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| -rw-r--r-- | README | 42 |
1 files changed, 23 insertions, 19 deletions
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@ SquashFu - a combination of fun, squashfs, joy, happiness, aufs and rsync =================================================================== REQUIREMENTS: aufs, aufs2-util, squashfs-tools, rsync -WARNING: EXTREMELY ALPHA (but approaching beta). MAY SET YOUR CAT ON FIRE. +SquashFu is currently beta quality. While there may be some undiscovered bugs, +the major components and structures in place will not change unless absolutely +necessary. This means that backups created today will still be useful 6 months +from now (if your config supports this). Mini FAQ: @@ -14,8 +17,9 @@ What currently works? What's not yet included? - Options (don't expect a lot of them) - - A lot of error catching. No telling what will happen if you SIGINT in the middle of - a resquash, for example. Rsync takes care of itself, however. + - A lot of error catching. While rsync takes care of itself and you'll suffer no + damage by aborting rsync in the middle of a backup, you could easily destroy + things by, for example, setting MIN_BINS greater than MAX_BINS. What not to expect? - Elephants @@ -44,18 +48,17 @@ Design: |-n/ seed.sfs is created from an initial backup and compressed using SquashFS, which is - simply a filesystem which focuses on compression, but is read only. It's mounted, - using a loopback device, on ro/. Using aufs2, a union mount is formed by ro/ and each - of the numbered bins, each corresponding to an incremental backup. - - At the time of the backup, the next available bin is created and logged to an inventory - sheet with a timestamp. A union is created with all the available bins, mounted in - reverse chronological order on top of the seed (newest to oldest) on rw/. At this point, - the union represents the state of your files at the end of the last backup. The newest - branch is marked as read/write, and rsync is called. Because this top branch is the - only writable location in the union, the files rsync generates with the -u (update) - flag are placed into this branch. The backup finishes, and the union and seed are - unmounted. + simply a read only filesystem which focuses on compression. It's mounted, using a + loopback device, on ro/. + + At the time of the backup, the next available bin is determined, created, and logged + to an inventory sheet with a timestamp. A union is created with all the available bins, + mounted in reverse chronological order on top of the seed (newest to oldest) on rw/. + At this point, the union represents the state of your files at the end of the last + backup. The newest branch is marked as read/write, and rsync is called. Because this + top branch is the only writable location in the union, the files rsync generates with + the -u (update) flag are placed into this branch. The backup finishes, and the union + and seed are unmounted. At this point, Squashfu ensures compliance with the user's settings of MAX_BINS. If the current number of used bins exceeds this value, a new seed is generated. The @@ -83,7 +86,7 @@ Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync -INSTALL +INSTALL (if you're not on Arch Linux) ------------------------------------- -Copy squashfu.conf as /etc/squashfu.conf -Make a backup directory somewhere where you want your files @@ -106,8 +109,9 @@ TODO --------------------------------------- In no particular order.... -- Create dispatchers for actions (mostly done) - Create options parser (and determine options) -- Limit access by checking for sudo + - specify alternate config file + - report usage after backup completes - Fix output funcs for non-color scenario - +- Add semantic error checking for config +- Create man page |