Re: Getting started with Tarsnap

[David Williams <xflow7@gmail.com>]

I don't recall for sure, but it's entirely likely that the cache
directory/files is not created until the first time you perform a
backup.  It is a cache, after all, and there probably isn't anything
useful to put in there until tarsnap has done something.

Dave

On Wed, Feb 12, 2014 at 3:02 PM, jg5 <jg5@sanger.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
>
> Thank you for your reply and your advice.  Seems I've managed to get further
> than I thought..:)  I already have the keyfile and have stored it under
> /root/ as specified by the configuration file.  I'll run 'tarsnap --fsck' to
> create the cache directory and see how it goes from there.
>
> Thanks again - much appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> John
>
> ##
>
> On 12-02-2014 19:17, Daniel Staal wrote:
>
> --As of February 12, 2014 6:54:01 PM +0000, jg5 is alleged to have said:
>
> 1). On the Tarsnap general usage page, can anyone please tell me what the
> following means: "The examples here assume that you are using a Tarsnap
> configuration file including keyfile and cachedir directives." What are
> 'keyfile and cachedir directives'? Are they simply instructions to the
> operating system to put the keyfile and cache directory in specific
> locations?
>
> Close - they are instructions to *tarsnap* on where the files are.  They
> look something like this (from my tarsnap.conf file, on FreeBSD):
>
> ~~~
> # Tarsnap cache directory
> cachedir /usr/local/tarsnap-cache
>
> # Tarsnap key file
> keyfile /root/tarsnap.key
> ~~~
>
> If you haven't run tarsnap yet, they may not exist.  This is generally ok.
> (At this point.)
>
> 2). I don't appear to have the /usr/local/tarsnap-cache directory. Can
> anyone suggest what might have happened and what I should do about it? Does
> this mean that Tarsnap hasn't installed properly? Should I re-install? Or
> should I just run 'tarsnap --fsck'?
>
> It probably means the installer didn't create it, for whatever reason.
> (After all, you might want it someplace else, or a package manager could
> have created it someplace else for you.)  You could create it manually, or
> run `tarsnap --fsck`.
>
> 3). Can anyone point me to a step-by-step guide - online article, whatever -
> on how to use Tarsnap? I think it's a great idea, and I need to sort out a
> backup system, but am wondering if it's maybe a bit over my head. Thought I
> would ask on this forum to see if things become clearer before calling it a
> day.
>
> If you have gotten this far, and have a keyfile, you are almost done.  It's
> simpler than it sounds.  (If you *don't* have a keyfile, run
> `tarsnap-keygen --keyfile $KEY_LOCATION --user $USERNAME --machine
> $MACHINENAME`, where $KEY_LOCATION is the location you want the keyfile to
> be (whatever you've got in your tarsnap.conf, $USERNAME is whatever you
> signed on to the tarsnap site with, and $MACHINENAME is whatever you want
> to call this machine.)
>
> Then make sure you have the tarsnap-cache directory (see above), and you
> are set up.  The only thing left is to actually create the backups.  That's
> done using something like this:
>
> tarsnap -cf $BACKUPNAME /your/backed/up/directory
>
> Where $BACKUPNAME is whatever you want to call that backup - I usually use
> something like 'settings-`date +\%F`', which will automatically add the
> current date to the name.  (Check your man pages - `date` is standard, but
> it's options aren't...)  The man pages describe other options.  (I like
> `--humanize-numbers` personally.)
>
> To get that backup back, you need the command:
>
> tarsnap -xf $BACKUPNAME
>
> Where $BACKUPNAME is the name of the backup you want to retrieve - as
> specified in the create command.  (`-c` is create, `-x` is extract.  `-f`
> is the name of the 'backup file', even though there is no actual 'file';
> it's using the same syntax as tar.)  Again, check the man pages for other
> options and details on exactly what that will do.
>
> Hope that helps, and was a bit clearer.  ;)
>
> Daniel T. Staal
>
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