Frontends
There are GUI frontends for DAR called:
- Kdar for KDE,
- DarGUI for Linux and Windows.
A text-mode browser/extractor: plugin for dar files in mc (Midnight Commander).
A scheduler / command-line frontend known as SaraB allows the Towers of Hanoi, Grandfather-Father-Son, or any custom backup rotation strategy, and modifications are available for PAR file support. Extended versions known as bzSaraB and baras are also available.
Definition from dar -h
usage: dar
dar -h dar -V
Commands are:
-c creates an archive -x extracts files from the archive -d compares the archive with the existing filesystem -t tests the archive integrity -l lists the contents of the archive -C isolates the catalogue from an archive -+ merge two archives / create a sub archive -h displays this help information -V displays version information
Common options:
-v verbose output -vs display skipped files -R
filesystem root directory (current dir by default) -X files to exclude from the operation (none by default) -I files to include in the operation (all by default) -P subdirectory to exclude from the operation -g subdirectory to include in the operation -[ filename contains a list of files to include -] filename contains a list of files to exclude -n don't overwrite files -w don't warn before overwriting files -wa don't warn before overwriting and removing files -b ring the terminal bell when user action is required -O do not consider user and group
ownership
-H ignore shift in dates of an exact number of hours -E command to execute between slices -F same as -E but for the archive of reference -u mask to ignore certain EA -U mask to allow certain EA -K use as key to encrypt/decrypt -J same as -K but it does concern the archive of reference -# encryption block size -* same as -# but for archive of reference -B read options from given file -N do not read ~/.darrc nor /etc/darrc configuration file -e dry run, fake execution, nothing is produced -Q suppress the initial warning when not launched from a tty -aa do not try to preserve atime of file open for reading. -ac do not try to preserve ctime (default behavior). -am set ordered mode for all filters -an the masks that follow are now case insensitive -acase the masks that follow are now case sensitive -ar set the following masks to be regex expressions -ag set the following masks to be glob expressions -j ask user what to do when memory is exhausted
Saving / Isolation / merging options (to use with -c, -C or -+):
-A archive to take as reference -@ auxiliary archive of reference for merging -$ encryption key for auxiliary archive -~ command between slices of the auxiliary archive -z compress data in archive using gzip algorithm -y compress data in archive using bzip2 algorithm. -s split the archive in several files of size -S first file size (if different from following ones) -aSI slice size suffixes k, M, T, G, etc. are power of 10 -abinary slice size suffixes k, M, T, G, etc. are power of 2 -p pauses before writing to a new file -D excluded directories are stored as empty directories -Z do not compress the matching filenames -Y do only compress the matching filenames -m do not compress file smaller than --nodump do not backup, files having the nodump 'd' flag set -G Do on-fly catalogue isolation of the resulting archive -M stay in the same filesystem while scanning directories -, ignore directories that follow the Directory Tagging
Standard
Restoring options (to use with -x) :
-k do not remove files destroyed since the reference backup -r do not restore file older than those on filesystem -f do not restore directory structure
Reading options (to use with -x, -d, -t, -l, -A)
-i pipe to use instead of std input to read data from dar_slave -o pipe to use instead of std output to orders dar_slave
Listing options (to use with -l):
-T tree output format -as only list files saved in the archive
Type "man dar" for more details and for all available options.