I've finished the backup script, it can now do the following:
- incremental backups.
- automatically deletes out of date backups
- easily restores the system based off the most recent backup
(Obviously there is probably a lot more that could be done, but those were my intentions when I started writing and I have now accomplished them so this is done, at least for now.)
Here is how to do it...
WARNING:testers beware! The script needs 4 variables to be adjusted: OFFSET, BKDIR, EXCLUDE and TARGET These are located in weekly.config You must adjust weekly_config.py so that it knows where to look for weekly.config
OFFSET is the time to keep old backups before deleting them (default:4weeks). BKDIR is where you wish to store your backups. EXCLUDE is a list of files you do not wish to have backed up. TARGET is the directory you wish to have archived.
- Copy weekly_backup.py
- Copy weekly.conf
- Make a backup directory: mkdir /backup
[B][I]WARNING: do not use your backup directory for anything other than backups, any file older than 4 weeks inside the backup directory will be deleted.[/I][/B]
- Adjust the script variables OFFSET, BKDIR, EXCLUDE and TARGET
- Chmod +x weekly_backup.py
- sudo crontab -e
A text editor (nano) will open, type the following: 0 1 * * 1 /path/to/copy/of/weekly_backup.py
- Save and close nano: Ctrl-o (to save) and Ctrl-x (to close)
- All finished, sit back and relax :)
Your system will do an incremental backed up once per week, and after 4 weeks the oldest backup will be deleted.
You should not need to worry about system resources because the process is set to a low nice value which means you probably wont notice when the backup is happening.
To restore the most recent backup simply do the following:
./weekly_backup.py -R
If you want to restore an older backup you must do so by hand you can look at the weekly_backup.py file to see how this can be done.
ENJOY!
(sorry for not posting a link for downloading the files, I realize this means many people who would have other wise been interested are probably not going to bother copying and pasting a file. I'll try to see if I can get it up on sourceforge or somewhere to make it easier to download.) weekly_backup.py
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
import time
import datetime
from stat import *
from optparse import OptionParser
#PROGRAM: Weekly_Backup.py
#AUTHOR: Alexander Combas
#ORIGIN: 15Dec2005
#VERSION: 0.03
#LAST UPDATE: 23Dec2005
#
#INSTRUCTIONS: set WEEKLY_CONFIG to the location of the weekly.config file
# then edit the weekly.config file
WEEKLY_CONFIG = "/home/viscount/work/scripts/Weekly/weekly.config"
usage = "%prog -R | -D"
mydescription = "weekly_backup.py is intended to be a simple yet powerful backup tool. To backup your system edit this script so that the WEEKLY_CONFIG variable points to the weekly.config file then edit the weekly.conf file so that it has all the correct information, afterwards set weekly_backup.py to run automatically every week with cron or crontab without any command-line options."
myversion = "Weekly_Backup-0.03"
def make_new_backup(config_dict,image):
"""mk_new_backups() will create a new backup every time it is run.
The backups are named by date.
"""
archive_name = config_dict['bkdir'] + "/BACKUP-" + datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%d%h%Y") + ".tar.gz"
os.system("nice -10 tar -g '%s' -czvf %s %s %s" % (image.name, archive_name, config_dict['exclude'], config_dict['target']))
def delete_old_backups(location,integer,name):
"""rm_old_backups() will open a directory and deletes
all of the files inside that are older than specified in weekly.config
"""
print "Deleting old backups..."
try:
backups = os.listdir(location)
except OSError, (errno,strerror):
print >>sys.stderr, "%s is not a list of files %s" % (location,strerror)
sys.exit(1)
#Takes every file in the dir, appends the path, then
#compares the ctime of the file to the deadline, deleting
#files older than specified.
for f in backups:
try:
f = os.path.join(location,f)
except OSError, (errno,strerror):
print >>sys.stderr, "%s could not be joined %s" % (f,strerror)
sys.exit(1)
try:
f_time = os.stat(f)[ST_CTIME]
except OSError, (errno,strerror):
print >>sys.stderr, "%s couldn't be stat'ed %s" % (f, strerror)
sys.exit(1)
if integer > f_time:
try:
os.remove(f)
print "%s was deleted at %s" % (f,datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%H%M-%d%h%Y"))
except OSError, (errno,strerror):
print >>sys.stderr, "%s could not be removed %s" % (f,strerror)
sys.exit(1)
else:
print "%s has not yet expired." % f
def restore_from_backup(config_dict):
"""Todo: everything
"""
try:
backups = os.listdir(config_dict['bkdir'])
except OSError, (errno,strerror):
print >>sys.stderr, "%s is not a list of files %s" % (config_dict['bkdir'],strerror)
sys.exit(1)
#put the newest backup at the top of the list
backups.sort()
backups.reverse()
os.system("tar -xvf %s -C %s" % ((config_dict['bkdir'] + "/" + backups[0]), "/"))
def set_configs(f):
""" set_configs() reads the weekly.conf file, then transfers all the
values from the dictionary "d" to the list "l".
"""
try:
dct = eval(open(f).read())
return dct
except IOError, (errno,strerror):
print >>sys.stderr, "%s could not be opened %s" %(f,strerror)
sys.exit(1)
f.close()
def test_snap(f):
"""test_snap() opens and returns the image_snapeshot for tar
or it throws an error and exits
"""
try:
foo = open(f,'a')
return foo
except IOError, (errno,strerror):
print >>sys.stderr, "%s could not be opened %s" %(f,strerror)
sys.exit(1)
def main():
"""Open weekly.config and set variables.
Parse command line options.
Call functions according to specific options.
"""
conf = set_configs(WEEKLY_CONFIG)
snap_img = conf['bkdir'] + "/001BK_SNAP.data"
deadline = int(time.time()) - conf['offset']
parser = OptionParser(usage,version=myversion,description=mydescription)
parser.add_option("-R", "--restore", help="restore system from the most recent backup", action="store_true", dest="restore")
parser.add_option("-D", "--delete", help="delete backups that are %i day(s) old" % (conf['offset']/60/60/24), action="store_true", dest="delete")
(options,args) = parser.parse_args()
if options.restore and options.delete:
parser.error("options -D and -R may not be run together.")
elif options.restore:
restore_from_backup(conf)
elif options.delete:
i = test_snap(snap_img)
delete_old_backups(conf['bkdir'],deadline,i.name)
i.close()
else:
i = test_snap(snap_img)
make_new_backup(conf,i)
delete_old_backups(conf['bkdir'],deadline,i.name)
i.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
weekly.config
{
#SET BACK_UP_DIR: this is the path to the folder where you
#will save your backups after they have been created
'bkdir': '/home/viscount/backups',
#SET OFFSET: old backups will be deleted based upon this variable,
#offset is set in seconds. The default is four weeks.
#format: 4weeks = 60seconds * 60minutes * 24hours * 28days
'offset': (60 * 60 * 24 * 28),
#SET EXCLUDE: list file and folders you do not wish to have backed up.
'exclude': '--exclude=/home/viscount/Games/armyops --exclude=/home/viscount/Games/et-linux-2.60.x86.run --exclude=/home/viscount/Games/firefox',
#SET TARGET: backup will start at the target directory and
#work its way up the tree.
'target': '/home/viscount/Games'
}