5 \label{NewFeaturesChapter}
6 \index[general]{New Features}
8 This chapter presents the new features added to the development 2.5.x
9 versions to be released as Bacula version 3.0.0 sometime in April 2009.
11 \section{Accurate Backup}
12 \index[general]{Accurate Backup}
14 As with most other backup programs, by default Bacula decides what files to
15 backup for Incremental and Differental backup by comparing the change
16 (st\_ctime) and modification (st\_mtime) times of the file to the time the last
17 backup completed. If one of those two times is later than the last backup
18 time, then the file will be backed up. This does not, however, permit tracking
19 what files have been deleted and will miss any file with an old time that may
20 have been restored to or moved onto the client filesystem.
22 \subsection{Accurate = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
23 If the {\bf Accurate = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}} directive is enabled (default no) in
24 the Job resource, the job will be run as an Accurate Job. For a {\bf Full}
25 backup, there is no difference, but for {\bf Differential} and {\bf
26 Incremental} backups, the Director will send a list of all previous files
27 backed up, and the File daemon will use that list to determine if any new files
28 have been added or or moved and if any files have been deleted. This allows
29 Bacula to make an accurate backup of your system to that point in time so that
30 if you do a restore, it will restore your system exactly. One note of caution
31 about using Accurate backup is that it requires more resources (CPU and memory)
32 on both the Director and the Client machines to create the list of previous
33 files backed up, to send that list to the File daemon, for the File daemon to
34 keep the list (possibly very big) in memory, and for the File daemon to do
35 comparisons between every file in the FileSet and the list.
37 Accurate must not be enabled when backing up with a plugin that is not
38 specially designed to work with Accurate. If you enable it, your restores
39 will probably not work correctly.
44 \index[general]{Copy Jobs}
46 A new {\bf Copy} job type 'C' has been implemented. It is similar to the
47 existing Migration feature with the exception that the Job that is copied is
48 left unchanged. This essentially creates two identical copies of the same
49 backup. However, the copy is treated as a copy rather than a backup job, and
50 hence is not directly available for restore. The {\bf restore} command lists
51 copy jobs and allows selection of copies by using \texttt{jobid=}
52 option. If the keyword {\bf copies} is present on the command line, Bacula will
53 display the list of all copies for selected jobs.
58 These JobIds have copies as follows:
59 +-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
60 | JobId | Job | CopyJobId | MediaType |
61 +-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
62 | 2 | CopyJobSave.2009-02-17_16.31.00.11 | 7 | DiskChangerMedia |
63 +-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
64 +-------+-------+----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+
65 | JobId | Level | JobFiles | JobBytes | StartTime | VolumeName |
66 +-------+-------+----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+
67 | 19 | F | 6274 | 76565018 | 2009-02-17 16:30:45 | ChangerVolume002 |
68 | 2 | I | 1 | 5 | 2009-02-17 16:30:51 | FileVolume001 |
69 +-------+-------+----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+
70 You have selected the following JobIds: 19,2
72 Building directory tree for JobId(s) 19,2 ... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
73 5,611 files inserted into the tree.
78 The Copy Job runs without using the File daemon by copying the data from the
79 old backup Volume to a different Volume in a different Pool. See the Migration
80 documentation for additional details. For copy Jobs there is a new selection
81 criterium named PoolUncopiedJobs which copies all jobs from a pool to an other
82 pool which were not copied before. Next to that the client, volume, job or sql
83 query are possible ways of selecting jobs which should be copied. Selection
84 types like smallestvolume, oldestvolume, pooloccupancy and pooltime are
85 probably more suited for migration jobs only. But we could imagine some people
86 have a valid use for those kind of copy jobs too.
88 If bacula founds a copy when a job record is purged (deleted) from the catalog,
89 it will promote the copy as \textsl{real} backup and will make it available for
90 automatic restore. If more than one copy is available, it will promote the copy
91 with the smallest jobid.
93 A nice solution which can be build with the new copy jobs is what is
94 called the disk-to-disk-to-tape backup (DTDTT). A sample config could
95 look somethings like the one below:
99 Name = FullBackupsVirtualPool
101 Purge Oldest Volume = Yes
103 NextPool = FullBackupsTapePool
107 Name = FullBackupsTapePool
111 Volume Retention = 365 days
112 Storage = superloader
116 # Fake fileset for copy jobs
128 # Fake client for copy jobs
138 # Default template for a CopyDiskToTape Job
141 Name = CopyDiskToTape
143 Messages = StandardCopy
146 Selection Type = PoolUncopiedJobs
147 Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 10
149 Allow Duplicate Jobs = Yes
150 Allow Higher Duplicates = No
151 Cancel Queued Duplicates = No
152 Cancel Running Duplicates = No
157 Name = DaySchedule7:00
158 Run = Level=Full daily at 7:00
162 Name = CopyDiskToTapeFullBackups
164 Schedule = DaySchedule7:00
165 Pool = FullBackupsVirtualPool
166 JobDefs = CopyDiskToTape
170 The example above had 2 pool which are copied using the PoolUncopiedJobs
171 selection criteria. Normal Full backups go to the Virtual pool and are copied
172 to the Tape pool the next morning.
174 The command \texttt{list copies [jobid=x,y,z]} lists copies for a given
179 +-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
180 | JobId | Job | CopyJobId | MediaType |
181 +-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
182 | 9 | CopyJobSave.2008-12-20_22.26.49.05 | 11 | DiskChangerMedia |
183 +-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
186 \section{ACL Updates}
187 The whole ACL code had been overhauled and in this version each platforms has
188 different streams for each type of acl available on such an platform. As ACLs
189 between platforms tend to be not that portable (most implement POSIX acls but
190 some use an other draft or a completely different format) we currently only
191 allow certain platform specific ACL streams to be decoded and restored on the
192 same platform that they were created on. The old code allowed to restore ACL
193 cross platform but the comments already mention that not being to wise. For
194 backward compatability the new code will accept the two old ACL streams and
195 handle those with the platform specific handler. But for all new backups it
196 will save the ACLs using the new streams.
198 Currently the following platforms support ACLs:
202 \item {\bf Darwin/OSX}
211 Currently we support the following ACL types (these ACL streams use a reserved
212 part of the stream numbers):
215 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_AIX\_TEXT} 1000 AIX specific string representation from
217 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_DARWIN\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1001 Darwin (OSX) specific acl\_t
218 string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl)
219 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_FREEBSD\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1002 FreeBSD specific acl\_t
220 string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
221 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_FREEBSD\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1003 FreeBSD specific acl\_t
222 string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
223 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_HPUX\_ACL\_ENTRY} 1004 HPUX specific acl\_entry
224 string representation from acltostr (POSIX acl)
225 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_IRIX\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1005 IRIX specific acl\_t string
226 representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
227 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_IRIX\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1006 IRIX specific acl\_t string
228 representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
229 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_LINUX\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1007 Linux specific acl\_t
230 string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
231 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_LINUX\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1008 Linux specific acl\_t string
232 representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
233 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_TRU64\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1009 Tru64 specific acl\_t
234 string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
235 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_TRU64\_DEFAULT\_DIR\_ACL} 1010 Tru64 specific acl\_t
236 string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
237 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_TRU64\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1011 Tru64 specific acl\_t string
238 representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
239 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_SOLARIS\_ACLENT} 1012 Solaris specific aclent\_t
240 string representation from acltotext or acl\_totext (POSIX acl)
241 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_SOLARIS\_ACE} 1013 Solaris specific ace\_t string
242 representation from from acl\_totext (NFSv4 or ZFS acl)
245 In future versions we might support conversion functions from one type of acl
246 into an other for types that are either the same or easily convertable. For now
247 the streams are seperate and restoring them on a platform that doesn't
248 recognize them will give you a warning.
250 \section{Extended Attributes}
251 Something that was on the project list for some time is now implemented for
252 platforms that support a similar kind of interface. Its the support for backup
253 and restore of so called extended attributes. As extended attributes are so
254 platform specific these attributes are saved in seperate streams for each
255 platform. Restores can only be performed on the same platform the backup was
256 done. There is support for all types of extended attributes, but restoring from
257 one type of filesystem onto an other type of filesystem on the same platform
258 may lead to supprises. As extended attributes can contain any type of data they
259 are stored as a series of so called value-pairs. This data must be seen as
260 mostly binary and is stored as such. As security labels from selinux are also
261 extended attributes this option also stores those labels and no specific code
262 is enabled for handling selinux security labels.
264 Currently the following platforms support extended attributes:
266 \item {\bf Darwin/OSX}
272 On linux acls are also extended attributes, as such when you enable ACLs on a
273 Linux platform it will NOT save the same data twice e.g. it will save the ACLs
274 and not the same exteneded attribute.
276 To enable the backup of extended attributes please add the following to your
291 \section{Shared objects}
292 A default build of Bacula will now create the libraries as shared objects
293 (.so) rather than static libraries as was previously the case.
294 The shared libraries are built using {\bf libtool} so it should be quite
297 An important advantage of using shared objects is that on a machine with the
298 Directory, File daemon, the Storage daemon, and a console, you will have only
299 one copy of the code in memory rather than four copies. Also the total size of
300 the binary release is smaller since the library code appears only once rather
301 than once for every program that uses it; this results in significant reduction
302 in the size of the binaries particularly for the utility tools.
304 In order for the system loader to find the shared objects when loading the
305 Bacula binaries, the Bacula shared objects must either be in a shared object
306 directory known to the loader (typically /usr/lib) or they must be in the
307 directory that may be specified on the {\bf ./configure} line using the {\bf
308 {-}{-}libdir} option as:
311 ./configure --libdir=/full-path/dir
314 the default is /usr/lib. If {-}{-}libdir is specified, there should be
315 no need to modify your loader configuration provided that
316 the shared objects are installed in that directory (Bacula
317 does this with the make install command). The shared objects
318 that Bacula references are:
327 These files are symbolically linked to the real shared object file,
328 which has a version number to permit running multiple versions of
329 the libraries if desired (not normally the case).
331 If you have problems with libtool or you wish to use the old
332 way of building static libraries, you can do so by disabling
333 libtool on the configure command line with:
336 ./configure --disable-libtool
340 \section{Virtual Backup (Vbackup)}
341 \index[general]{Virtual Backup}
342 \index[general]{Vbackup}
344 Bacula's virtual backup feature is often called Synthetic Backup or
345 Consolidation in other backup products. It permits you to consolidate
346 the previous Full backup plus the most recent Differential backup and any
347 subsequent Incremental backups into a new Full backup. This is accomplished
348 without contacting the client by reading the previous backup data and
349 writing it to a volume in a different pool.
351 In some respects the Vbackup feature works similar to a Migration job, in
352 that Bacula normally reads the data from the pool specified in the
353 Job resource, and writes it to the {\bf Next Pool} specified in the
354 Job resource. Note, this means that usually the output from the Virtual
355 Backup is written into a different pool from where your prior backups
356 are saved. Doing it this way guarantees that you will not get a deadlock
357 situation attempting to read and write to the same volume in the Storage
358 daemon. If you then want to do subsequent backups, you may need to
359 move the Virtual Full Volume back to your normal backup pool.
360 Alternatively, you can set your {\bf Next Pool} to point to the current
361 pool. This will cause Bacula to read and write to Volumes in the
362 current pool. In general, this will work, but doing the Virtual Full
363 requires reading more than one Volume, this procedure may cause a
364 deadlock where Bacula is writing on a Volume that is later needed
367 The Vbackup is enabled on a Job by Job in the Job resource by specifying
368 a level of {\bf VirtualFull}.
370 A typical Job resource definition might look like the following:
384 # Default pool definition
388 Recycle = yes # Automatically recycle Volumes
389 AutoPrune = yes # Prune expired volumes
390 Volume Retention = 365d # one year
398 Recycle = yes # Automatically recycle Volumes
399 AutoPrune = yes # Prune expired volumes
400 Volume Retention = 365d # one year
401 Storage = DiskChanger
404 # Definition of file storage device
411 Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 5
414 # Definition of DDS Virtual tape disk storage device
417 Address = localhost # N.B. Use a fully qualified name here
420 Media Type = DiskChangerMedia
421 Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 4
426 Then in bconsole or via a Run schedule, you would run the job as:
429 run job=MyBackup level=Full
430 run job=MyBackup level=Incremental
431 run job=MyBackup level=Differential
432 run job=MyBackup level=Incremental
433 run job=MyBackup level=Incremental
436 So providing there were changes between each of those jobs, you would end up
437 with a Full backup, a Differential, which includes the first Incremental
438 backup, then two Incremental backups. All the above jobs would be written to
439 the {\bf Default} pool.
441 To consolidate those backups into a new Full backup, you would run the
445 run job=MyBackup level=VirtualFull
448 And it would produce a new Full backup without using the client, and the output
449 would be written to the {\bf Full} Pool which uses the Diskchanger Storage.
451 If the Virtual Full is run, and there are no prior Jobs, the Virtual Full will
454 Note, the Start and End time of the Virtual Full backup is set to the
455 values for the last job included in the Virtual Full (in the above example,
456 it is an Increment). This is so that if another incremental is done, which
457 will be based on the Virtual Full, it will backup all files from the
458 last Job included in the Virtual Full rather than from the time the Virtual
459 Full was actually run.
463 \section{Catalog Format}
464 Bacula 3.0 comes with some changes on the catalog format. The upgrade
465 operation will convert an essential field of the File table that permits to
466 handle more than 4 billion objects over the time, and this operation will take
467 TIME and will likely DOUBLE THE SIZE of your catalog during the conversion.
468 You won't be able to run jobs during this period. For example, a 3 million
469 files catalog will take 2 minutes to upgrade on a normal machine. Please don't
470 forget to make a valid backup of your database before executing the upgrade
473 \section{Duplicate Job Control}
474 \index[general]{Duplicate Jobs}
475 The new version of Bacula provides four new directives that
476 give additional control over what Bacula does if duplicate jobs
477 are started. A duplicate job in the sense we use it here means
478 a second or subsequent job with the same name starts. This
479 happens most frequently when the first job runs longer than expected because no
482 The four directives each take as an argument a {\bf yes} or {\bf no} value and
483 are specified in the Job resource.
487 \subsection{Allow Duplicate Jobs = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
488 If this directive is enabled duplicate jobs will be run. If
489 the directive is set to {\bf no} (default) then only one job of a given name
490 may run at one time, and the action that Bacula takes to ensure only
491 one job runs is determined by the other directives (see below).
493 \subsection{Allow Higher Duplicates = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
494 If this directive is set to {\bf yes} (default) the job with a higher
495 priority (lower priority number) will be permitted to run. If the
496 priorities of the two jobs are the same, the outcome is determined by
497 other directives (see below).
499 \subsection{Cancel Queued Duplicates = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
500 If this directive is set to {\bf yes} (default) any job that is
501 already queued to run but not yet running will be canceled.
503 \subsection{Cancel Running Duplicates = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
504 If this directive is set to {\bf yes} any job that is already running
505 will be canceled. The default is {\bf no}.
508 \section{TLS Authentication}
509 \index[general]{TLS Authentication}
510 In Bacula version 2.5.x and later, in addition to the normal Bacula
511 CRAM-MD5 authentication that is used to authenticate each Bacula
512 connection, you can specify that you want TLS Authentication as well,
513 which will provide more secure authentication.
515 This new feature uses Bacula's existing TLS code (normally used for
516 communications encryption) to do authentication. To use it, you must
517 specify all the TLS directives normally used to enable communications
518 encryption (TLS Enable, TLS Verify Peer, TLS Certificate, ...) and
521 \subsection{TLS Authenticate = yes}
523 TLS Authenticate = yes
526 in the main daemon configuration resource (Director for the Director,
527 Client for the File daemon, and Storage for the Storage daemon).
529 When {\bf TLS Authenticate} is enabled, after doing the CRAM-MD5
530 authentication, Bacula will do the normal TLS authentication, then TLS
531 encryption will be turned off.
533 If you want to encrypt communications data, do not turn on {\bf TLS
536 \section{bextract non-portable Win32 data}
537 \index[general]{bextract handles Win32 non-portable data}
538 {\bf bextract} has been enhanced to be able to restore
539 non-portable Win32 data to any OS. Previous versions were
540 unable to restore non-portable Win32 data to machines that
541 did not have the Win32 BackupRead and BackupWrite API calls.
543 \section{State File updated at Job Termination}
544 \index[general]{State File}
545 In previous versions of Bacula, the state file, which provides a
546 summary of previous jobs run in the {\bf status} command output was
547 updated only when Bacula terminated, thus if the daemon crashed, the
548 state file might not contain all the run data. This version of
549 the Bacula daemons updates the state file on each job termination.
551 \section{MaxFullInterval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
552 \index[general]{MaxFullInterval}
553 The new Job resource directive {\bf Max Full Interval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
554 can be used to specify the maximum time interval between {\bf Full} backup
555 jobs. When a job starts, if the time since the last Full backup is
556 greater than the specified interval, and the job would normally be an
557 {\bf Incremental} or {\bf Differential}, it will be automatically
558 upgraded to a {\bf Full} backup.
560 \section{MaxDiffInterval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
561 \index[general]{MaxDiffInterval}
562 The new Job resource directive {\bf Max Diff Interval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
563 can be used to specify the maximum time interval between {\bf Differential} backup
564 jobs. When a job starts, if the time since the last Differential backup is
565 greater than the specified interval, and the job would normally be an
566 {\bf Incremental}, it will be automatically
567 upgraded to a {\bf Differential} backup.
569 \section{Honor No Dump Flag = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
570 \index[general]{MaxDiffInterval}
571 On FreeBSD systems, each file has a {\bf no dump flag} that can be set
572 by the user, and when it is set it is an indication to backup programs
573 to not backup that particular file. This version of Bacula contains a
574 new Options directive within a FileSet resource, which instructs Bacula to
575 obey this flag. The new directive is:
578 Honor No Dump Flag = yes|no
581 The default value is {\bf no}.
584 \section{Exclude Dirs Containing = \lt{}filename-string\gt{}}
585 \index[general]{IgnoreDir}
586 The {\bf ExcludeDirsContaining = \lt{}filename\gt{}} is a new directive that
587 can be added to the Include section of the FileSet resource. If the specified
588 filename ({\bf filename-string}) is found on the Client in any directory to be
589 backed up, the whole directory will be ignored (not backed up). For example:
592 # List of files to be backed up
600 Exclude Dirs Containing = .excludeme
605 But in /home, there may be hundreds of directories of users and some
606 people want to indicate that they don't want to have certain
607 directories backed up. For example, with the above FileSet, if
608 the user or sysadmin creates a file named {\bf .excludeme} in
609 specific directories, such as
612 /home/user/www/cache/.excludeme
613 /home/user/temp/.excludeme
616 then Bacula will not backup the two directories named:
623 NOTE: subdirectories will not be backed up. That is, the directive
624 applies to the two directories in question and any children (be they
625 files, directories, etc).
629 \section{Bacula Plugins}
630 \index[general]{Plugin}
631 Support for shared object plugins has been implemented in the Linux, Unix
632 and Win32 File daemons. The API will be documented separately in
633 the Developer's Guide or in a new document. For the moment, there is
634 a single plugin named {\bf bpipe} that allows an external program to
635 get control to backup and restore a file.
637 Plugins are also planned (partially implemented) in the Director and the
640 \subsection{Plugin Directory}
641 Each daemon (DIR, FD, SD) has a new {\bf Plugin Directory} directive that may
642 be added to the daemon definition resource. The directory takes a quoted
643 string argument, which is the name of the directory in which the daemon can
644 find the Bacula plugins. If this directive is not specified, Bacula will not
645 load any plugins. Since each plugin has a distinctive name, all the daemons
646 can share the same plugin directory.
648 \subsection{Plugin Options}
649 The {\bf Plugin Options} directive takes a quoted string
650 arguement (after the equal sign) and may be specified in the
651 Job resource. The options specified will be passed to all plugins
652 when they are run. This each plugin must know what it is looking
653 for. The value defined in the Job resource can be modified
654 by the user when he runs a Job via the {\bf bconsole} command line
657 Note: this directive may be specified, and there is code to modify
658 the string in the run command, but the plugin options are not yet passed to
659 the plugin (i.e. not fully implemented).
661 \subsection{Plugin Options ACL}
662 The {\bf Plugin Options ACL} directive may be specified in the
663 Director's Console resource. It functions as all the other ACL commands
664 do by permitting users running restricted consoles to specify a
665 {\bf Plugin Options} that overrides the one specified in the Job
666 definition. Without this directive restricted consoles may not modify
669 \subsection{Plugin = \lt{}plugin-command-string\gt{}}
670 The {\bf Plugin} directive is specified in the Include section of
671 a FileSet resource where you put your {\bf File = xxx} directives.
687 In the above example, when the File daemon is processing the directives
688 in the Include section, it will first backup all the files in {\bf /home}
689 then it will load the plugin named {\bf bpipe} (actually bpipe-dir.so) from
690 the Plugin Directory. The syntax and semantics of the Plugin directive
691 require the first part of the string up to the colon (:) to be the name
692 of the plugin. Everything after the first colon is ignored by the File daemon but
693 is passed to the plugin. Thus the plugin writer may define the meaning of the
694 rest of the string as he wishes.
696 Please see the next section for information about the {\bf bpipe} Bacula
699 \section{The bpipe Plugin}
700 The {\bf bpipe} plugin is provided in the directory src/plugins/fd/bpipe-fd.c of
701 the Bacula source distribution. When the plugin is compiled and linking into
702 the resulting dynamic shared object (DSO), it will have the name {\bf bpipe-fd.so}.
704 The purpose of the plugin is to provide an interface to any system program for
705 backup and restore. As specified above the {\bf bpipe} plugin is specified in
706 the Include section of your Job's FileSet resource. The full syntax of the
707 plugin directive as interpreted by the {\bf bpipe} plugin (each plugin is free
708 to specify the sytax as it wishes) is:
711 Plugin = "<field1>:<field2>:<field3>:<field4>"
716 \item {\bf field1} is the name of the plugin with the trailing {\bf -fd.so}
717 stripped off, so in this case, we would put {\bf bpipe} in this field.
719 \item {\bf field2} specifies the namespace, which for {\bf bpipe} is the
720 pseudo path and filename under which the backup will be saved. This pseudo
721 path and filename will be seen by the user in the restore file tree.
722 For example, if the value is {\bf /MYSQL/regress.sql}, the data
723 backed up by the plugin will be put under that "pseudo" path and filename.
724 You must be careful to choose a naming convention that is unique to avoid
725 a conflict with a path and filename that actually exists on your system.
727 \item {\bf field3} for the {\bf bpipe} plugin
728 specifies the "reader" program that is called by the plugin during
729 backup to read the data. {\bf bpipe} will call this program by doing a
732 \item {\bf field4} for the {\bf bpipe} plugin
733 specifies the "writer" program that is called by the plugin during
734 restore to write the data back to the filesystem.
737 Putting it all together, the full plugin directive line might look
741 Plugin = "bpipe:/MYSQL/regress.sql:mysqldump -f
742 --opt --databases bacula:mysql"
745 The directive has been split into two lines, but within the {\bf bacula-dir.conf} file
746 would be written on a single line.
748 This causes the File daemon to call the {\bf bpipe} plugin, which will write
749 its data into the "pseudo" file {\bf /MYSQL/regress.sql} by calling the
750 program {\bf mysqldump -f --opt --database bacula} to read the data during
751 backup. The mysqldump command outputs all the data for the database named
752 {\bf bacula}, which will be read by the plugin and stored in the backup.
753 During restore, the data that was backed up will be sent to the program
754 specified in the last field, which in this case is {\bf mysql}. When
755 {\bf mysql} is called, it will read the data sent to it by the plugn
756 then write it back to the same database from which it came ({\bf bacula}
759 The {\bf bpipe} plugin is a generic pipe program, that simply transmits
760 the data from a specified program to Bacula for backup, and then from Bacula to
761 a specified program for restore.
763 By using different command lines to {\bf bpipe},
764 you can backup any kind of data (ASCII or binary) depending
765 on the program called.
767 \section{Microsoft Exchange Server 2003/2007 Plugin}
769 \subsection{Concepts}
770 Although it is possible to backup Exchange using Bacula VSS the Exchange
771 plugin adds a good deal of functionality, because while Bacula VSS
772 completes a full backup (snapshot) of Exchange, it does
773 not support Incremental or Differential backups, restoring is more
774 complicated, and a single database restore is not possible.
776 Microsoft Exchange organises its storage into Storage Groups with
777 Databases inside them. A default installation of Exchange will have a
778 single Storage Group called 'First Storage Group', with two Databases
779 inside it, "Mailbox Store (SERVER NAME)" and
780 "Public Folder Store (SERVER NAME)",
781 which hold user email and public folders respectively.
783 In the default configuration, Exchange logs everything that happens to
784 log files, such that if you have a backup, and all the log files since,
785 you can restore to the present time. Each Storage Group has its own set
786 of log files and operates independently of any other Storage Groups. At
787 the Storage Group level, the logging can be turned off by enabling a
788 function called "Enable circular logging". At this time the Exchange
789 plugin will not function if this option is enabled.
791 The plugin allows backing up of entire storage groups, and the restoring
792 of entire storage groups or individual databases. Backing up and
793 restoring at the individual mailbox or email item is not supported but
794 can be simulated by use of the "Recovery" Storage Group (see below).
796 \subsection{Installing}
797 The Exchange plugin requires a DLL that is shipped with Microsoft
798 Exchanger Server called {\bf esebcli2.dll}. Assuming Exchange is installed
799 correctly the Exchange plugin should find this automatically and run
800 without any additional installation.
802 If the DLL can not be found automatically it will need to be copied into
803 the Bacula installation
804 directory (eg C:\verb+\+Program Files\verb+\+Bacula\verb+\+bin). The Exchange API DLL is
805 named esebcli2.dll and is found in C:\verb+\+Program Files\verb+\+Exchsrvr\verb+\+bin on a
806 default Exchange installation.
808 \subsection{Backup up}
809 To back up an Exchange server the Fileset definition must contain at
810 least {\bf Plugin = "exchange:/@EXCHANGE/Microsoft Information Store"} for
811 the backup to work correctly. The 'exchange:' bit tells Bacula to look
812 for the exchange plugin, the '@EXCHANGE' bit makes sure all the backed
813 up files are prefixed with something that isn't going to share a name
814 with something outside the plugin, and the 'Microsoft Information Store'
815 bit is required also. It is also possible to add the name of a storage
816 group to the "Plugin =" line, eg \\
817 {\bf Plugin = "exchange:/@EXCHANGE/Microsoft Information Store/First Storage Group"} \\
818 if you want only a single storage group backed up.
820 Additionally, you can suffix the 'Plugin =' directive with
821 ":notrunconfull" which will tell the plugin not to truncate the Exchange
822 database at the end of a full backup.
824 An Incremental or Differential backup will backup only the database logs
825 for each Storage Group by inspecting the "modified date" on each
826 physical log file. Because of the way the Exchange API works, the last
827 logfile backed up on each backup will always be backed up by the next
828 Incremental or Differential backup too. This adds 5MB to each
829 Incremental or Differential backup size but otherwise does not cause any
832 By default, a normal VSS fileset containing all the drive letters will
833 also back up the Exchange databases using VSS. This will interfere with
834 the plugin and Exchange's shared ideas of when the last full backup was
835 done, and may also truncate log files incorrectly. It is important,
836 therefore, that the Exchange database files be excluded from the backup,
837 although the folders the files are in should be included, or they will
838 have to be recreated manually if a baremetal restore is done.
843 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata
844 Plugin = "exchange:..."
847 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E00.chk
848 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E00.log
849 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E000000F.log
850 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E0000010.log
851 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E0000011.log
852 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E00tmp.log
853 File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/priv1.edb
858 The advantage of excluding the above files is that you can significantly
859 reduce the size of your backup since all the important Exchange files
860 will be properly saved by the Plugin.
863 \subsection{Restoring}
865 The restore operation is much the same as a normal Bacula restore, with
866 the following provisos:
869 \item The {\bf Where} restore option must not be specified
870 \item Each Database directory must be marked as a whole. You cannot just
871 select (say) the .edb file and not the others.
872 \item If a Storage Group is restored, the directory of the Storage Group
874 \item It is possible to restore only a subset of the available log files,
875 but they {\bf must} be contiguous. Exchange will fail to restore correctly
876 if a log file is missing from the sequence of log files
877 \item Each database to be restored must be dismounted and marked as "Can be
878 overwritten by restore"
879 \item If an entire Storage Group is to be restored (eg all databases and
880 logs in the Storage Group), then it is best to manually delete the
881 database files from the server (eg C:\verb+\+Program Files\verb+\+Exchsrvr\verb+\+mdbdata\verb+\+*)
882 as Exchange can get confused by stray log files lying around.
885 \subsection{Restoring to the Recovery Storage Group}
887 The concept of the Recovery Storage Group is well documented by
889 \elink{http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824126}{http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824126},
890 but to briefly summarize...
892 Microsoft Exchange allows the creation of an additional Storage Group
893 called the Recovery Storage Group, which is used to restore an older
894 copy of a database (e.g. before a mailbox was deleted) into without
895 messing with the current live data. This is required as the Standard and
896 Small Business Server versions of Exchange can not ordinarily have more
897 than one Storage Group.
899 To create the Recovery Storage Group, drill down to the Server in Exchange
900 System Manager, right click, and select
901 {\bf "New -> Recovery Storage Group..."}. Accept or change the file
902 locations and click OK. On the Recovery Storage Group, right click and
903 select {\bf "Add Database to Recover..."} and select the database you will
906 Restore only the single database nominated as the database in the
907 Recovery Storage Group. Exchange will redirect the restore to the
908 Recovery Storage Group automatically.
909 Then run the restore.
911 \subsection{Restoring on Microsoft Server 2007}
912 Apparently the {\bf Exmerge} program no longer exists in Microsoft Server
913 2007, and henc you use a new proceedure for recovering a single mail box.
914 This procedure is ducomented by Microsoft at:
915 \elink{http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694.aspx}{http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694.aspx},
916 and involves using the {\bf Restore-Mailbox} and {\bf
917 Get-MailboxStatistics} shell commands.
920 This plugin is still being developed, so you should consider it
921 currently in BETA test, and thus use in a production environment
922 should be done only after very careful testing.
924 When doing a full backup, the Exchange database logs are truncated by
925 Exchange as soon as the plugin has completed the backup. If the data
926 never makes it to the backup medium (eg because of spooling) then the
927 logs will still be truncated, but they will also not have been backed
928 up. A solution to this is being worked on.
930 The "Enable Circular Logging" option cannot be enabled or the plugin
933 Exchange insists that a successful Full backup must have taken place if
934 an Incremental or Differential backup is desired, and the plugin will
935 fail if this is not the case. If a restore is done, Exchange will
936 require that a Full backup be done before an Incremental or Differential
939 The plugin will most likely not work well if another backup application
940 (eg NTBACKUP) is backing up the Exchange database, especially if the
941 other backup application is truncating the log files.
943 The Exchange plugin has not been tested with the {\bf Accurate} option, so
944 we recommend either carefully testing or that you avoid this option for
947 The Exchange plugin is not called during processing the bconsole {\bf
948 estimate} command, and so anything that would be backed up by the plugin
949 will not be added to the estimate total that is displayed.
952 \section{libdbi Framework}
953 As a general guideline, Bacula has support for a few catalog database drivers
954 (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)
955 coded natively by the Bacula team. With the libdbi implementation, which is a
956 Bacula driver that uses libdbi to access the catalog, we have an open field to
957 use many different kinds database engines following the needs of users.
959 The according to libdbi (http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/) project: libdbi
960 implements a database-independent abstraction layer in C, similar to the
961 DBI/DBD layer in Perl. Writing one generic set of code, programmers can
962 leverage the power of multiple databases and multiple simultaneous database
963 connections by using this framework.
965 Currently the libdbi driver in Bacula project only supports the same drivers
966 natively coded in Bacula. However the libdbi project has support for many
967 others database engines. You can view the list at
968 http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/. In the future all those drivers can be
969 supported by Bacula, however, they must be tested properly by the Bacula team.
971 Some of benefits of using libdbi are:
973 \item The possibility to use proprietary databases engines in which your
974 proprietary licenses prevent the Bacula team from developing the driver.
975 \item The possibility to use the drivers written for the libdbi project.
976 \item The possibility to use other database engines without recompiling Bacula
977 to use them. Just change one line in bacula-dir.conf
978 \item Abstract Database access, this is, unique point to code and profiling
979 catalog database access.
982 The following drivers have been tested:
984 \item PostgreSQL, with and without batch insert
985 \item Mysql, with and without batch insert
990 In the future, we will test and approve to use others databases engines
991 (proprietary or not) like DB2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL.
993 To compile Bacula to support libdbi we need to configure the code with the
994 --with-dbi and --with-dbi-driver=[database] ./configure options, where
995 [database] is the database engine to be used with Bacula (of course we can
996 change the driver in file bacula-dir.conf, see below). We must configure the
997 access port of the database engine with the option --with-db-port, because the
998 libdbi framework doesn't know the default access port of each database.
1000 The next phase is checking (or configuring) the bacula-dir.conf, example:
1004 dbdriver = dbi:mysql; dbaddress = 127.0.0.1; dbport = 3306
1005 dbname = regress; user = regress; password = ""
1009 The parameter {\bf dbdriver} indicates that we will use the driver dbi with a
1010 mysql database. Currently the drivers supported by Bacula are: postgresql,
1011 mysql, sqlite, sqlite3; these are the names that may be added to string "dbi:".
1013 The following limitations apply when Bacula is set to use the libdbi framework:
1014 - Not tested on the Win32 platform
1015 - A little performance is lost if comparing with native database driver.
1016 The reason is bound with the database driver provided by libdbi and the
1017 simple fact that one more layer of code was added.
1019 It is important to remember, when compiling Bacula with libdbi, the
1020 following packages are needed:
1022 \item libdbi version 1.0.0, http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/
1023 \item libdbi-drivers 1.0.0, http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/
1026 You can download them and compile them on your system or install the packages
1027 from your OS distribution.
1029 \section{Console Command Additions and Enhancements}
1031 \subsection{Display Autochanger Content}
1032 \index[general]{StatusSlots}
1034 The {\bf status slots storage=\lt{}storage-name\gt{}} command displays
1035 autochanger content.
1039 Slot | Volume Name | Status | Media Type | Pool |
1040 ------+---------------+----------+-------------------+------------|
1041 1 | 00001 | Append | DiskChangerMedia | Default |
1042 2 | 00002 | Append | DiskChangerMedia | Default |
1043 3*| 00003 | Append | DiskChangerMedia | Scratch |
1048 If you an asterisk ({\bf *}) appears after the slot number, you must run an
1049 {\bf update slots} command to synchronize autochanger content with your
1052 \subsection{list joblog job=xxx or jobid=nnn}
1053 A new list command has been added that allows you to list the contents
1054 of the Job Log stored in the catalog for either a Job Name (fully qualified)
1055 or for a particular JobId. The {\bf llist} command will include a line with
1056 the time and date of the entry.
1058 Note for the catalog to have Job Log entries, you must have a directive
1065 In your Director's {\bf Messages} resource.
1067 \subsection{Use separator for multiple commands}
1068 When using bconsole with readline, you can set the command separator to one
1069 of those characters to write commands who require multiple input in one line.
1071 !$%&'()*+,-/:;<>?[]^`{|}~
1074 \section{Miscellaneous}
1075 \index[general]{Misc New Features}
1077 \subsection{Allow Mixed Priority = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
1078 This directive is only implemented in version 2.5 and later. When
1079 set to {\bf yes} (default {\bf no}), this job may run even if lower
1080 priority jobs are already running. This means a high priority job
1081 will not have to wait for other jobs to finish before starting.
1082 The scheduler will only mix priorities when all running jobs have
1085 Note that only higher priority jobs will start early. Suppose the
1086 director will allow two concurrent jobs, and that two jobs with
1087 priority 10 are running, with two more in the queue. If a job with
1088 priority 5 is added to the queue, it will be run as soon as one of
1089 the running jobs finishes. However, new priority 10 jobs will not
1090 be run until the priority 5 job has finished.
1092 \subsection{Bootstrap File Directive -- FileRegex}
1093 {\bf FileRegex} is a new command that can be added to the bootstrap
1094 (.bsr) file. The value is a regular expression. When specified, only
1095 matching filenames will be restored.
1097 During a restore, if all File records are pruned from the catalog
1098 for a Job, normally Bacula can restore only all files saved. That
1099 is there is no way using the catalog to select individual files.
1100 With this new feature, Bacula will ask if you want to specify a Regex
1101 expression for extracting only a part of the full backup.
1104 Building directory tree for JobId(s) 1,3 ...
1105 There were no files inserted into the tree, so file selection
1106 is not possible.Most likely your retention policy pruned the files
1108 Do you want to restore all the files? (yes|no): no
1110 Regexp matching files to restore? (empty to abort): /tmp/regress/(bin|tests)/
1111 Bootstrap records written to /tmp/regress/working/zog4-dir.restore.1.bsr
1114 \subsection{Bootstrap File Optimization Changes}
1115 In order to permit proper seeking on disk files, we have extended the bootstrap
1116 file format to include a {\bf VolStartAddr} and {\bf VolEndAddr} records. Each
1117 takes a 64 bit unsigned integer range (i.e. nnn-mmm) which defines the start
1118 address range and end address range respectively. These two directives replace
1119 the {\bf VolStartFile}, {\bf VolEndFile}, {\bf VolStartBlock} and {\bf
1120 VolEndBlock} directives. Bootstrap files containing the old directives will
1121 still work, but will not properly take advantage of proper disk seeking, and
1122 may read completely to the end of a disk volume during a restore. With the new
1123 format (automatically generated by the new Director), restores will seek
1124 properly and stop reading the volume when all the files have been restored.
1126 \subsection{Solaris ZFS/NFSv4 ACLs}
1127 This is an upgrade of the previous Solaris ACL backup code
1128 to the new library format, which will backup both the old
1129 POSIX(UFS) ACLs as well as the ZFS ACLs.
1131 The new code can also restore POSIX(UFS) ACLs to a ZFS filesystem
1132 (it will translate the POSIX(UFS)) ACL into a ZFS/NFSv4 one) it can also
1133 be used to transfer from UFS to ZFS filesystems.
1136 \subsection{Virtual Tape Emulation}
1137 We now have a Virtual Tape emulator that allows us to run though 99.9\% of
1138 the tape code but actually reading and writing to a disk file. Used with the
1139 \textbf{disk-changer} script, you can now emulate an autochanger with 10 drives
1140 and 700 slots. This feature is most useful in testing. It is enabled
1141 by using {\bf Device Type = vtape} in the Storage daemon's Device
1142 directive. This feature is only implemented on Linux machines.
1144 \subsection{Bat Enhancements}
1145 Bat (the Bacula Administration Tool) GUI program has been significantly
1146 enhanced and stabilized. In particular, there are new table based status
1147 commands; it can now be easily localized using Qt4 Linguist.
1149 The Bat communications protocol has been significantly enhanced to improve
1150 GUI handling. Note, you {\bf must} use a the bat that is distributed with
1151 the Director you are using otherwise the communications protocol will not
1154 \subsection{RunScript Enhancements}
1155 The {\bf RunScript} resource has been enhanced to permit multiple
1156 commands per RunScript. Simply specify multiple {\bf Command} directives
1163 Command = "/bin/echo test"
1164 Command = "/bin/echo an other test"
1165 Command = "/bin/echo 3 commands in the same runscript"
1172 A new Client RunScript {\bf RunsWhen} keyword of {\bf AfterVSS} has been
1173 implemented, which runs the command after the Volume Shadow Copy has been made.
1175 Console commands can be specified within a RunScript by using:
1176 {\bf Console = \lt{}command\gt{}}, however, this command has not been
1177 carefully tested and debugged and is known to easily crash the Director.
1178 We would appreciate feedback. Due to the recursive nature of this command, we
1179 may remove it before the final release.
1181 \subsection{Status Enhancements}
1182 The bconsole {\bf status dir} output has been enhanced to indicate
1183 Storage daemon job spooling and despooling activity.
1185 \subsection{Connect Timeout}
1186 The default connect timeout to the File
1187 daemon has been set to 3 minutes. Previously it was 30 minutes.
1189 \subsection{ftruncate for NFS Volumes}
1190 If you write to a Volume mounted by NFS (say on a local file server),
1191 in previous Bacula versions, when the Volume was recycled, it was not
1192 properly truncated because NFS does not implement ftruncate (file
1193 truncate). This is now corrected in the new version because we have
1194 written code (actually a kind user) that deletes and recreates the Volume,
1195 thus accomplishing the same thing as a truncate.
1197 \subsection{Support for Ubuntu}
1198 The new version of Bacula now recognizes the Ubuntu (and Kubuntu)
1199 version of Linux, and thus now provides correct autostart routines.
1200 Since Ubuntu officially supports Bacula, you can also obtain any
1201 recent release of Bacula from the Ubuntu repositories.
1203 \subsection{Recycle Pool = \lt{}pool-name\gt{}}
1204 The new \textbf{RecyclePool} directive defines to which pool the Volume will
1205 be placed (moved) when it is recycled. Without this directive, a Volume will
1206 remain in the same pool when it is recycled. With this directive, it can be
1207 moved automatically to any existing pool during a recycle. This directive is
1208 probably most useful when defined in the Scratch pool, so that volumes will
1209 be recycled back into the Scratch pool.
1211 \subsection{FD Version}
1212 The File daemon to Director protocol now includes a version
1213 number, which although there is no visible change for users,
1214 will help us in future versions automatically determine
1215 if a File daemon is not compatible.
1217 \subsection{Max Run Sched Time = \lt{}time-period-in-seconds\gt{}}
1218 The time specifies the maximum allowed time that a job may run, counted from
1219 when the job was scheduled. This can be useful to prevent jobs from running
1220 during working hours. We can see it like \texttt{Max Start Delay + Max Run
1223 \subsection{Max Wait Time = \lt{}time-period-in-seconds\gt{}}
1225 Previous \textbf{MaxWaitTime} directives aren't working as expected, instead
1226 of checking the maximum allowed time that a job may block for a resource,
1227 those directives worked like \textbf{MaxRunTime}. Some users are reporting to
1228 use \textbf{Incr/Diff/Full Max Wait Time} to control the maximum run time of
1229 their job depending on the level. Now, they have to use
1230 \textbf{Incr/Diff/Full Max Run Time}. \textbf{Incr/Diff/Full Max Wait Time}
1231 directives are now deprecated.
1233 \subsection{Incremental|Differential Max Wait Time = \lt{}time-period-in-seconds\gt{}}
1234 These directives have been deprecated in favor of
1235 \texttt{Incremental|Differential Max Run Time}.
1237 \subsection{Max Run Time directives}
1238 Using \textbf{Full/Diff/Incr Max Run Time}, it's now possible to specify the
1239 maximum allowed time that a job can run depending on the level.
1241 \addcontentsline{lof}{figure}{Job time control directives}
1242 \includegraphics{\idir different_time.eps}
1244 \subsection{Statistics Enhancements}
1245 If you (or probably your boss) want to have statistics on your backups to
1246 provide some \textit{Service Level Agreement} indicators, you could use a few
1247 SQL queries on the Job table to report how many:
1251 \item jobs have been successful
1252 \item files have been backed up
1256 However, these statistics are accurate only if your job retention is greater
1257 than your statistics period. Ie, if jobs are purged from the catalog, you won't
1258 be able to use them.
1260 Now, you can use the \textbf{update stats [days=num]} console command to fill
1261 the JobHistory table with new Job records. If you want to be sure to take in
1262 account only \textbf{good jobs}, ie if one of your important job has failed but
1263 you have fixed the problem and restarted it on time, you probably want to
1264 delete the first \textit{bad} job record and keep only the successful one. For
1265 that simply let your staff do the job, and update JobHistory table after two or
1266 three days depending on your organization using the \textbf{[days=num]} option.
1268 These statistics records aren't used for restoring, but mainly for
1269 capacity planning, billings, etc.
1271 The Bweb interface provides a statistics module that can use this feature. You
1272 can also use tools like Talend or extract information by yourself.
1274 The {\textbf Statistics Retention = \lt{}time\gt{}} director directive defines
1275 the length of time that Bacula will keep statistics job records in the Catalog
1276 database after the Job End time. (In \texttt{JobHistory} table) When this time
1277 period expires, and if user runs \texttt{prune stats} command, Bacula will
1278 prune (remove) Job records that are older than the specified period.
1280 You can use the following Job resource in your nightly \textbf{BackupCatalog}
1281 job to maintain statistics.
1284 Name = BackupCatalog
1287 Console = "update stats days=3"
1288 Console = "prune stats yes"
1295 \subsection{ScratchPool = \lt{}pool-resource-name\gt{}}
1296 This directive permits to specify a specific \textsl{Scratch} pool for the
1297 current pool. This is useful when using multiple storage sharing the same
1298 mediatype or when you want to dedicate volumes to a particular set of pool.
1300 \subsection{Enhanced Attribute Despooling}
1301 If the storage daemon and the Director are on the same machine, the spool file
1302 that contains attributes is read directly by the Director instead of being
1303 transmitted across the network. That should reduce load and speedup insertion.
1305 \subsection{SpoolSize = \lt{}size-specification-in-bytes\gt{}}
1306 A new Job directive permits to specify the spool size per job. This is used
1307 in advanced job tunning. {\bf SpoolSize={\it bytes}}
1309 \subsection{MaxConsoleConnections = \lt{}number\gt{}}
1310 A new director directive permits to specify the maximum number of Console
1311 Connections that could run concurrently. The default is set to 20, but you may
1312 set it to a larger number.
1314 \subsection{dbcheck enhancements}
1315 If you are using Mysql, dbcheck will now ask you if you want to create
1316 temporary indexes to speed up orphaned Path and Filename elimination.
1318 A new \texttt{-B} option allows you to print catalog information in a simple
1319 text based format. This is useful to backup it in a secure way.
1334 You can now specify the database connection port in the command line.
1336 \section{Building Bacula Plugins}
1337 There is currently one sample program {\bf example-plugin-fd.c} and
1338 one working plugin {\bf bpipe-fd.c} that can be found in the Bacula
1339 {\bf src/plugins/fd} directory. Both are built with the following:
1343 ./configure <your-options>
1351 After building Bacula and changing into the src/plugins/fd directory,
1352 the {\bf make} command will build the {\bf bpipe-fd.so} plugin, which
1353 is a very useful and working program.
1355 The {\bf make test} command will build the {\bf example-plugin-fd.so}
1356 plugin and a binary named {\bf main}, which is build from the source
1357 code located in {\bf src/filed/fd\_plugins.c}.
1359 If you execute {\bf ./main}, it will load and run the example-plugin-fd
1360 plugin simulating a small number of the calling sequences that Bacula uses
1361 in calling a real plugin. This allows you to do initial testing of
1362 your plugin prior to trying it with Bacula.
1364 You can get a good idea of how to write your own plugin by first
1365 studying the example-plugin-fd, and actually running it. Then
1366 it can also be instructive to read the bpipe-fd.c code as it is
1367 a real plugin, which is still rather simple and small.
1369 When actually writing your own plugin, you may use the example-plugin-fd.c
1370 code as a template for your code.