1rsnapshot(1) rsnapshot-tools rsnapshot(1)
2
6 rsnapshot - remote filesystem snapshot utility
7
9 rsnapshot [-vtxqVD] [-c cfgfile] [command] [args]
10
12 rsnapshot is a filesystem snapshot utility. It can take incremental
13 snapshots of local and remote filesystems for any number of machines.
14 Local filesystem snapshots are handled with rsync(1). Secure remote
16 connections are handled with rsync over ssh(1), while anonymous rsync
17 connections simply use an rsync server. Both remote and local transfers
18 depend on rsync.
19 rsnapshot saves much more disk space than you might imagine. The amount
21 of space required is roughly the size of one full backup, plus a copy
22 of each additional file that is changed. rsnapshot makes extensive use
23 of hard links, so if the file doesn't change, the next snapshot is
24 simply a hard link to the exact same file.
25 rsnapshot will typically be invoked as root by a cron job, or series of
27 cron jobs. It is possible, however, to run as any arbitrary user with
28 an alternate configuration file.
29 All important options are specified in a configuration file, which is
31 located by default at /etc/rsnapshot.conf. An alternate file can be
32 specified on the command line. There are also additional options which
33 can be passed on the command line.
34 The command line options are as follows:
36 -v verbose, show shell commands being executed
38 -t test, show shell commands that would be executed
40 -c path to alternate config file
42 -x one filesystem, don't cross partitions within each backup point
44 -q quiet, suppress non-fatal warnings
46 -V same as -v, but with more detail
48 -D a firehose of diagnostic information
50
52 /etc/rsnapshot.conf is the default configuration file. All parameters
53 in this file must be separated by tabs. /etc/rsnapshot.conf.default can
54 be used as a reference.
55 It is recommended that you copy /etc/rsnapshot.conf.default to
57 /etc/rsnapshot.conf, and then modify /etc/rsnapshot.conf to suit your
58 needs.
59 Long lines may be split over several lines. "Continuation" lines must
61 begin with a space or a tab character. Continuation lines will have
62 all leading and trailing whitespace stripped off, and then be appended
63 with an intervening tab character to the previous line when the
64 configuation file is parsed.
65 Here is a list of allowed parameters:
67 config_version Config file version (required). Default is 1.2
69 snapshot_root Local filesystem path to save all snapshots
71 include_conf Include another file in the configuration at
73 this point.
74 This is recursive, but you may need to be careful about paths
76 when specifying which file to include. We check to see if the
77 file you have specified is readable, and will yell an error if
78 it isn't. We recommend using a full path. As a special case,
79 include_conf's value may be enclosed in `backticks` in which
80 case it will be executed and whatever it spits to STDOUT will
81 be included in the configuration. Note that shell meta-
82 characters may be interpreted.
83 no_create_root If set to 1, rsnapshot won't create
85 snapshot_root directory
86 cmd_rsync Full path to rsync (required)
88 cmd_ssh Full path to ssh (optional)
90 cmd_cp Full path to cp (optional, but must be GNU
92 version)
93 If you are using Linux, you should uncomment cmd_cp. If you are
95 using a platform which does not have GNU cp, you should leave
96 cmd_cp commented out.
97 With GNU cp, rsnapshot can take care of both normal files and
99 special files (such as FIFOs, sockets, and block/character
100 devices) in one pass.
101 If cmd_cp is disabled, rsnapshot will use its own built-in
103 function, native_cp_al() to backup up regular files and
104 directories. This will then be followed up by a separate call
105 to rsync, to move the special files over (assuming there are
106 any).
107 cmd_rm Full path to rm (optional)
109 cmd_logger Full path to logger (optional, for syslog
111 support)
112 cmd_du Full path to du (optional, for disk usage
114 reports)
115 cmd_rsnapshot_diff Full path to rsnapshot-diff (optional)
117 cmd_preexec
119 Full path (plus any arguments) to preexec script (optional).
121 This script will run immediately before each backup operation
122 (but not any rotations). If the execution fails, rsnapshot will
123 stop immediately.
124 cmd_postexec
126 Full path (plus any arguments) to postexec script (optional).
128 This script will run immediately after each backup operation
129 (but not any rotations). If the execution fails, rsnapshot will
130 stop immediately.
131 linux_lvm_cmd_lvcreate
133 linux_lvm_cmd_lvremove
135 linux_lvm_cmd_mount
137 linux_lvm_cmd_umount
139 Paths to lvcreate, lvremove, mount and umount commands, for use
141 with Linux LVMs. You may include options to the commands also.
142 The lvcreate, lvremove, mount and umount commands are required
143 for managing snapshots of LVM volumes and are otherwise
144 optional.
145 retain [name] [number]
147 "name" refers to the name of this backup level (e.g., alpha,
149 beta, so also called the 'interval'). "number" is the number of
150 snapshots for this type of interval that will be retained. The
151 value of "name" will be the command passed to rsnapshot to
152 perform this type of backup.
153 A deprecated alias for 'retain' is 'interval'.
155 Example: retain alpha 6
157 [root@localhost]# rsnapshot alpha
159 For this example, every time this is run, the following will
161 happen:
162 <snapshot_root>/alpha.5/ will be deleted, if it exists.
164 <snapshot_root>/alpha.{1,2,3,4} will all be rotated +1, if they
166 exist.
167 <snapshot_root>/alpha.0/ will be copied to
169 <snapshot_root>/alpha.1/ using hard links.
170 Each backup point (explained below) will then be rsynced to the
172 corresponding directories in <snapshot_root>/alpha.0/
173 Backup levels must be specified in the config file in order,
175 from most frequent to least frequent. The first entry is the
176 one which will be synced with the backup points. The subsequent
177 backup levels (e.g., beta, gamma, etc) simply rotate, with each
178 higher backup level pulling from the one below it for its .0
179 directory.
180 Example:
182 retain alpha 6
184 retain beta 7
186 retain gamma 4
188 beta.0/ will be moved from alpha.5/, and gamma.0/ will be moved
190 from beta.6/
191 alpha.0/ will be rsynced directly from the filesystem.
193 link_dest 1
195 If your version of rsync supports --link-dest (2.5.7 or newer),
197 you can enable this to let rsync handle some things that GNU cp
198 or the built-in subroutines would otherwise do. Enabling this
199 makes rsnapshot take a slightly more complicated code branch,
200 but it's the best way to support special files on non-Linux
201 systems.
202 sync_first 1
204 sync_first changes the behaviour of rsnapshot. When this is
206 enabled, all calls to rsnapshot with various backup levels
207 simply rotate files. All backups are handled by calling
208 rsnapshot with the "sync" argument. The synced files are stored
209 in a ".sync" directory under the snapshot_root.
210 This allows better recovery in the event that rsnapshot is
212 interrupted in the middle of a sync operation, since the sync
213 step and rotation steps are separated. This also means that you
214 can easily run "rsnapshot sync" on the command line without
215 fear of forcing all the other directories to rotate up. This
216 benefit comes at the cost of one more snapshot worth of disk
217 space. The default is 0 (off).
218 verbose 2
220 The amount of information to print out when the program is run.
222 Allowed values are 1 through 5. The default is 2.
223 1 Quiet Show fatal errors only
225 2 Default Show warnings and errors
226 3 Verbose Show equivalent shell commands being executed
227 4 Extra Verbose Same as verbose, but with more detail
228 5 Debug All kinds of information
229 loglevel 3
231 This number means the same thing as verbose above, but it
233 determines how much data is written to the logfile, if one is
234 being written.
235 logfile /var/log/rsnapshot
237 Full filesystem path to the rsnapshot log file. If this is
239 defined, a log file will be written, with the amount of data
240 being controlled by loglevel. If this is commented out, no log
241 file will be written.
242 include [file-name-pattern]
244 This gets passed directly to rsync using the --include
246 directive. This parameter can be specified as many times as
247 needed, with one pattern defined per line. See the rsync(1) man
248 page for the syntax.
249 exclude [file-name-pattern]
251 This gets passed directly to rsync using the --exclude
253 directive. This parameter can be specified as many times as
254 needed, with one pattern defined per line. See the rsync(1) man
255 page for the syntax.
256 include_file /path/to/include/file
258 This gets passed directly to rsync using the --include-from
260 directive. See the rsync(1) man page for the syntax.
261 exclude_file /path/to/exclude/file
263 This gets passed directly to rsync using the --exclude-from
265 directive. See the rsync(1) man page for the syntax.
266 rsync_short_args -a
268 List of short arguments to pass to rsync. If not specified,
270 "-a" is the default. Please note that these must be all next to
271 each other. For example, "-az" is valid, while "-a -z" is not.
272 "-a" is rsync's "archive mode" which tells it to copy as much
274 of the filesystem metadata as it can for each file. This
275 specifically does *not* include information about hard links,
276 as that would greatly increase rsync's memory usage and slow it
277 down. If you need to preserve hard links in your backups, then
278 add "H" to this.
279 rsync_long_args --delete --numeric-ids --relative
281 --delete-excluded
282 List of long arguments to pass to rsync. The default values
284 are
285 --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded This
286 means that the directory structure in each backup point
287 destination will match that in the backup point source.
288 Quotes are permitted in rsync_long_args, eg --rsync-path="sudo
290 /usr/bin/rsync". You may use either single (') or double (")
291 quotes, but nested quotes (including mixed nested quotes) are
292 not permitted. Similar quoting is also allowed in per-backup-
293 point rsync_long_args.
294 ssh_args -p 22
296 Arguments to be passed to ssh. If not specified, the default is
298 none.
299 du_args -csh
301 Arguments to be passed to du. If not specified, the default is
303 -csh. GNU du supports -csh, BSD du supports -csk, Solaris du
304 doesn't support -c at all. The GNU version is recommended,
305 since it offers the most features.
306 lockfile /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
308 stop_on_stale_lockfile 0
310 Lockfile to use when rsnapshot is run. This prevents a second
312 invocation from clobbering the first one. If not specified, no
313 lock file is used. Make sure to use a directory that is not
314 world writeable for security reasons. Use of a lock file is
315 strongly recommended.
316 If a lockfile exists when rsnapshot starts, it will try to read
318 the file and stop with an error if it can't. If it *can* read
319 the file, it sees if a process exists with the PID noted in the
320 file. If it does, rsnapshot stops with an error message. If
321 there is no process with that PID, then we assume that the
322 lockfile is stale and ignore it *unless* stop_on_stale_lockfile
323 is set to 1 in which case we stop.
324 stop_on_stale_lockfile defaults to 0.
326 one_fs 1
328 Prevents rsync from crossing filesystem partitions. Setting
330 this to a value of 1 enables this feature. 0 turns it off. This
331 parameter is optional. The default is 0 (off).
332 use_lazy_deletes 1
334 Changes default behavior of rsnapshot and does not initially
336 remove the oldest snapshot. Instead it moves that directory to
337 _delete.[processid] and continues as normal. Once the backup
338 has been completed, the lockfile will be removed before
339 rsnapshot starts deleting the directory.
340 Enabling this means that snapshots get taken sooner (since the
342 delete doesn't come first), and any other rsnapshot processes
343 are allowed to start while the final delete is happening. This
344 benefit comes at the cost of using more disk space. The default
345 is 0 (off).
346 The details of how this works have changed in rsnapshot version
348 1.3.1. Originally you could only ever have one .delete
349 directory per backup level. Now you can have many, so if your
350 next (eg) alpha backup kicks off while the previous one is
351 still doing a lazy delete you may temporarily have extra
352 _delete directories hanging around.
353 linux_lvm_snapshotsize 2G
355 LVM snapshot(s) size (lvcreate --size option).
357 linux_lvm_snapshotname rsnapshot
359 Name to be used when creating the LVM logical volume
361 snapshot(s) (lvcreate --name option).
362 linux_lvm_vgpath /dev
364 Path to the LVM Volume Groups.
366 linux_lvm_mountpath /mnt/lvm-snapshot
368 Mount point to use to temporarily mount the snapshot(s).
370 backup /etc/ localhost/
372 backup root@example.com:/etc/ example.com/
374 backup rsync://example.com/path2/ example.com/
376 backup /var/ localhost/ one_fs=1
378 backup lvm://vg0/home/path2/ lvm-vg0/
380 backup_script /usr/local/bin/backup_pgsql.sh pgsql_backup/
382 Examples:
384 backup /etc/ localhost/
386 Backs up /etc/ to <snapshot_root>/<retain>.0/localhost/etc/
388 using rsync on the local filesystem
389 backup /usr/local/ localhost/
391 Backs up /usr/local/ to
393 <snapshot_root>/<retain>.0/localhost/usr/local/ using rsync
394 on the local filesystem
395 backup root@example.com:/etc/ example.com/
397 Backs up root@example.com:/etc/ to
399 <snapshot_root>/<retain>.0/example.com/etc/ using rsync
400 over ssh
401 backup example.com:/etc/ example.com/
403 Same thing but let ssh choose the remote username (as
405 specified in ~/.ssh/config, otherwise the same as the local
406 username)
407 backup root@example.com:/usr/local/ example.com/
409 Backs up root@example.com:/usr/local/ to
411 <snapshot_root>/<retain>.0/example.com/usr/local/ using
412 rsync over ssh
413 backup rsync://example.com/pub/ example.com/pub/
415 Backs up rsync://example.com/pub/ to
417 <snapshot_root>/<retain>.0/example.com/pub/ using an
418 anonymous rsync server. Please note that unlike backing up
419 local paths and using rsync over ssh, rsync servers have
420 "modules", which are top level directories that are
421 exported. Therefore, the module should also be specified in
422 the destination path, as shown in the example above (the
423 pub/ directory at the end).
424 backup /var/ localhost/ one_fs=1
426 This is the same as the other examples, but notice the
428 fourth column. This is how you specify per-backup-point
429 options to over-ride global settings. This extra parameter
430 can take several options, separated by commas.
431 It is most useful when specifying per-backup rsync excludes
433 thus:
434 backup root@somehost:/ somehost
436 +rsync_long_args=--exclude=/var/spool/
437 Note the + sign. That tells rsnapshot to add to the list
439 of arguments to pass to rsync instead of replacing the
440 list.
441 backup lvm://vg0/home/path2/ lvm-vg0/
443 Backs up the LVM logical volume called home, of volume
445 group vg0, to <snapshot_root>/<interval>.0/lvm-vg0/. Will
446 create, mount, backup, unmount and remove an LVM snapshot
447 for each lvm:// entry.
448 backup_script /usr/local/bin/backup_database.sh
450 db_backup/
451 In this example, we specify a script or program to run.
453 This script should simply create files and/or directories
454 in its current working directory. rsnapshot will then take
455 that output and move it into the directory specified in the
456 third column.
457 Please note that whatever is in the destination directory
459 will be completely deleted and recreated. For this reason,
460 rsnapshot prevents you from specifying a destination
461 directory for a backup_script that will clobber other
462 backups.
463 So in this example, say the backup_database.sh script
465 simply runs a command like:
466 #!/bin/sh
468 mysqldump -uusername mydatabase > mydatabase.sql
470 chmod u=r,go= mydatabase.sql # r-------- (0400)
472 rsnapshot will take the generated "mydatabase.sql" file and
474 move it into the <snapshot_root>/<retain>.0/db_backup/
475 directory. On subsequent runs, rsnapshot checks the
476 differences between the files created against the previous
477 files. If the backup script generates the same output on
478 the next run, the files will be hard linked against the
479 previous ones, and no additional disk space will be taken
480 up.
481 backup_exec ssh root@1.2.3.4 "du -sh /.offsite_backup"
483 optional/ backup_exec rsync -az /.snapshots/daily.0
484 root@1.2.3.4:/.offsite_backup/ required/ backup_exec
485 /bin/true/
486 backup_exec simply runs the command listed. The second
488 argument is not required and defaults to a value of
489 'optional'. It specifies the importance that the command
490 return 0. Valid values are 'optional' and 'required'. If
491 the command is specified as optional, a non-zero exit
492 status from the command will result in a warning message
493 being output. If the command is specified as 'required', a
494 non-zero exit status from the command will result in an
495 error message being output and rsnapshot itself will exit
496 with a non-zero exit status.
497 Remember that tabs must separate all elements, and that there must
499 be a trailing slash on the end of every directory.
500 A hash mark (#) on the beginning of a line is treated as a comment.
502 Putting it all together (an example file):
504 # THIS IS A COMMENT, REMEMBER TABS MUST SEPARATE ALL ELEMENTS
506 config_version 1.2
508 snapshot_root /.snapshots/
510 cmd_rsync /usr/bin/rsync
512 cmd_ssh /usr/bin/ssh
513 #cmd_cp /bin/cp
514 cmd_rm /bin/rm
515 cmd_logger /usr/bin/logger
516 cmd_du /usr/bin/du
517 linux_lvm_cmd_lvcreate /sbin/lvcreate
519 linux_lvm_cmd_lvremove /sbin/lvremove
520 linux_lvm_cmd_mount /bin/mount
521 linux_lvm_cmd_umount /bin/umount
522 linux_lvm_snapshotsize 2G
524 linux_lvm_snapshotname rsnapshot
525 linux_lvm_vgpath /dev
526 linux_lvm_mountpath /mnt/lvm-snapshot
527 retain alpha 6
529 retain beta 7
530 retain gamma 7
531 retain delta 3
532 backup /etc/ localhost/
534 backup /home/ localhost/
535 backup_script /usr/local/bin/backup_mysql.sh mysql_backup/
536 backup root@foo.com:/etc/ foo.com/
538 backup root@foo.com:/home/ foo.com/
539 backup root@mail.foo.com:/home/ mail.foo.com/
540 backup rsync://example.com/pub/ example.com/pub/
541 backup lvm://vg0/xen-home/ lvm-vg0/xen-home/
542 backup_exec echo "backup finished!"
543
545 rsnapshot can be used by any user, but for system-wide backups you will
546 probably want to run it as root.
547 Since backups usually get neglected if human intervention is required,
549 the preferred way is to run it from cron.
550 When you are first setting up your backups, you will probably also want
552 to run it from the command line once or twice to get a feel for what
553 it's doing.
554 Here is an example crontab entry, assuming that backup levels alpha,
556 beta, gamma and delta have been defined in /etc/rsnapshot.conf
557 0 */4 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot alpha
559 50 23 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot beta
561 40 23 * * 6 /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot gamma
563 30 23 1 * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot delta
565 This example will do the following:
567 6 alpha backups a day (once every 4 hours, at 0,4,8,12,16,20)
569 1 beta backup every day, at 11:50PM
571 1 gamma backup every week, at 11:40PM, on Saturdays (6th day of
573 week)
574 1 delta backup every month, at 11:30PM on the 1st day of the month
576 It is usually a good idea to schedule the larger backup levels to run a
578 bit before the lower ones. For example, in the crontab above, notice
579 that "beta" runs 10 minutes before "alpha". The main reason for this
580 is that the beta rotate will pull out the oldest alpha and make that
581 the youngest beta (which means that the next alpha rotate will not need
582 to delete the oldest alpha), which is more efficient. A secondary
583 reason is that it is harder to predict how long the lowest backup level
584 will take, since it needs to actually do an rsync of the source as well
585 as the rotate that all backups do.
586 If rsnapshot takes longer than 10 minutes to do the "beta" rotate
588 (which usually includes deleting the oldest beta snapshot), then you
589 should increase the time between the backup levels. Otherwise
590 (assuming you have set the lockfile parameter, as is recommended) your
591 alpha snapshot will fail sometimes because the beta still has the lock.
592 Remember that these are just the times that the program runs. To set
594 the number of backups stored, set the retain numbers in
595 /etc/rsnapshot.conf
596 To check the disk space used by rsnapshot, you can call it with the
598 "du" argument.
599 For example:
601 rsnapshot du
603 This will show you exactly how much disk space is taken up in the
605 snapshot root. This feature requires the UNIX du command to be
606 installed on your system, for it to support the "-csh" command line
607 arguments, and to be in your path. You can also override your path
608 settings and the flags passed to du using the cmd_du and du_args
609 parameters.
610 It is also possible to pass a relative file path as a second argument,
612 to get a report on a particular file or subdirectory.
613 rsnapshot du localhost/home/
615 The GNU version of "du" is preferred. The BSD version works well also,
617 but does not support the -h flag (use -k instead, to see the totals in
618 kilobytes). Other versions of "du", such as Solaris, may not work at
619 all.
620 To check the differences between two directories, call rsnapshot with
622 the "diff" argument, followed by two backup levels or directory paths.
623 For example:
625 rsnapshot diff beta.0 beta.1
627 rsnapshot diff beta.0/localhost/etc beta.1/localhost/etc
629 rsnapshot diff /.snapshots/beta.0 /.snapshots/beta.1
631 This will call the rsnapshot-diff program, which will scan both
633 directories looking for differences (based on hard links).
634 rsnapshot sync
636 When sync_first is enabled, rsnapshot must first be called with the
638 sync argument, followed by the other usual cron entries. The sync
639 should happen as the lowest, most frequent backup level, and right
640 before. For example:
641 0 */4 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot sync &&
643 /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot alpha
644 50 23 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot beta
646 40 23 1,8,15,22 * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot gamma
648 30 23 1 * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot delta
650 The sync operation simply runs rsync and all backup scripts. In
652 this scenario, all calls simply rotate directories, even the lowest
653 backup level.
654 rsnapshot sync [dest]
656 When sync_first is enabled, all sync behaviour happens during an
658 additional sync step (see above). When using the sync argument, it
659 is also possible to specify a backup point destination as an
660 optional parameter. If this is done, only backup points sharing
661 that destination path will be synced.
662 For example, let's say that example.com is a destination path
664 shared by one or more of your backup points.
665 rsnapshot sync example.com
667 This command will only sync the files that normally get backed up
669 into example.com. It will NOT get any other backup points with
670 slightly different values (like example.com/etc/, for example). In
671 order to sync example.com/etc, you would need to run rsnapshot
672 again, using example.com/etc as the optional parameter.
673 rsnapshot configtest
675 Do a quick sanity check to make sure everything is ready to go.
677
679 0 All operations completed successfully
680 1 A fatal error occurred
682 2 Some warnings occurred, but the backup still finished
684
686 /etc/rsnapshot.conf
687
689 rsync(1), ssh(1), logger(1), sshd(1), ssh-keygen(1), perl(1), cp(1),
690 du(1), crontab(1)
691
693 Use the -t flag to see what commands would have been executed. This
694 will show you the commands rsnapshot would try to run. There are a few
695 minor differences (for example, not showing an attempt to remove the
696 lockfile because it wasn't really created in the test), but should give
697 you a very good idea what will happen.
698 Using the -v, -V, and -D flags will print increasingly more information
700 to STDOUT.
701 Make sure you don't have spaces in the config file that you think are
703 actually tabs.
704 Much other weird behavior can probably be attributed to plain old file
706 system permissions and ssh authentication issues.
707
709 Please report bugs (and other comments) to the rsnapshot-discuss
710 mailing list:
711 http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss
713
715 Make sure your /etc/rsnapshot.conf file has all elements separated by
716 tabs. See /etc/rsnapshot.conf.default for a working example file.
717 Make sure you put a trailing slash on the end of all directory
719 references. If you don't, you may have extra directories created in
720 your snapshots. For more information on how the trailing slash is
721 handled, see the rsync(1) manpage.
722 Make sure to make the snapshot directory chmod 700 and owned by root
724 (assuming backups are made by the root user). If the snapshot directory
725 is readable by other users, they will be able to modify the snapshots
726 containing their files, thus destroying the integrity of the snapshots.
727 If you would like regular users to be able to restore their own
729 backups, there are a number of ways this can be accomplished. One such
730 scenario would be:
731 Set snapshot_root to /.private/.snapshots in /etc/rsnapshot.conf
733 Set the file permissions on these directories as follows:
735 drwx------ /.private
737 drwxr-xr-x /.private/.snapshots
739 Export the /.private/.snapshots directory over read-only NFS, a read-
741 only Samba share, etc.
742 See the rsnapshot HOWTO for more information on making backups
744 accessible to non-privileged users.
745 For ssh to work unattended through cron, you will probably want to use
747 public key logins. Create an ssh key with no passphrase for root, and
748 install the public key on each machine you want to backup. If you are
749 backing up system files from remote machines, this probably means
750 unattended root logins. Another possibility is to create a second user
751 on the machine just for backups. Give the user a different name such as
752 "rsnapshot", but keep the UID and GID set to 0, to give root
753 privileges. However, make logins more restrictive, either through ssh
754 configuration, or using an alternate shell.
755 BE CAREFUL! If the private key is obtained by an attacker, they will
757 have free run of all the systems involved. If you are unclear on how to
758 do this, see ssh(1), sshd(1), and ssh-keygen(1).
759 Backup scripts are run as the same user that rsnapshot is running as.
761 Typically this is root. Make sure that all of your backup scripts are
762 only writable by root, and that they don't call any other programs that
763 aren't owned by root. If you fail to do this, anyone who can write to
764 the backup script or any program it calls can fully take over the
765 machine. Of course, this is not a situation unique to rsnapshot.
766 By default, rsync transfers are done using the --numeric-ids option.
768 This means that user names and group names are ignored during
769 transfers, but the UID/GID information is kept intact. The assumption
770 is that the backups will be restored in the same environment they came
771 from. Without this option, restoring backups for multiple heterogeneous
772 servers would be unmanageable. If you are archiving snapshots with GNU
773 tar, you may want to use the --numeric-owner parameter. Also, keep a
774 copy of the archived system's /etc/passwd and /etc/group files handy
775 for the UID/GID to name mapping.
776 If you remove backup points in the config file, the previously archived
778 files under those points will permanently stay in the snapshots
779 directory unless you remove the files yourself. If you want to conserve
780 disk space, you will need to go into the <snapshot_root> directory and
781 manually remove the files from the smallest backup level's ".0"
782 directory.
783 For example, if you were previously backing up /home/ with a
785 destination of localhost/, and alpha is your smallest backup level, you
786 would need to do the following to reclaim that disk space:
787 rm -rf <snapshot_root>/alpha.0/localhost/home/
789 Please note that the other snapshots previously made of /home/ will
791 still be using that disk space, but since the files are flushed out of
792 alpha.0/, they will no longer be copied to the subsequent directories,
793 and will thus be removed in due time as the rotations happen.
794
796 Mike Rubel - http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
797 - Created the original shell scripts on which this project is based
799 Nathan Rosenquist (nathan@rsnapshot.org)
801 - Primary author and original maintainer of rsnapshot.
803 David Cantrell (david@cantrell.org.uk)
805 - Previous maintainer of rsnapshot
807 - Wrote the rsnapshot-diff utility
808 - Improved how use_lazy_deletes work so slow deletes don't screw up the
809 next backup at that backup level.
810 David Keegel <djk@cybersource.com.au>
812 - Previous rsnapshot maintainer
814 - Fixed race condition in lock file creation, improved error reporting
815 - Allowed remote ssh directory paths starting with "~/" as well as "/"
816 - Fixed a number of other bugs and buglets
817 Benedikt Heine <benedikt@heine.rocks>
819 - Current rsnapshot maintainer
821 Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom (chrome@real-time.com)
823 - Created the RPM .spec file which allowed the RPM package to be built,
825 among other things.
826 Ted Zlatanov (tzz@lifelogs.com)
828 - Added the one_fs feature, autoconf support, good advice, and much
830 more.
831 Ralf van Dooren (r.vdooren@snow.nl)
833 - Added and maintains the rsnapshot entry in the FreeBSD ports tree.
835 SlapAyoda
837 - Provided access to his computer museum for software testing.
839 Carl Boe (boe@demog.berkeley.edu)
841 - Found several subtle bugs and provided fixes for them.
843 Shane Leibling (shane@cryptio.net)
845 - Fixed a compatibility bug in utils/backup_smb_share.sh
847 Christoph Wegscheider (christoph.wegscheider@wegi.net)
849 - Added (and previously maintained) the Debian rsnapshot package.
851 Bharat Mediratta (bharat@menalto.com)
853 - Improved the exclusion rules to avoid backing up the snapshot root
855 (among other things).
856 Peter Palfrader (weasel@debian.org)
858 - Enhanced error reporting to include command line options.
860 Nicolas Kaiser (nikai@nikai.net)
862 - Fixed typos in program and man page
864 Chris Petersen - (http://www.forevermore.net/)
866 Added cwrsync permanent-share support
868 Robert Jackson (RobertJ@promedicalinc.com)
870 Added use_lazy_deletes feature
872 Justin Grote (justin@grote.name)
874 Improved rsync error reporting code
876 Anthony Ettinger (apwebdesign@yahoo.com)
878 Wrote the utils/mysqlbackup.pl script
880 Sherman Boyd
882 Wrote utils/random_file_verify.sh script
884 William Bear (bear@umn.edu)
886 Wrote the utils/rsnapreport.pl script (pretty summary of rsync
888 stats)
889 Eric Anderson (anderson@centtech.com)
891 Improvements to utils/rsnapreport.pl.
893 Alan Batie (alan@batie.org)
895 Bug fixes for include_conf
897 Dieter Bloms (dieter@bloms.de)
899 Multi-line configuration options
901 Henning Moll (newsScott@gmx.de)
903 stop_on_stale_lockfile
905 Ben Low (ben@bdlow.net)
907 Linux LVM snapshot support
909
911 Copyright (C) 2003-2005 Nathan Rosenquist
912 Portions Copyright (C) 2002-2007 Mike Rubel, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom,
914 Ted Zlatanov, Carl Boe, Shane Liebling, Bharat Mediratta, Peter
915 Palfrader, Nicolas Kaiser, David Cantrell, Chris Petersen, Robert
916 Jackson, Justin Grote, David Keegel, Alan Batie, Dieter Bloms, Henning
917 Moll, Ben Low, Anthony Ettinger
918 This man page is distributed under the same license as rsnapshot: the
920 GPL (see below).
921 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
923 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
924 Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
925 option) any later version.
926 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
928 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
929 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
930 General Public License for more details.
931 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
933 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
934 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
935rsnapshot-tools 2018-07-15 rsnapshot(1)