The {\bf bpipe} plugin is provided in the directory src/plugins/fd/bpipe-fd.c of
the Bacula source distribution. When the plugin is compiled and linking into
the resulting dynamic shared object (DSO), it will have the name {\bf bpipe-fd.so}.
+Please note that this is a very simple plugin that was written for
+demonstration and test purposes. It is and can be used in production, but
+that was never really intended.
The purpose of the plugin is to provide an interface to any system program for
backup and restore. As specified above the {\bf bpipe} plugin is specified in
\item {\bf field3} for the {\bf bpipe} plugin
specifies the "reader" program that is called by the plugin during
backup to read the data. {\bf bpipe} will call this program by doing a
-{\bf popen} on it.
+{\bf popen} on it.
\item {\bf field4} for the {\bf bpipe} plugin
specifies the "writer" program that is called by the plugin during
restore to write the data back to the filesystem.
\end{description}
+Please note that for two items above describing the "reader" and "writer"
+fields, these programs are "executed" by Bacula, which
+means there is no shell interpretation of any command line arguments
+you might use. If you want to use shell characters (redirection of input
+or output, ...), then we recommend that you put your command or commands
+in a shell script and execute the script. In addition if you backup a
+file with the reader program, when running the writer program during
+the restore, Bacula will not automatically create the path to the file.
+Either the path must exist, or you must explicitly do so with your command
+or in a shell script.
+
Putting it all together, the full plugin directive line might look
like the following:
projects / bacula / docs / blobdiff