7ccbce03d3
Some minor langague and formatting fixes to sections: Proxmox VE Integration, pxar Command Line Tool, Managing Remotes, Maintenance Tasks, Host System Administration, Network Management, and Technical Overview. Signed-off-by: Dylan Whyte <d.whyte@proxmox.com>
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5.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
140 lines
5.2 KiB
ReStructuredText
``pxar`` is a command line utility for creating and manipulating archives in the
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:ref:`pxar-format`.
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It is inspired by `casync file archive format
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<http://0pointer.net/blog/casync-a-tool-for-distributing-file-system-images.html>`_,
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which caters to a similar use-case.
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The ``.pxar`` format is adapted to fulfill the specific needs of the Proxmox
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Backup Server, for example, efficient storage of hard links.
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The format is designed to reduce the required storage on the server by
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achieving a high level of deduplication.
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Creating an Archive
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Run the following command to create an archive of a folder named ``source``:
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.. code-block:: console
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# pxar create archive.pxar /path/to/source
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This will create a new archive called ``archive.pxar`` with the contents of the
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``source`` folder.
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.. NOTE:: ``pxar`` will not overwrite any existing archives. If an archive with
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the same name is already present in the target folder, the creation will
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fail.
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By default, ``pxar`` will skip certain mount points and will not follow device
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boundaries. This design decision is based on the primary use case of creating
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archives for backups. It makes sense to ignore the contents of certain
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temporary or system specific files in a backup.
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To alter this behavior and follow device boundaries, use the
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``--all-file-systems`` flag.
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It is possible to exclude certain files and/or folders from the archive by
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passing the ``--exclude`` parameter with ``gitignore``\-style match patterns.
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For example, you can exclude all files ending in ``.txt`` from the archive
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by running:
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.. code-block:: console
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# pxar create archive.pxar /path/to/source --exclude '**/*.txt'
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Be aware that the shell itself will try to expand glob patterns before invoking
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``pxar``. In order to avoid this, all globs have to be quoted correctly.
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It is possible to pass the ``--exclude`` parameter multiple times, in order to
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match more than one pattern. This allows you to use more complex
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file inclusion/exclusion behavior. However, it is recommended to use
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``.pxarexclude`` files instead for such cases.
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For example you might want to exclude all ``.txt`` files except a specific
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one from the archive. This would be achieved via the negated match pattern,
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prefixed by ``!``. All the glob patterns are relative to the ``source``
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directory.
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.. code-block:: console
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# pxar create archive.pxar /path/to/source --exclude '**/*.txt' --exclude '!/folder/file.txt'
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.. NOTE:: The order of the glob match patterns matters, as later ones override
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earlier ones. Permutations of the same patterns lead to different results.
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``pxar`` will store the list of glob match patterns passed as parameters via the
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command line, in a file called ``.pxarexclude-cli``, at the root of the archive.
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If a file with this name is already present in the source folder during archive
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creation, this file is not included in the archive, and the file containing the
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new patterns is added to the archive instead. The original file is not altered.
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A more convenient and persistent way to exclude files from the archive is by
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placing the glob match patterns in ``.pxarexclude`` files.
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It is possible to create and place these files in any directory of the filesystem
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tree.
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These files must contain one pattern per line, and later patterns override
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earlier ones.
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The patterns control file exclusions of files present within the given directory
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or further below it in the tree.
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The behavior is the same as described in :ref:`client_creating_backups`.
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Extracting an Archive
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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An existing archive, ``archive.pxar``, is extracted to a ``target`` directory
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with the following command:
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.. code-block:: console
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# pxar extract archive.pxar /path/to/target
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If no target is provided, the contents of the archive is extracted to the current
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working directory.
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In order to restore only parts of an archive, single files, and/or folders,
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it is possible to pass the corresponding glob match patterns as additional
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parameters or to use the patterns stored in a file:
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.. code-block:: console
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# pxar extract etc.pxar /restore/target/etc --pattern '**/*.conf'
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The above example restores all ``.conf`` files encountered in any of the
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sub-folders in the archive ``etc.pxar`` to the target ``/restore/target/etc``.
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A path to the file containing match patterns can be specified using the
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``--files-from`` parameter.
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List the Contents of an Archive
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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To display the files and directories contained in an archive ``archive.pxar``,
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run the following command:
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.. code-block:: console
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# pxar list archive.pxar
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This displays the full path of each file or directory with respect to the
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archive's root.
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Mounting an Archive
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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``pxar`` allows you to mount and inspect the contents of an archive via _`FUSE`.
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In order to mount an archive named ``archive.pxar`` to the mount point ``/mnt``,
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run the command:
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.. code-block:: console
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# pxar mount archive.pxar /mnt
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Once the archive is mounted, you can access its content under the given
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mount point.
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.. code-block:: console
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# cd /mnt
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# ls
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bin dev home lib32 libx32 media opt root sbin sys usr
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boot etc lib lib64 lost+found mnt proc run srv tmp var
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