backup script

It's a good idea to backup your data once in a while. As I'm lazy, I've automatised this task, and turned it in a cronjob.

NB: please adjust to your own settings [and clean up a bit] when using this script yourself! Try to understand what's been done here, as that's kinda important when you're operating on your important data ;)

bash backup script for your homedirs etc

Here is my own [slightly censored] backup script. Save as backup or something and run as "backup daily", "backup weekly" and/or "backup monthly" in your crontab file [see below]

#!/bin/sh
#
# Makes an incremental daily or weekly backup of the homedirs and of the mail dir
#   or makes a complete backup of them, depending on the parameters passed to this script
#
# Usage:
#   backup <kindofbackup>
#
#   kindofbackup: daily
#                 weekly
#                 monthly
#
# Version 0.1.06 :: 2005-04-10
#
# Copyleft 2002-2005 Michiel Scholten [ mbscholt@aquariusoft.org ]
#

FILEPREFIX=`date +%Y%m%d_%H%M`
TARFLAGS="--no-recursion -X /root/cron_thingees/backup_exclude"
#BACKUPDIR="/storage/system/backup"
#MIRROR_1="/storage/backup"
BACKUPDIR="/storage/backup"
MIRROR_1="/storage/system/backup"
MIRROR_2="/storage/ish/backup"

if [ "$1" = "weekly" ]
then
  DAYS=7
  KINDOFBACKUP="weekly"
elif [ "$1" = "daily" ]
then
  DAYS=1
  KINDOFBACKUP="daily"
else
  # default behaviour is a complete backup
  KINDOFBACKUP="monthly"
fi

# Mount the backup partition
mount "$BACKUPDIR"

mkdir $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX
cd /

echo "== Backup = Kind: $KINDOFBACKUP ======"

echo "== Users ======"

if [ "$KINDOFBACKUP" = "monthly" ]
then

  for USER
    in aquatix user_2 user_3
  do
    tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/$USER.tar.bz2 -X /root/cron_thingees/backup_exclude home/$USER/ > /dev/null
    echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Homedir of $USER has been backed up"
  done

  # Backup root's homedir
  tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/su.tar.bz2 -X /root/cron_thingees/backup_exclude root/ > /dev/null
  echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Homedir of root has been backed up"

else
  for USER
    in aquatix user_2 user_3
  do
    find /home/$USER/ -mtime -$DAYS -print | tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/$USER.tar.bz2 $TARFLAGS -T - > /dev/null
    if [ -e $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/$USER.tar.bz2 ]; then
      echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Homedir of $USER has been backed up"
    fi
  done
fi

if [ "$KINDOFBACKUP" != "daily" ]
then
  echo "== System ======"

  # Backup the complete mail dir [e.g. not incremental]
  tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/mailboxes.tar.bz2 var/mail/ > /dev/null
  echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Mailboxes have been backed up"

  # Backup the /var/lib/mysql dir [all databases]
  #tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/mysql.tar.bz2 var/lib/mysql/ > /dev/null
  #echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] MySQL databases have been backed up"

  if [ "$KINDOFBACKUP" = "monthly" ]
  then
    ymd=(date +20%y.%m.%d)

    tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/etc.$FILEPREFIX.tar.bz2 /etc > /dev/null
    echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] /etc has been backed up"
  elif [ "$KINDOFBACKUP" = "weekly" ]
  then
    days=7
    ymd=(date +20%y.%m.%d)

    find /etc -mtime -$days -print | tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/etc.$FILEPREFIX.${days}.tar.bz2 -T - > /dev/null
    echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] /etc changes of last week have been backed up"
  fi
  # Backup /var/spool/cron/crontabs [crontabs of the various users]:
  cd /
  tar -cjf $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX/crontabs.$FILEPREFIX.tar.bz2 var/spool/cron/crontabs > /dev/null
  echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] crontabs have been backed up"
fi

echo "== Mirroring backups ======"
#mount "$MIRROR_1"
cp -a $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX $MIRROR_1/$KINDOFBACKUP/
#umount "$MIRROR_1"
#echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Mounted mirror done"
echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Mirror 1 done"
#cp -a $BACKUPDIR/$KINDOFBACKUP/$FILEPREFIX $MIRROR_2/$KINDOFBACKUP/
echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Mirror 2 done [disabled yet]"

umount "$BACKUPDIR"
echo "> [`date +%H:%M:%S`] Unmounted backup partition"

echo "== Done ======"

Your backup_exclude file can look like this:

.mozilla/*
tmp/*

Or on your workstation:

News/*
.thumbnails/*
.xMule/*
*Cache/*
*cache/*
*tmp/*
.java/*
.openoffice/*
*Cache.Trash/*
*/XUL.mfasl
.pan/news*
.pan/messages/*
.Azureus/downloads/*
.pan/newszilla/*
.pan/demon/*
bin/azureus/*

Your crontab can look like this, if you use a backup script for databases too:

# First day of month at 3:00am == Monthly full backup of homedirs and e-mail
00 3   1 * *  /storage/system/backup/backup monthly
45 2   1 * *  /storage/system/backup/backup_db monthly
#
# Sat at 3:30am == Weekly cummulative backup of homedirs and e-mail
30 3   * * 6  /storage/system/backup/backup weekly
45 3   * * 6  /storage/system/backup/backup_db weekly