2013-04-07 22:49:31 +02:00
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bup is a program that backs things up. bup has a few advantages over other
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backup software:
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It uses a rolling checksum algorithm (similar to rsync) to split large files
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into chunks. The most useful result of this is you can backup huge virtual
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machine (VM) disk images, databases, and XML files incrementally, even though
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they're typically all in one huge file, and not use tons of disk space for
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multiple versions.
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It uses the packfile format from git (the open source version control system),
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so you can access the stored data even if you don't like bup's user interface.
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Unlike git, it writes packfiles directly (instead of having a separate garbage
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Update to 0.25:
This release includes a veritable ton of work, but the biggest change
is probably the addition of real (YMMV) metadata support, including
hardlinks, and the ability to directly save/restore trees without tar
and split/join. See bup-index(1), bup-save(1), bup-restore(1),
bup-meta(1), bup-xstat(1), and the updated "Using bup" section in the
README.
Note though, that the metadata support really is our first pass, and
there are already things that we know need fixing (i.e. better support
for cross-filesystem-type save/restore (too noisy), etc.). And check
the "Notes on ..." sections in the README for some platform-specific
limitations.
An incomplete list of other notable changes since 0.24b:
- bup will no longer create ~/.bup implicitly; "bup init" is
required.
- "bup split" now supports a compression-level option (-#).
- "bup tag" now supports "-f".
- "bup ls" now supports "-a", "-s", "--human-readable", etc., and
reports more information.
- "bup web" now supports "--human-readable".
- "bup import-rdiff-backup" has been added.
- "bup cat-file" has been added.
- The default "/usr" installation prefix can be overridden via PREFIX.
- Python 2.4 is no longer supported.
And we have at least one (likely minor) known issue:
- *Very* large (i.e. probably greater than MAX_LONG), or negative
filesystem timestamps may not always be handled correctly at the
moment. We'll fix that soon. And related -- some of the tests
may fail on FUSE filesystems.
2013-12-31 12:03:12 +01:00
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collection/repacking stage) so it's fast even with gratuitously huge amounts of
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2013-04-07 22:49:31 +02:00
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data. bup's improved index formats also allow you to track far more filenames
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than git (millions) and keep track of far more objects (hundreds or thousands of
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gigabytes).
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Data is "automagically" shared between incremental backups without having to
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know which backup is based on which other one - even if the backups are made
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from two different computers that don't even know about each other. You just
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tell bup to back stuff up, and it saves only the minimum amount of data needed.
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