Ubuntu Manpage: cdbackup - Streaming backup to CD-R(W)/DVR-R(W)

NAME

       cdbackup - Streaming backup to CD-R(W)/DVR-R(W)

SYNOPSIS

       cdbackup [-mvwCDRVX] [-d device] [-r scsi-dev] [-s speed]
                [-i image] [-p num] [-l size] [-a label]
                [-c command] [-E cdrecord] [-- cdrecord-options]

DESCRIPTION

       cdbackup is a utility to make streaming backups to CD-R(W)/DVD-R(W) disks. It's designed to work with any
       backup tool which writes the backup to stdout (like tar/cpio/afio).

       NOTE:  this program REQUIRES that a recent version of cdrecord(1) (or cdrecord-ProDVD for DVD support) is
       present in the PATH.

       While you can perfectly append several sessions on CD-R(W) media, I didn't manage to make  this  work  on
       DVD-R(W)  media.  To  allow  multiple, separate backups on these media, the concept of virtual images has
       been introduced.
       A virtual image is a plain file on your harddisk. You can append several backups to an  image  and  after
       completing your backup session, the image is dumped to CDR/DVD media in one burning session. You can dump
       the same image multiple times too, if you want redundancy on the CDR/DVD media.
       Virtual  image files are never deleted by cdbackup. After dumping an image, you have to delete it by your
       self.

       WARNING! When using this program under Linux, be sure not to use dump on a mounted filesystem. This has a
       high potential for creating corrupted backups. As of kernel version 2.4.19, this has not been  fixed  and
       it    may    not    be    fixed    at    all.    You   can   read   Linus   statement   about   this   at
       <http://search.alphanet.ch/cgi-bin/search.cgi?max_results=10&type=long&msgid=Pine.LNX.4.21.0104270953280.2067-100000@penguin.transmeta.com&domain=ml-linux-kernel>

OPTIONS

-d device
The device name which is used for reading things like the TOC from a (partly written) media.
(default: /dev/burner)

-r scsi-device
The scsi device which is passed to cdrecord(1) (via dev=scsi-device). Must be given as three,
comma separated numbers: scsibus,target,lun.
(default: none or the contents of the environment variable CDR_DEVICE)

-s speed
The writing speed which is passed to cdrecord(1) (via speed=speed).
(default: 4 or the contents of the environment variable CDR_SPEED)

-p num The number of sectors (of 2048 byte) to use for padding (see cdrecord(1) padsize).
(default: 15)

-X Enables the use of CDROM XA2 mode in cdrecord(1). By default CDROM mode 1 is used. The default is
possibly causing problems during restore on certain kernel version/CDROM hardware combinations at
the end of the last session on a media. Sony drives doesn't support CDROM XA 2 mode (see
cdrecord(1) -multi).

-R Enables DVD writing mode. Make sure that your cdrecord(1) version is able to burn DVD media.
Remember that you cannot write multiple sessions to DVD media. Either you stick with one backup
per media or you have to use virtual images.
In DVD mode the options -p and -X have no effect.

-E cdrecord
Set an alternate cdrecord executeable.
(default: "cdrecord")

-i image
Enables virtual image mode. The backup stream is written to the given image file. The file is
created if it doesn't exist. It's mandatory to give an explicit media size with -l. Take care that
the created virtual image isn't larger that the media size you want to dump it to later. You can
add up to 96 backups to an virtual image.
If the backup extends the specified media size and you have enabled multi-disk mode, additional
image files are created (the filenames are derived from the initial image name by adding a dot and
a decimal number).
(default: none)

-w Dump the virtual image specified with -i to real media. Image dumps are written as single sessions
always. If you have enabled multi-disk mode and additional images are found, you're prompted for
media change, so that you can dump all images in turn.
Virtual images (even when dumped to media) are not compatible with older cdbackup versions.

-l size
For normal operation the media size is auto-detected from the cdrecord ATIP information. If this
fails or for virtual image mode use this option to set the media size. This is used to calculate
how much data can be stored on the media.
By default the given value is taken as megabytes. You can append a single letter to the number to
select: (k)ilobytes, (m)egabytes, (g)igabytes or (s)ectors (e.g. 170k, 4488m, 350000s).
(default: auto-detect)

-C Disables creation of the datablock CRC checksum. There is no real reason to use this option,
unless you can't efford the extra 0,2% media space that is used to store the checksum.
Although the on-disk layout of checksummed backups is different, they are fully backwards
compatible with older version of cdbackup, but obviously older versions can't check the backup
integrity.

-a label
A text label to identify the backup set. The first 32 characters of this string are save with the
backup.
(default: "CDBackup Track")

-c command
The command which is executed whenever cdbackup needs to request a new media in multi-disk mode.
This command (or script) should prompt the user and return after the recording device is ready
again. The command receives one argument, which is the device name passed with -d. This can be
used to issue commands to the device like ejecting the media.
(default: use internal diskchange prompt)

-m Enables multi-disk mode. When the current media is filled, a new media is requested (see option
-c) and the backup is continued. Backups can only be continued to empty media, this means you
cannot insert a partly filled media for continuation.

-v Enables verbose mode.

-D Enables DEBUG output (probably not useful for normal use).

-V Prints out version information and exits.

-- cdrecord-options
Pass following options to cdrecord(1).

EXAMPLES

       To create a tar archive of /home and output it to a 700 MB CD-R(W) on /dev/scd0 (scsi device 2,0):

              tar cvf - /home | cdbackup -d /dev/scd0 -r 2,0 -l 700 -a "Test Backup"

       To create a tar archive of /usr and output it to a series (multi-disk mode) of 650 MB CD-R(W) on /dev/sr1
       (scsi device 1,4,0) with writing speed 12 and verbose output:

              tar cf - /usr | cdbackup -d /dev/sr1 -r 1,4,0 -s 12 -m -v

       To create a backup on a virtual image:

              tar cf - /usr | cdbackup -i /tmp/vimage -l 4488m

       Add another backup to the same virtual image (with multi-disk mode):

              tar cf - /home | cdbackup -i /tmp/vimage -l 4488m

       Dump  the  virtual  image  to  one (or several) DVD media on /dev/cdrom (scsi-ide device 0,0,0), enabling
       BURNFREE:

              cdbackup -i /tmp/vimage -w -R -d /dev/cdrom -r 0,0,0 -s 4 -m -- driveropts=burnfree

KNOWN PROBLEMS

       Certain combinations of CDROM drivers and kernel versions are causing a problem when restoring data.  The
       restore process aborts with an read error close to the end of the session, while the data on the media is
       perfectly good.

       All  CDR  sessions written in track-at-once mode (which is unavoidable for multisessions) end in at least
       two unreadable runout sectors (for additional information refer to the file README.copy from the cdrecord
       package). As the kernel does some readahead on the device, it  stumbles  over  these  unreadable  sectors
       before reaching the actual end of data.

       Some drivers are reporting to syslog but doesn't pass the error to the application, while others make the
       application  fail.  From  user  feedback,  it  seems that pure SCSI setups are mostly working fine, while
       ide-scsi setups are likely to fail.

       The author isn't able to provide a full solution, but some hints which may help:

       1.     Update to a recent kernel.

       2.     Disable kernel readahead with option -R when restoring.

       3.     Increase the padsize with option -p. Use values >= 128.

       4.     Use option -X if your writer supports this (Sony drives doesn't supports this mode).

       Please contact the author if you can contribute additional information about the problem.

AUTHORS

       Stefan Huelswitt <s.huelswitt@gmx.de>

LICENSE

       Copyright (c) 2000-2012 Craig Condit, Stefan Huelswitt.

       Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are  permitted  provided
       that the following conditions are met:

       1.     Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and
              the following disclaimer.

       2.     Redistributions  in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions
              and the following disclaimer in  the  documentation  and/or  other  materials  provided  with  the
              distribution.

       THIS  SOFTWARE  IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT
       NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY  AND  FITNESS  FOR  A  PARTICULAR  PURPOSE  ARE
       DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
       SPECIAL,  EXEMPLARY,  OR  CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE
       GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER  CAUSED  AND  ON  ANY
       THEORY  OF  LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE)
       ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Stefan Huelswitt                                      0.7.1                                          cdbackup(1)