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scdbackup

(dedicated to my beloved first CD recorder)

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Simplified Backup on CD, DVD, or BD for Linux

Purpose:

backup large amounts of data on one or more CD, DVD, or BD,
simple (therefore no excuse not to do the backup),
no special tool needed for reading the backup

Formats:

ISO9660 file systems (readable after : mount )
afio archives (readable by : afio ... /dev/cdrom)

Special features:

Breaks the 650 MB / 4.7 GB / 25 GB limits (more than one CD / DVD / BD)
Information script on each media tells where a certain file may be found
Interrupted backups can be resumed at the start of the failed piece
Verification of resulting media by MD5 checksums
Optional high redundancy backups with several media copies
Incremental backups with an arbitrary number of levels
Restore utility searches most recent backuped file versions

Hardware and system requirements:

A CD recorder suitable for cdrecord or wodim or cdrskin or xorriso. I.e. most old SCSI connected ones and about all connected via IDE/ATAPI, USB, or SATA.
The drive has to be reachable via a SCSI address. On modern Linux systems, other connection types can be used via an emulated SCSI bus. On kernel 2.6, recent versions of said programs got direct support for IDE burners via address prefixes ATAPI: and ATA: or device files /dev/hdX. Nevertheless SATA and USB continue to appear as pseudo-SCSI.

and/or

A DVD or BD writer suitable for growisofs or cdrskin or xorriso. Unsuitable drives are not known yet.
It has to be reachable via a SCSI device file. On modern Linux systems, other connection types can be used via an emulated SCSI bus. On kernel 2.6, the programs can use device files /dev/hdX or /dev/srN directly.
As an alternative, it is possible to use cdrecord or wodim.

If you got any other high capacity backup devices which you want to use rather than a CD recorder then please contact me. I am interested in learning how to use them for writing of backup data.

Software requirements :

On Linux try type -p with the program name to find out wether the programs are already installed on your system.

Required for writing CD and formatting ISO-Filesystems:
xorriso: with program xorriso based on libburn
or cdrtools: with programs cdrecord and mkisofs
or cdrkit: with programs wodim and genisoimage
Additionally advised for writing DVD, BD:
dvd+rw-tools: with programs growisofs, dvd+rw-mediainfo, dvd+rw-format
or cdrskin: with program cdrskin based on libburn
or xorriso: with program xorriso
are preferred over the burn programs of cdrtools or cdrkit which provide less comfortable DVD write services but may be used via scdbackup, nevertheless.
Additionally required for system backups, compressed or encrypted backups:
afio: Program afio is a well tested and solid archiver.
or star: Program star is an archiver which can make very complete backups including ACLs.
Further software requirements:
cc: A C language compiler including linker and other usual companions
is needed for installing scdbackup from source but not for its usage.
/bin/sh: compatible to GNU Bourne-Again SHell (bash).
including usual programs like: cat, date, du, echo, ls, ...
see hints for working around shell compatibility problems
gzip: data compression program (for compressed afio and incremental backups)

This program system has been tested on Intel/AMD Linux systems only.
Ports to other usable systems are appreciated.

Commands:

The idea is to use afio archives for the system directories. All normal user data should be backuped as ISO9660 for fast and easy access.

Each command is available in a version for CD and one for DVD / BD. For BD with capacity "25 GB" use sdvdbackup commands with option -bd, for "50 GB" use option -bd_dl.

scdbackup_sys

sdvdbackup_sys

backup of system directories as afio archives. (not mountable)

Example:: scdbackup_sys

scdbackup_home

sdvdbackup_home

backup of the user's $HOME directory. ISO9660. (mountable)

Example:: scdbackup_home

See a sample run.

scdbackup

sdvdbackup

command for defining own backup collections and for spontaneous data copies. ISO9660. (mountable)

Example:: scdbackup /home /home2=/usr/home -not /home/guest

Backup /home and /usr/home . But use /home2 on CD as name for /usr/home and omit subdir /home/guest

scdbackup_afio

sdvdbackup_afio

like scdbackup but using afio archives rather than ISO9660 file systems. (not mountable)

Each of the commands examines the backup data, plans their distribution over the media and then prompts the user to insert fresh media until all are done.

scdbackup_verify
sdvdbackup_verify: verifies a resulting media by comparison with its checksum which is recorded on the hard disk of the scdbackup computer and also on the media itself.

scdbackup_askme: searches files in multilevel backups. It helps restoring from ISO-9660 backups by prompting for the right media, by setting permissions and by optional overwrite protection.

Preview: Sample runs of: Configuration, Backup, Retrieval

Download:: scdbackup-0.9.2.tar.gz (775 K).; Helper software:; Alternative burn programs:

Documentation:: README Features, Installation, Components; scdbackup_verify -help usage of the checkread command; ASKME -help usage of the backup information script; scdbackup_askme -help usage of the accelerator program for searching within the backup information script; cd_backup_planer -help elementary features of the central program and a lot of additional options.; scdbackup-x86-rip.txt usage of scdbackup with rescue system RIP (x86-Linux).

Contact:: Thomas Schmitt, scdbackup@gmx.net

License:: BSD License, an Open Source approved license

Unstable:: Most recent version, Changelog (if you are really curious)

Many thanks to Joerg Schilling for cdrecord and star, to him and Eric Youngdale for mkisofs, to Koen Holtman for afio, and to Andy Polyakov for growisofs .

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