autoarchive 2.1.0.dev20260309

A simple backup utility

A simple backup utility.

Copyright (C) 2003 - 2026 Robert Cernansky

Program Description

AutoArchive is a simple utility to help create backups more easily. The idea of the program is that all essential information for creating a single backup—such as list of directories that should be archived, the archive name, etc.—is stored in a single file – the archive specification file. It can use ‘tar’ for creating archives, it has a command line interface and supports incremental backups.

Archive specification files, also called “.aa files” are normally stored in a predefined location from where they are processed by the “aa” command which results to creating of a corresponding backup for each.

Command “autoarchive” is alias for “aa”; these commands are equivalent.

Usage

aa [options] [command] [AA_SPEC …] autoarchive [options] [command] [AA_SPEC …]

For complete list of command line options please see the aa*(1) manual page or *AutoArchive User Manual.

Most of the options can be specified also in configuration files and in the archive specification file (by using the long option form and leaving out leading dashes) – see aa.conf*(5) and *aa_arch_spec*(5) manual pages or *Configuration Files Description and Archive Specification File Description sections in the AutoArchive User Manual for complete list of options that can be specified there. Command line options has higher priority than options in configuration files but lower priority than the ones in the archive specification file. “–force-” options are available for the purpose of overriding some of the options specified in the *.aa file.

Boolean options can also have a negation form defined. It has the “no-” prefix before the option name. For example: “–incremental” vs. “–no-incremental”. The negation form has always higher priority than the normal form.

AA_SPEC is the archive specification file argument. It determines the archive specification file that shall be processed. None, single or multiple AA_SPEC arguments are allowed. If option “–all” or command “–list” is specified then no AA_SPEC argument is required. Otherwise at least single AA_SPEC argument is required. If it contains the “.aa” extension then it is taken as the path to an archive specification file. Otherwise, if specified without the extension, the corresponding .aa file is searched in the archive specifications directory.

Contacting the Author

Comments, bug reports, wishes, donations for this piece of software are welcomed. You can send them via the project page at https://sourceforge.net/projects/autoarchive/.

Homepage: https://autoarchive.sourceforge.io/.