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 > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > This email copyright the author. Unless otherwise noted, you > are expressly allowed to retransmit, quote, or otherwise use > the contents for non-commercial purposes. This copyright will > expire 5 years after the author's death, or in 30 years, > whichever is longer, unless such a period is in excess of > local copyright law. > --------------------------------------------------------------- -- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome Research Limited, a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and a company registered in England with number 2742969, whose registered office is 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE.
