Overview
--------

atticmatic is a simple Python wrapper script for the Attic backup software
that initiates a backup and prunes any old backups according to a retention
policy. The script supports specifying your settings in a declarative
configuration file rather than having to put them all on the command-line, and
handles common errors.

Here's an example config file:

    [location]
    # Space-separated list of source directories to backup.
    source_directories: /home /etc

    # Path to local or remote Attic repository.
    repository: user@backupserver:sourcehostname.attic

    [retention]
    # Retention policy for how many backups to keep in each category.
    keep_daily: 7
    keep_weekly: 4
    keep_monthly: 6

Additionally, exclude patterns can be specified in a separate excludes config
file, one pattern per line.

Read more about Attic at https://attic-backup.org/

atticmatic is hosted at http://torsion.org/hg/atticmatic/ and is mirrored on
GitHub and BitBucket for convenience.


Setup
-----

To get up and running with Attic, follow the Attic Quick Start guide at
https://attic-backup.org/quickstart.html to create an Attic repository on a
local or remote host.

If the repository is on a remote host, make sure that your local root user has
key-based ssh access to the desired user account on the remote host.

To install atticmatic, run the following from the directory containing this
README:

    python setup.py install

Then copy the following configuration files:

    sudo cp sample/atticmatic.cron /etc/init.d/atticmatic
    sudo cp sample/config sample/excludes /etc/atticmatic/

Lastly, modify those files with your desired configuration.


Usage
-----

You can run atticmatic and start a backup simply by invoking it without
arguments:

    atticmatic

This will also prune any old backups as per the configured retention policy.
By default, the backup will proceed silently except in the case of errors. But
if you'd like to to get additional information about the progress of the
backup as it proceeds, use the verbose option instead:

    atticmattic --verbose

If you'd like to see the available command-line arguments, view the help:

    atticmattic --help


Running tests
-------------

To install test-specific dependencies, first run:

    python setup.py test

To actually run tests, run:

    nosetests --detailed-errors


Feedback
--------

Questions? Comments? Got a patch? Contact witten@torsion.org