smbtar - Man Page

smbtar [-r] [-i] [-a] [-v] {-s server} [-p password] [-x services] [-X] [-N filename] [-b blocksize] [-d directory] [-l loglevel] [-u user] [-t tape] {filenames}

This tool is part of the samba(7) suite​.

smbtar is a very small shell script on top of smbclient(1) which dumps SMB shares directly to tape​.

-s server

The SMB/CIFS server that the share resides upon​.

-x service

The share name on the server to connect to​. The default is "backup"​.

-X

Exclude mode​. Exclude filenames​.​.​. from tar create or restore​.

-d directory

Change to initial directory before restoring / backing up files​.

-v

Verbose mode​.

-p password

The password to use to access a share​. Default: none

-u user

The user id to connect as​. Default: UNIX login name​.

-a

Reset DOS archive bit mode to indicate file has been archived​.

-t tape

Tape device​. May be regular file or tape device​. Default: $TAPE environmental variable; if not set, a file called tar​.out​.

-b blocksize

Blocking factor​. Defaults to 20​. See tar(1) for a fuller explanation​.

-N filename

Backup only files newer than filename​. Could be used (for example) on a log file to implement incremental backups​.

-i

Incremental mode; tar files are only backed up if they have the archive bit set​. The archive bit is reset after each file is read​.

-r

Restore​. Files are restored to the share from the tar file​.

-l log level

Log (debug) level​. Corresponds to the -d flag of smbclient(1)​.

The $TAPE variable specifies the default tape device to write to​. May be overridden with the -t option​.

The smbtar script has different options from ordinary tar and from smbclient's tar command​.

Sites that are more careful about security may not like the way the script handles PC passwords​. Backup and restore work on entire shares; should work on file lists​. smbtar works best with GNU tar and may not work well with other versions​.

See the DIAGNOSTICS section for the smbclient(1) command​.

This man page is part of version 4​.25​.0 of the Samba suite​.

smbd(8), smbclient(1), smb.conf(5)​.

The original Samba software and related utilities were created by Andrew Tridgell​. Samba is now developed by the Samba Team as an Open Source project similar to the way the Linux kernel is developed​.

Ricky Poulten wrote the tar extension and this man page​. The smbtar script was heavily rewritten and improved by Martin Kraemer​. Many thanks to everyone who suggested extensions, improvements, bug fixes, etc​. The man page sources were converted to YODL format (another excellent piece of Open Source software, available at ftp://ftp​.icce​.rug​.nl/pub/unix/) and updated for the Samba 2​.0 release by Jeremy Allison​. The conversion to DocBook for Samba 2​.2 was done by Gerald Carter​. The conversion to DocBook XML 4​.2 for Samba 3​.0 was done by Alexander Bokovoy​.