This is a brief overview of the programs that make up Box Backup, with links to the relevant manual pages for each program for more information.

If you find a bug or undocumented feature in any Box Backup program, please contact us on the mailing lists.

More manual pages are available here.

bbackupd -- The client backup daemon

bbackupd [options] [config file]

bbackupd runs on client computers in the background, finding new files to back up. When it is time for a backup, bbackupd will connect to the server (bbstored) to upload the files.

A running bbackupd daemon can be controlled with the bbackupctl command, to make it shut down, reload its configuration, or start an immediate backup.

bbackupd needs to be configured to tell it which files to back up, how often, and to which server (running bbstored). See the Client Configuration page for more information. For this, you must write a configuration file. You must either place it in the default location, or tell bbackupd where to find it.

You can check the default location with the -h option. The default on Unix systems is usually /etc/box/bbackupd.conf. On Windows systems, it is bbackupd.conf in the same directory where bbackupd.exe is located. If bbackupd cannot find or read the configuration file, it will log an error message and exit.

bbackupd usually writes log messages to the system logs, using the facility local5, which you can use to filter them to send them to a separate file. It can also write them to the console, see options below. If bbackupd is not doing what you expect, please check the logs first of all.

bbackupd now has built-in help (in trunk and 0.11 and above) which may be more up-to-date with options than this manual page. You can access it with the -h or /? option.

-c :: Use the specified configuration file. If -c is omitted, the last argument is the configuration file. If none is specified, the default is used (see above).

-D:: Debugging mode. Do not fork into the background (do not run as a daemon). Not available on Windows.

-F:: No-fork mode. Same as -D for bbackupd. Not available on Windows.

-k:: Keep console open after fork, keep writing log messages to it. Not available on Windows.

-q:: Run more quietly. Reduce verbosity level by one. Available levels are NOTHING, FATAL, ERROR, WARNING, NOTICE, INFO, TRACE, EVERYTHING. Default level is NOTICE in non-debugging builds. Use once to drop to WARNING level, twice for ERROR level, four times for no logging at all.

-v:: Run more verbosely. Increase verbosity level by one. Use once to raise to INFO level, twice for TRACE level, three times for EVERYTHING (currently the same as TRACE).

-V:: Run at maximum verbosity (EVERYTHING level).

-t :: Tag each console message with specified marker. Mainly useful in testing when running multiple daemons on the same console.

-T:: Timestamp each line of console output.

-s:: Run as a Windows Service (Windows only). For internal use by Service Control Manager only.

-i:: Install Windows Service (Windows only). Creates a service entry in Service Control Manager. You may want to specify a configuration file as well, using the -c option.

-r:: Remove Windows Service (Windows only). Removes the service entry in Service Control Manager.

-S :: Sets the service name for -i and -r options. This allows you to have multiple independent Box Backup services in the Service Control Manager. If you do this, you should really use a different configuration file for each instance.

This manual page is also available in the official manual and with the command man bbackupctl on your system.

bbackupctl -- Control the bbackupd daemon

bbackupd [-q] [-c config-file] command [command ...]

bbackupctl sends commands to a running bbackupd daemon on a client machine. It can be used to force an immediate backup, tell the daemon to reload its configuration files or stop the daemon. If bbackupd is configured in snapshot mode, it will not back up automatically, and the bbackupctl must be used to tell it when to start a backup.

Communication with the bbackupd daemon takes place over a local socket (not over the network). Some platforms (notably Windows) can't determine if the user connecting on this socket has the correct credentials to execute the commands. On these platforms, ANY local user can interfere with bbackupd. To avoid this, remove the CommandSocket option from bbackupd.conf, which will also disable bbackupctl. See the Client Configuration page for more information.

bbackupctl needs to read the bbackupd configuration file to find out the name of the CommandSocket. If you have to tell bbackupd where to find the configuration file, you will have to tell bbackupctl as well. The default on Unix systems is usually /etc/box/bbackupd.conf. On Windows systems, it is bbackupd.conf in the same directory where bbackupd.exe is located. If bbackupctl cannot find or read the configuration file, it will log an error message and exit.

bbackupctl usually writes error messages to the console and the system logs. If it is not doing what you expect, please check these outputs first of all.

-q:: Run quietly. Do not output status messages.

-c :: Use the specified configuration file. If -c is omitted, the last argument is the configuration file. If none is specified, the default is used (see above).

The following commands are available in bbackupctl:

terminate:: This command cleanly shuts down the bbackupd server. This is better than killing or terminating it any other way.

reload:: Causes the bbackupd daemon to re-read all its configuration files. Equivalent to kill -HUP.

sync:: Initiates a backup. If no files need to be backed up, no connection will be made to the server.

force-sync:: Initiates a backup, even if the SyncAllowScript says that no backup should run now.

wait-for-sync:: Passively waits until the next backup starts of its own accord, and then terminates.

wait-for-end:: Passively waits until the next backup starts of its own accord and finishes, and then terminates.

sync-and-wait:: Initiates a backup, waits for it to finish, and then terminates.