RIBS is intended for a system administrator who wants to have easily accessible snapshots of the state of a specified part of a system at any point in time.

Dependencies

Before using RIBS, ensure you have:

Python3
rsync

These can be installed using the package manager of your Linux distribution.

Instructions for using RIBS

Install RIBS

Download RIBS

The easiest way is to run wget https://gitserver.thermionic.net/rod.wright/RIBS/releases/download/2.0/RIBS-2.0.tar.gz

or visit https://gitserver.thermionic.net/rod.wright/RIBS/releases to download the specific package version you'd like to use.
Extract the package

tar -zxvf RIBS-2.0.tar.gz
Change to the extracted package directory

cd RIBS-2.0
Run the installer as superuser

sudo ./install.sh

Configure RIBS

RIBS operates through the use of configuration files. The format of the file is documented in the sample file, /etc/ribs/conf-available/ribs.conf.sample

Superuser configuration files are located in /etc/ribs/conf-available. If RIBS is run by a superuser, those files will be used. A sample configuration file is provided.
Standard user configuration files are located in the user's home directory in .ribs/conf-available.
To enable automated usage of RIBS, the configuration file must be enabled by creating a symbolic link in /etc/ribs/conf-enabled or .ribs/conf-enabled to the configuration file in /etc/ribs/conf-available or .ribs/conf-available.

Run RIBS

usage: ribs [-h] [-s] [-c | -l | -e CONF_FILE | -d CONF_FILE | conf_file]

Rod's Incremental Backup System, version 2.0

positional arguments:
  conf_file             Run RIBS using the specified config file. If none
                        specified, run all enabled config files, looking in
                        '~/.ribs/conf-enabled' for standard users, or in
                        '/etc/ribs/conf-enabled' for superusers.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -s, --simulate        simulate operations to be performed
  -c, --config          interactively create, remove, modify, enable, or 
                        disable config files
  -l, --list-configs    list all config files
  -e CONF_FILE, --enable-config CONF_FILE
                        enable a config file
  -d CONF_FILE, --disable-config CONF_FILE
                        disable a config file

A script called run_ribs_backups is located in /usr/local/bin. This script is intended to facilitate running ribs backups using cron. To run system configs, either create a link to this script in one or more of the /etc/cron.* directories or add a line calling this script to the /etc/crontab file. That will run all enabled system configs. To run user configs, the user should add a line calling this script to their personal crontab. That will run all enabled user configs for that user.

How to report problems

To report an issue with RIBS, email me at software@rodsplace.net.

Terms of use

RIBS is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2