1 # Copyright (C) 2008 Andre Noll <maan@systemlinux.org>
3 # Licensed under the GPL v2. For licencing details see COPYING.
7 purpose "the dyadic snapshot scheduler
9 dss creates hardlink-based snapshots of a given directory on a remote
10 or local host using rsync's link-dest feature.
13 #########################
14 section "General options"
15 #########################
17 option "config-file" c
18 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
19 "(default='~/.dssrc')"
20 string typestr="filename"
23 Options may be given at the command line or in the
24 configuration file. As usual, if an option is given both at
25 the command line and in the configuration file, the command
26 line option takes precedence.
28 However, there is an important exception to this rule:
29 If the --run option was given (see below) then dss honors
30 SIGHUP and re-reads its configuration file whenever it
31 receives this signal. In this case the options in the config
32 file override any options that were previously given at the
33 command line. This allows to change the configuration of a
34 running dss process on the fly by sending SIGHUP.
39 "Run as background daemon"
43 Note that dss refuses to start in daemon mode if no logfile
44 was specified. This option is mostly useful in conjuction
45 with the -R option described below.
47 Note that it is not possible to change whether dss runs as
48 background daemon by sending SIGHUP.
53 "Only print what would be done"
56 This flag does not make sense for all commands. The run
57 command refuses to start if this option was given. The ls
58 command silently ignores this flag.
72 Lower values mean more verbose logging.
77 "Logfile for the dss daemon process"
78 string typestr="filename"
81 This option is mostly useful for the run command if --daemon
92 dss supports a couple of commands each of which corresponds
93 to a different command line option. Exactly one of these
94 options must be given.
99 groupoption "create" C
100 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
101 "Create a new snapshot"
104 Execute the rsync command to create a new snapshot. Note that
105 this command does not care about free disk space.
108 groupoption "prune" P
109 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
110 "Remove redundant and outdated snapshots"
113 A snapshot is considered outdated if it belongs to an interval
114 greater than the maximum number of intervals. It is said to be
115 redundant if it belongs to an interval that already contains
116 more than the desired number of snapshots. This command gets
117 rid of such snapshots.
122 "Print a list of all snapshots"
125 The list will contain all snapshots no matter of their state,
126 i. e. incomplete snapshots and snapshots being deleted will
132 "Start creating and pruning snapshots"
135 This is the main mode of operation. Snapshots will be created
136 as needed and pruned automatically.
139 ###############################
140 section "Rsync-related options"
141 ###############################
143 option "remote-host" H
144 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
146 string typestr="hostname"
150 If this option is given and its value differs from the local
151 host, then rsync uses ssh. Make sure there is no password
152 needed for the ssh connection. To achieve that, use public key
153 authentication for ssh and, if needed, set the remote user name
154 by using the --remote-user option.
157 option "remote-user" U
158 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
159 "Remote user name (default: current user)"
160 string typestr="username"
163 Set this if the user running dss is different from the
164 user at the remote host when using ssh.
167 option "source-dir" -
168 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
170 string typestr="dirname"
173 The directory on the remote host from which snapshots are
174 taken. Of course, the user specified as --remote-user must
175 have read access to this directory.
181 string typestr="dirname"
184 The destination directory on the local host where snapshots
185 will be written. This must be writable by the user who runs
189 option "rsync-option" O
190 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
191 "Further rsync options"
192 string typestr="option"
196 These option may be given multiple times. The arguments passed
197 to that option are passed verbatim to the rsync command.
204 option "unit-interval" u
205 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
206 "The duration of a unit interval"
211 dss snapshot aging is implemented in terms of intervals. There
212 are two command line options related to intervals: the
213 duration u of a \"unit\" interval and the number n of those
216 dss removes any snapshots older than n times u and tries to
217 keep 2^(n - k - 1) snapshots in interval k, where the interval
218 number k counts from zero, zero being the most recent unit
221 In other words, the oldest snapshot will at most be u * n days
222 (= 20 days if default values are used) old. Moreover, there
223 are at most 2^n - 1 snapshots in total (i. e. 31 by default).
224 Observe that you have to create at least 2^(n - 1) snapshots
225 each interval for this to work out because that is the number
226 of snapshots in interval zero.
229 option "num-intervals" n
230 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
231 "The number of unit intervals"
240 option "pre-create-hook" r
241 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
242 "Executed before snapshot creation"
243 string typestr="command"
246 Execute this command before trying to create a new snapshot.
247 If this command returns with a non-zero exit status, no
248 snapshot is being created and the operation is retried later.
250 For example, one might want to execute a script that checks
251 whether all snapshot-related file systems are properly mounted.
253 Another possible application of this is to return non-zero
254 during office hours in order to not slow down the file systems
258 option "post-create-hook" o
259 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
260 "Executed after snapshot creation"
261 string typestr="command"
264 Execute this after a snapshot has successfully been
265 created. The full path of the newly created snapshot is
266 passed to the hook as the first argument. The exit code of
267 this hook is ignored.
269 For instance this hook can be used to count the number of
270 files per user and/or the disk usage patterns in order to
271 store them in a database for further analysis.
274 ###############################
275 section "Disk space monitoring"
276 ###############################
278 option "min-free-mb" m
279 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
280 "Minimal amount of free disk space"
281 int typestr="megabytes"
285 If disk space on the file system containing the destination
286 directory gets low, \"dss --run\" will suspend the currently
287 running rsync process and will start to remove snapshots in
288 order to free disk space. This option specifies the minimal
289 amount of free disk space. If less than the given number of
290 megabytes is available, snapshots are being deleted. See also
291 the --min_free_percent and the min-free-percent-inodes options.
293 A value of zero deactivates this check.
296 option "min-free-percent" p
297 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
298 "Minimal percent of free disk space"
299 int typestr="percent"
303 See --min-free-mb. Note that it is not recommended to set both
304 --min-free-mb and --min-free-percent to zero as this will
305 cause your file system to fill up quickly.
307 option "min-free-percent-inodes" i
308 #~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
309 "Minimal percent of free inodes"
310 int typestr="percent"
314 Specify the minimum amount of free inodes on the file system
315 containing the destination dir. If less than that many inodes
316 are free, snapshot removal kicks in just as in case of low
319 Note that not every file system supports the concept of inodes.
320 Moreover it is not possible to reliably detect whether this is
321 the case. Therefore this feature is disabled by default. It's
322 safe to enable it for ext3 file systems on linux though.
324 A value of zero (the default) deactivates this check.