Duply (1) Linux Manual Page

VERSION

DESCRIPTION

Duply deals as a wrapper for the mighty duplicity magic. It simplifies running duplicity with cron or on command line by:

•: keeping recurring settings in profiles per backup job
•: enabling batch operations eg. backup_verify+purge
•: executing pre/post scripts (different actions possible depending on previous or next command or it’s exit status)
•: precondition checking for flawless duplicity operation

For each backup job one configuration profile must be created. The profile folder will be stored under ‘~/.duply/<profile>’ (where ~ is the current users home directory).

Hint:: If the folder ‘/etc/duply’ exists, the profiles for the super user root will be searched & created there.

USAGE

first time usage (profile creation):: duply <profile> create
general usage in single or batch mode (see EXAMPLES):: duply <profile> <command>[[_|+|-]<command>[_|+|-]…] [<options> …]

For batches the conditional separators can also be written as pseudo commands and(+), or(-). See SEPARATORS for details.

Non duply options are passed on to duplicity (see OPTIONS). All conf parameters can also be defined in the environment instead.

PROFILE

Indicated by a path or a profile name (<profile>), which is resolved to ‘~/.duply/<profile>’ (~ expands to environment variable $HOME).

Superuser root can place profiles under ‘/etc/duply’. Simply create the folder manually before running duply as superuser.

Note:: Already existing profiles in root’s home folder will cease to work unless they are moved to the new location manually.
example 1:: duply humbug backup

Alternatively a _path_ might be used e.g. useful for quick testing, restoring or exotic locations. Shell expansion should work as usual.

Hint:: The path must contain at least one path separator ‘/’, e.g. ‘./test’ instead of only ‘test’.
example 2:: duply ~/.duply/humbug backup

SEPARATORS

_ (underscore)

neutral separator

+ (plus sign), _and_

conditional AND the next command will only be executed if the previous succeeded

– (minus sign), _or_

conditional OR the next command will only be executed if the previous failed

example:: ‘pre+bkp-verify_post’ translates to ‘pre_and_bkp_or_verify_post’

COMMANDS

usage: get usage help text
and/or: pseudo commands for better batch cmd readability (see SEPARATORS)
create: creates a configuration profile
backup: backup with pre/post script execution (batch: pre_bkp_post), full (if full_if_older matches or no earlier backup is found) incremental (in all other cases)
pre/post: execute ‘<profile>/pre’, ‘<profile>/post’ scripts
bkp: as above but without executing pre/post scripts
full: force full backup
incr: force incremental backup
list [<age>]: list all files in backup (as it was at <age>, default: now)
status: prints backup sets and chains currently in repository
verify [<age>] [–compare-data]: list files changed, since age if given
verifyPath <rel_path_in_bkp> <local_path> [<age>] [–compare-data]: list changes of a file or folder path in backup compared to a local path, since age if given
restore <target_path> [<age>]: restore the complete backup to <target_path> [as it was at <age>]
fetch <src_path> <target_path> [<age>]: fetch single file/folder from backup [as it was at <age>]
purge [<max_age>] [–force]: list outdated backup files (older than $MAX_AGE) [use –force to actually delete these files]
purgeFull [<max_full_backups>] [–force]: list outdated backup files ($MAX_FULL_BACKUPS being the number of full backups and associated incrementals to keep, counting in reverse chronological order) [use –force to actually delete these files]
purgeIncr [<max_fulls_with_incrs>] [–force]: list outdated incremental backups ($MAX_FULLS_WITH_INCRS being the number of full backups which associated incrementals will be kept, counting in reverse chronological order) [use –force to actually delete these files]
cleanup [–force]: list broken backup chain files archives (e.g. after unfinished run) [use –force to actually delete these files]
changelog: print changelog / todo list
txt2man: feature for package maintainers – create a manpage based on the usage output. download txt2man from http://mvertes.free.fr/, put it in the PATH and run ‘duply txt2man’ to create a man page.
version: show version information of duply and needed programs

OPTIONS

–force: passed to duplicity (see commands: purge, purge-full, cleanup)
–preview: do nothing but print out generated duplicity command lines
–disable-encryption: disable encryption, overrides profile settings

TIME FORMATS

For all time related parameters like age, max_age etc. Refer to the duplicity manpage for all available formats. Here some examples: 2002-01-25T07:00:00+02:00 (full date time format string) 2002/3/5 (date string YYYY/MM/DD) 12D (interval, 12 days ago) 1h78m (interval, 1 hour 78 minutes ago)

PRE POST SCRIPTS

Useful internal duply variables will be readable in the scripts. Some of interest may be

    CONFDIR, SOURCE, TARGET_URL_<PROT|HOSTPATH|USER|PASS>, 
    GPG_<KEYS_ENC|KEY_SIGN|PW>, CMD_<PREV|NEXT>, CMD_ERR

The CMD_* variables were introduced to allow different actions according to the command the scripts were attached to e.g. ‘pre_bkp_post_pre_verify_post’ will call the pre script two times, with CMD_NEXT variable set to ‘bkp’ on the first and to ‘verify’ on the second run. CMD_ERR holds the exit code of the CMD_PREV .

EXAMPLES

create profile ‘humbug’:: duply humbug create (don’t forget to edit this new conf file)
backup ‘humbug’ now:: duply humbug backup
list available backup sets of profile ‘humbug’:: duply humbug status
list and delete outdated backups of ‘humbug’:: duply humbug purge –force
restore latest backup of ‘humbug’ to /mnt/restore:: duply humbug restore /mnt/restore
restore /etc/passwd of ‘humbug’ from 4 days ago to /root/pw:: duply humbug fetch etc/passwd /root/pw 4D (see "duplicity manpage", section TIME FORMATS)
a one line batch job on ‘humbug’ for cron execution:: duply humbug backup_verify_purge –force
batch job to run a full backup with pre/post scripts:: duply humbug pre_full_post

FILES

in profile folder ‘~/.duply/<profile>’ or ‘/etc/duply’

conf: profile configuration file
pre,post: pre/post scripts (see above for details)
gpgkey.*.asc: exported GPG key files
exclude: a globbing list of included or excluded files/folders (see "duplicity manpage", section FILE SELECTION)

IMPORTANT

Copy the _whole_ profile folder after the first backup to a safe place. It contains everything needed to restore your backups. You will need it if you have to restore the backup from another system (e.g. after a system crash). Keep access to these files restricted as they contain _all_ informations (gpg data, ftp data) to access and modify your backups.

Repeat this step after _all_ configuration changes. Some configuration options are crucial for restoration.

duply (1) Linux Manual Page