Provided by: fsarchiver_0.8.4-1_amd64 
NAME
fsarchiver - filesystem archiver
DESCRIPTION
fsarchiver is a system tool that allows you to save the contents of a filesystem to a
compressed archive file. The filesystem contents can be restored on a device which has a
different size and it can be restored on a different filesystem. Unlike tar/dar,
fsarchiver also creates the filesystem when it extracts the data to devices. Everything is
checksummed in the archive in order to protect the data. If the archive is corrupt, you
just lose the current file, not the whole archive.
LINKS
Official project homepage:
http://www.fsarchiver.org
Quick Start guide:
http://www.fsarchiver.org/quickstart/
Forums where to ask questions:
http://www.fsarchiver.org/forums/
Git repository:
https://github.com/fdupoux/fsarchiver
Report a bug:
https://github.com/fdupoux/fsarchiver/issues
SYNOPSIS
fsarchiver [ options ] savefs archive device ...
fsarchiver [ options ] restfs archive
id=n,dest=device[,mkfs=fstype,mkfsopt=options,label=newlabel,uuid=newuuid] ...
fsarchiver [ options ] savedir archive directory ...
fsarchiver [ options ] restdir archive destination
fsarchiver [ options ] archinfo archive
fsarchiver [ options ] probe [detailed]
COMMANDS
savefs Save device filesystem to archive.
restfs Restore filesystems from archive. This overwrites the existing data on device.
Zero-based index n indicates the part of the archive to restore. Optionally, a
filesystem may be converted to fstype and extra mkfs options specified. newlabel
and newuuid override values stored in the archive.
savedir
Save directories to archive (similar to a compressed tarball).
restdir
Restore data from archive which is not based on a filesystem to destination.
archinfo
Show information about an existing archive file and its contents.
probe Show list of filesystems detected on the disks.
OPTIONS
-h, --help
Show help and information about how to use fsarchiver with examples.
-V, --version
Show program version and exit.
-v, --verbose
Verbose mode (can be used several times to increase the level of details). The
details will be printed to the console.
-o, --overwrite
Overwrite the archive if it already exists instead of failing.
-d, --debug
Debug mode (can be used several times to increase the level of details). The
details will be written in /var/log/fsarchiver.log.
-x, --experimental
Allow to save filesystems which support is considered experimental in fsarchiver.
-A, --allow-rw-mounted
Allow to save a filesystem which is mounted in read-write (live backup). By default
fsarchiver fails with an error if the device is mounted in read-write mode which
allows modifications to be done on the filesystem during the backup. Modifications
can drive to inconsistencies in the backup. Using LVM snapshots is the recommended
way to make backups since it will provide consistency, but it is only available for
filesystems which are on LVM logical volumes.
-a, --allow-no-acl-xattr
Allow to save a filesystem when ACLs and extended attributes are not supported (or
are disabled) by the kernel. By default fsarchiver fails with an error if it cannot
access ACLs and extended attributes, since they would not be saved. If you do not
need ACLs and extended attributes preserved then it is safe to use this option.
-e pattern, --exclude=pattern
Exclude files and directories that match specified pattern. The pattern can contain
shell wildcards such as * and ? or may be either a simple file/dir name or an
absolute file/dir path. You must use quotes around the pattern each time you use
wildcards, else it would be interpreted by the shell. The wildcards must be
interpreted by fsarchiver. See examples below for more details about this option.
-L label, --label=label
Set the label of the archive: it is just a comment about its contents. It can be
used to remember a particular thing about the archive or the state of the
filesystem for instance.
-z level, --compress=level
Legacy compression levels are between 0 (very fast) and 9 (very good). The memory
requirement increases a lot with the best compression levels, and it is multiplied
by the number of compression threads (option -j). Level 9 is considered as an
extreme compression level and requires an huge amount of memory to run. For more
details please read this page: http://www.fsarchiver.org/compression/
-Z level, --zstd=level
Zstd compression levels are between 1 (very fast) and 22 (very good). The memory
requirement increases a lot with the best compression levels, and it is multiplied
by the number of compression threads (option -j). Levels above 20 are considered as
extreme compression levels and requires an huge amount of memory to run. For more
details please read this page: http://www.fsarchiver.org/compression/
-s mbsize, --split=mbsize
Split the archive into several files of mbsize megabytes each.
-j count, --jobs=count
Create more than one (de)compression thread. Useful on multi-core CPUs. By default
fsarchiver will only use one (de)compression thread (-j 1) and then only one
logical processor will be used for the task. You should use this option if you have
a multi-core CPU or more than one physical CPU on your computer. The typical way to
use it is to specify the number of logical processors available so that all the
processing power is used to (de)compress the archive very quickly. You may also
want to use all logical processors but one so that your system stays responsive for
other applications.
-c password, --cryptpass=password
Encrypt/decrypt data in archive. Password length: 6 to 64 characters. You can
either provide a real password or a dash (-c -). Use the dash if you do not want to
provide the password in the command line. It will be prompted in the terminal
instead.
EXAMPLES
save only one filesystem (/dev/sda1) to an archive:
fsarchiver savefs /data/myarchive1.fsa /dev/sda1
save two filesystems (/dev/sda1 and /dev/sdb1) to an archive:
fsarchiver savefs /data/myarchive2.fsa /dev/sda1 /dev/sdb1
restore the first filesystem from an archive (first = number 0):
fsarchiver restfs /data/myarchive2.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda1
restore the second filesystem from an archive (second = number 1):
fsarchiver restfs /data/myarchive2.fsa id=1,dest=/dev/sdb1
restore two filesystems from an archive (number 0 and 1):
fsarchiver restfs /data/arch2.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda1 id=1,dest=/dev/sdb1
restore a filesystem from an archive and convert it to reiserfs:
fsarchiver restfs /data/myarchive1.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda1,mkfs=reiserfs
restore a filesystem from an archive and specify extra mkfs options:
fsarchiver restfs /data/myarchive1.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda1,mkfs=ext4,mkfsopt="-I 256"
restore a filesystem from an archive and specify a new filesystem label:
fsarchiver restfs /data/myarchive1.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda1,label=root
restore a filesystem from an archive and specify a new filesystem UUID:
fsarchiver restfs /data/myarchive1.fsa id=0,dest=/dev/sda1,uuid=5f6e5f4f-dc2a-4dbd-
a6ea-9ca997cde75e
save the contents of /usr/src/linux to an archive (similar to tar):
fsarchiver savedir /data/linux-sources.fsa /usr/src/linux
save a filesystem (/dev/sda1) to an archive split into volumes of 680MB:
fsarchiver savefs -s 680 /data/myarchive1.fsa /dev/sda1
save a filesystem and exclude all files/dirs called 'pagefile.*':
fsarchiver savefs /data/myarchive.fsa /dev/sda1 --exclude='pagefile.*'
generic exclude for 'share' such as '/usr/share' and '/usr/local/share':
fsarchiver savefs /data/myarchive.fsa --exclude=share
absolute exclude valid for '/usr/share' but not for '/usr/local/share':
fsarchiver savefs /data/myarchive.fsa --exclude=/usr/share
save a filesystem (/dev/sda1) to an encrypted archive:
fsarchiver savefs -c mypassword /data/myarchive1.fsa /dev/sda1
same as before but prompt for password in the terminal:
fsarchiver savefs -c - /data/myarchive1.fsa /dev/sda1
extract an archive made of simple files to /tmp/extract:
fsarchiver restdir /data/linux-sources.fsa /tmp/extract
show information about an archive and its filesystems:
fsarchiver archinfo /data/myarchive2.fsa
WARNING
fsarchiver is considered stable for Linux filesystems such as EXT4 and XFS but unstable
for NTFS.
AUTHOR
fsarchiver was written by Francois Dupoux. It is released under the GPL2 (GNU General
Public License version 2). This manpage was written by Ilya Barygin and Francois Dupoux.
30 December 2009 FSARCHIVER(8)