[jackjill]

Description: I'm trying to write a shell script for taking backups. This Script will use cp command to take backups. Script can read the list of directories and destination directory from a file or ask user for this information interactively.

here is the final trial run of script.

Example 1: Only two options -i (for interactive run) and “-f file” (to read backup information from a file) are allowed. When an invalid option is entered script displays a message as shown below.

# a2backup -r
syntax: a2backup [ -i | -f file ]

Example 2: Example of interactive run.

# a2backup -i
Welcome to the Interactive Backup Utility
Enter the source directory [/home/maskara/sya710]:
Enter the destination directory: /home/backup
What type of backup do you want ( [i]ncremental/[f]ull backup) [i]:
Follow symbolic link (Y/N) [n]:

Directory backed up successfully.

Example 3: Backup information is read from file dir_list

# a2backup -f dir_list
Welcome to Interactive Backup Utility
Starting Backup..
Directory(ies) backed up successfully.

Example 4: Backup information is read from the file “.backup” in current user's home directory.

# a2backup
Welcome to Interactive Backup Utility
File “.backup” found in user's home directory.
Starting Backup..
Directory(ies) backed up successfully.

Example 5: File “.backup” does not exist in user's home directory.

# a2backup
Welcome to Interactive Backup Utility
File “.backup” NOT FOUND in user's home directory.
Exiting..

Syntax of backup information file (.backup or filename specified with –f option):

# the file may have following information

destination = destination_directory
source_directories = path1,path2,path3 ..
fullbackup = 1 # 1 means yes 0 means no
followsymlink = 0

Error checking and action:

Destination directory is created when does not exist.

If any of the source directory does not exist program terminates with an error message.

that's it.
Please tell me the easiest way to accomplish it.

[tsunam]

I'll give a example of what a backup script will look like

#!/bin/bash
echo Starting Backup of System
tar cjpf /anime/stage4.tar.bz2 / --exclude=stage4.tar.bz2 --exclude=/proc --exclude=/anime --exclude=/usr/portage --exclude=/sys --exclude=/tmp --exclude=/mnt --exclude=/media
echo Finished Backup of System. Please save to cdrom disk

You can also do it with rsync or other backup applications. available with linux. Interactivity, can be done various ways as was shown in the other thread a ways back for grabbing input.