1.1. History

ISiBackup was originally developed by the author to make backups of the data on his computer. As with many programs, the requirements grew over time, and so did the features of the program. Furthermore, in the beginning, it was OK to just copy the script to every new one of his computers, while later, when keeping track of the distributed versions became hard, the debian package management system was utilized to provide for a consistent release management. The first script was created in 1996 for his then sole linux machine. Debianization first took place in 1999 and was done by Simon Hürlimann, a then employee of Marcus's company IMSEC GmbH.

The ISiBackup scripts were adapted / updated / splitted-up / merged a lot over time. Version 1.4 was the first one-package release that ever left the original environment. The authors invested a lot of work into the professionalisation of these tools. They added documentation (man, info, DocBook, ...), unified command-line interfaces, packaging for debian (.deb) and other stuff. Development continues, the wish list is long.

1.2. Features

ISiBackup has the following features:

• creation of backups of data (files, directories) to a directory

• compression of files

• encryption of files

• remote storage (push) and remote fetching (pull) of backup data

• handling of sets of files

• support for full, incremental and differential backups

• in-place refresh of previously created backups

• restoring data from a backup (isirestore)

• calculation the occupied backup space (isibus)

• reminding the change of backup disk (isiremind)

• mailing the success or failures of executed programs(isibackupsize)

• managing the removal of old backups after new ones are available (deleteoldbackups, deleteolddiffbackups)

• integration in debian environment with crontab and logrotate entries

• logging

• integrated use of tar, zip, bzip2, gzip, gnupg and pgp as available on the system

• auto deletion of obsolete backups

• integration of mkisofs to automatically create iso image files

• the replication of a system becomes easy (just backup on one system and restore on another)

• the archivation of data is supported

• file handling is easier (no huge file operations necessary),

• the backup can be stored to the same file system types as the original (no large file support needed if not already needed for the source),

• the backup can easily be split up (just move some of the backup directories to one medium, and some others to the next one), and

• restoration of files is easily done by just directly applying the standard unzip, gpg or tar tools that were used in creating the backup (alternatively, there is an isirestore script).

1.3. Copyright Information

This document is copyrighted (c) 1999-2004 by IMSEC GmbH.

1.4. Disclaimer

No liability for the contents of this documents can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and other content at your own risk. As this is a new edition of this document, there may be errors and inaccuracies, that of course might be damaging your system. Proceed with caution, and although this is highly unlikely, the author(s) do not take any responsibility for any consequences of the use of this program.

All copyrights are held by their by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.

Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.