longer than the given time, or the oldest one if no time is provided.
By default, rdiff-backup will only delete information from one session at a time. To remove two or more sessions at the same time, supply the
--force option (rdiff-backup will tell you if it is required).
Note that snapshots of deleted files are covered by this operation. Thus if you deleted a file two weeks ago, backed up immediately afterwards, and then ran rdiff-backup with 'remove increments --older-than 10D' today, no trace of that file would remain.
--older-than
time
all the increments older than the given time will be deleted. See
TIME FORMATS for details.
--size
Show the size of each increment being removed. The default is to
not show sizes.
restore [
CREATION OPTIONS] [
COMPRESSION OPTIONS] [
SELECTION OPTIONS] [
FILESYSTEM OPTIONS] [
USER GROUP OPTIONS] [
--at time|
--increment]
source targetdir
restore a source backup repository at a specific time or a specific source increment to a target directory. See
RESTORING for details.
--at
time
the
source parameter is interpreted as a back-up directory, and the content is restored from the given time. See
TIME FORMATS for details.
--increment
the
source parameter is expected to be an increment within a back-up repository, to be restored into the given target directory.
server [
RESTRICT OPTIONS] [
--debug]
Enter server mode (not to be invoked directly, but instead used by another rdiff-backup process on a remote computer).
--debug
Start the server in debug mode so that it stops on an early breakpoint and can be remotely debugged using
rpdb. See the
developer’s documentation for details.
test
remote_location_1 [
remote_location_2…]
Test for the presence of a compatible rdiff-backup server as specified in the remote location argument(s) (of which the filename section will be checked for existence). See the
REMOTE OPERATION section for details.
verify [
--at time]
location
Check all the data in the repository at the given time by computing the SHA1 hash of all the regular files and comparing them with the hashes stored in the metadata file.
--at
time
the time of the data which needs to be verified. See
TIME FORMATS for details.
