Homepage of
scdbackup
(dedicated to my beloved CD recorder)
deutsch (german)
Simplified Backup on CD or DVD for Linux
Purpose:
- backup large amounts of data on one or more CDs or DVDs,
- 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 limits (more than one CD / DVD )
- Information script on each media tells where a certain file may be found
- Collision test with renaming avoids aborting of mkisofs
- 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.
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 writer suitable for
growisofs
or
cdrskin.
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:
- cdrtools
-
with programs
cdrecord
and
mkisofs
-
or
cdrkit
-
with programs
wodim
and
genisoimage
Additionally advised for writing DVD:
- dvd+rw-tools
-
with programs
growisofs, dvd+rw-mediainfo, dvd+rw-format
-
or
cdrskin
- with program cdrskin based on
libburn
-
- are preferred over the burn programs of contemporary 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 and those
where symbolic links are important. 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.
- 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-0.8.8.tar.gz (870 K).
-
-
dvd+rw-tools-7.0.tar.gz
(128 K, by Andy Polyakov)
Contains growisofs which can be used to write on DVD.
Check for a more recent version at
dvd+rw-tools Homepage.
-
cdrskin-0.3.8.pl00.tar.gz (620 K)
can substitute for cdrecord and growisofs.
See also cdrskin Homepage.
- afio-2.5.tgz (175 K, by Koen Holtman)
Only needed if afio is not installed on your system.
- bc-1.06.tar.gz (272 K)
Only needed if you want to apply the locking protocol or if you
got neither the command expr nor a bash with builtin expression $((...)).
- Fulfilling the GPL :
cdrecord-1.6.tar.gz (600 K, by Joerg Schilling)
Only needed if you want to build cdrecord_prog and mkisofs_prog from the old sources.
Executables are included in the scdbackup package
or may be found in any modern Linux distribution.
To really build mkisofs and cdrecord from sources, get a more recent version of
cdrtools (also by Joerg Schilling)
- 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 .
deutsch (german)
Enjoying free Open Source hosting by www.webframe.org

and by sourceforge.net
- Links to my other published software projects :
- Some Tools for Image Collectors
-
pppoem, a DSL throughput monitor (mainly for Linux kernel 2.4)
Legal statement: This website does not serve any commercial purpose.