125 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
125 lines
3.8 KiB
Markdown
title: Atticmatic
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date:
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save_as: atticmatic/index.html
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## Overview
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atticmatic is a simple Python wrapper script for the [Attic backup
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software](https://attic-backup.org/) that initiates a backup, prunes any old
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backups according to a retention policy, and validates backups for
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consistency. The script supports specifying your settings in a declarative
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configuration file rather than having to put them all on the command-line, and
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handles common errors.
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Here's an example config file:
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[location]
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# Space-separated list of source directories to backup.
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source_directories: /home /etc
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# Path to local or remote Attic repository.
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repository: user@backupserver:sourcehostname.attic
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[retention]
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# Retention policy for how many backups to keep in each category.
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keep_daily: 7
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keep_weekly: 4
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keep_monthly: 6
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Additionally, exclude patterns can be specified in a separate excludes config
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file, one pattern per line.
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atticmatic is hosted at <https://torsion.org/atticmatic> with [source code
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available](https://torsion.org/hg/atticmatic). It's also mirrored on
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[GitHub](https://github.com/witten/atticmatic) and
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[BitBucket](https://bitbucket.org/dhelfman/atticmatic) for convenience.
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## Setup
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To install atticmatic, run the following command to download and install it:
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sudo pip install --upgrade hg+https://torsion.org/hg/atticmatic
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Then copy the following configuration files:
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sudo cp sample/atticmatic.cron /etc/cron.d/atticmatic
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sudo mkdir /etc/atticmatic/
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sudo cp sample/config sample/excludes /etc/atticmatic/
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Modify those files with your desired configuration, including the path to an
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attic repository.
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If you don't yet have an attic repository, then the first time you run
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atticmatic, you'll get an error with information on how to create a repository
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on a local or remote host.
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And if the repository is on a remote host, make sure that your local root user
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has key-based ssh access to the desired user account on the remote host.
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It is recommended that you create your attic repository with keyfile
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encryption, as passphrase-based encryption is less suited for automated
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backups. If you do plan to run atticmatic on a schedule with cron, and you
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encrypt your attic repository with a passphrase instead of a key file, you'll
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need to set the `ATTIC_PASSPHRASE` environment variable. See [attic's
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repository encryption
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documentation](https://attic-backup.org/quickstart.html#encrypted-repos) for
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more info.
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## Usage
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You can run atticmatic and start a backup simply by invoking it without
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arguments:
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atticmatic
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This will also prune any old backups as per the configured retention policy,
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and check backups for consistency problems due to things like file damage.
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By default, the backup will proceed silently except in the case of errors. But
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if you'd like to to get additional information about the progress of the
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backup as it proceeds, use the verbose option instead:
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atticmattic --verbose
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If you'd like to see the available command-line arguments, view the help:
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atticmattic --help
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## Running tests
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First install tox, which is used for setting up testing environments:
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pip install tox
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Then, to actually run tests, run:
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tox
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## Troubleshooting
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### Broken pipe with remote repository
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When running atticmatic on a large remote repository, you may receive errors
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like the following, particularly while "attic check" is valiating backups for
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consistency:
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Write failed: Broken pipe
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attic: Error: Connection closed by remote host
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This error can be caused by an ssh timeout, which you can rectify by adding
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the following to the ~/.ssh/config file on the client:
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Host *
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ServerAliveInterval 120
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This should make the client keep the connection alive while validating
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backups.
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## Feedback
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Questions? Comments? Got a patch? Contact <mailto:witten@torsion.org>.
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