Actions: File

`from-file`

Input: Nothing

Output: stream

Unaction: Yes

Parameters

Expects a path as string or an object like { path: '/path/to/file' }.

Description

Initial action that opens a file to be read from the next actions. The user running the backups must be able to read the file.

Example

Simple copy (the bad way).

- name: from file task example
  actions:
    - from-file: '/path/to/a/file.txt'
    - to-file:
      path: 'file.txt'

`from-file-ssh`

Input: Nothing

Output: stream

Unaction: Yes

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Optional
`host`	`str`	Hostname of the host which has an ssh	No
`path`	`str`	Path to the remote file to copy	No
`user`	`str`	User to be used in the connection	Yes
`password`	`str`	Password for the authentication	Yes
`port`	`int`	Port of the ssh server	Yes
`identityFile`	`str`	Path to an identity file which will be used for authentication	Yes
`configFile`	`str`	Path to a ssh client configuration file	Yes
`knownHostsPolicy`	`str`	If set to `true`, will ignore unknown hosts errors	Yes

Use of password in ssh

It is not recommended to use the password authentication method with ssh in scripts like this. If you need the password method, ensure the host (where mdbackup runs) has installed sshpass.

A properly authentication using ssh is made by configuring an ssh-agent before running mdbackup with the keys preloaded so the tool can run without issues.

Description

Reads a file from the remote server using scp, and the output can be used in other actions as if it were a regular file in the same machine.

Example

Simple copy using scp.

- name: from file ssh task example
  actions:
    - from-file-ssh:
        path: '/path/to/a/file/in/the/remote/server/file.txt'
        host: 'my-server'
        identityFile: '/root/.ssh/id_rsa'
    - to-file:
        path: 'file.txt'

`to-file`

Input: stream

Output: Nothing

Unaction: Yes

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Optional
`path`	`str`	Path where the file will be written, inside the backup folder	No
`mkdirParents`	`bool`	If the path contains some folders and this parameter is set to `true`, then will create the folders	Yes
`chunkSize`	`int`	Changes the chunk size to be used internally while reading the data to write (default 8KiB = 8192)	Yes

Description

Writes the data stream into a file, reading chunks of chunkSize bytes until end of the stream.

Example

Simple copy (the bad way), but a bit different.

- name: from file task example
  actions:
    - from-file: '/path/to/a/file.txt'
    - to-file:
        path: 'file.txt'
        chunkSize: 65536

`copy-file`

Input: Nothing

Output: Nothing

Unaction: Yes

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Optional
`from`	`str`	Path to the file to be copied	No
`to`	`str`	Path to where the file will be copied inside the backup folder	No
`mkdirParents`	`bool`	If the path contains some folders and this parameter is set to `true`, then will create the folders	Yes
`preserveStats`	`Union[bool, str]`	Preserve some or all of the stats of the entry (see this)	Yes
`forceCopy`	`bool`	If set to `true`, then it will always copy the file and will not try to clone it from a previous backup	Yes
`reflink`	`bool`	If set to `true` it will try to make copy of the original file using Copy on Write (if the file system supports this - see `clone-file`)	Yes
`chunkSize`	`int`	The same as in `to-file`	Yes

Description

Copies a file to the backup folder. It is an optimized version in which the previous backup file is checked in order to clone it (which is faster). In order to make this work, the file must have the utime at least in the preserveStats parameter (the default). The action will check the modified time of the previous backup version and if they both match, then it will use clone-file action. If the modification time is different or forceCopy is true, then it will make a normal copy using to-file action. If the clone-file action fails, it will try to make a normal copy using to-file action.

Example

Optimized copy (the right way).

- name: copy file task example
  actions:
    - copy-file:
        from: '/path/to/a/file.txt'
        to: 'file.txt'
        preserveStats: True
        reflink: True  # in btrfs, this will make a really fast copy
        chunkSize: 65536

`clone-file`

Input: Nothing

Output: Nothing

Unaction: Yes

Parameters

Name	Type	Description	Optional
`from`	`str`	Path to the file to be copied	No
`to`	`str`	Path to where the file will be copied inside the backup folder	No
`mkdirParents`	`bool`	If the path contains some folders and this parameter is set to `true`, then will create the folders	Yes
`preserveStats`	`Union[bool, str]`	Preserve some or all of the stats of the entry (see this) (only for `reflink`)	Yes
`reflink`	`bool`	If set to `true` it will try to make copy of the original file using Copy on Write (if the file system supports this)	Yes

Description

Does a "clone" of a file. By default, does a hard-link between both files. But if reflink is set to true, then it will try to make a light copy using Copy on Write (if the file system supports that - only available on Linux). If the CoW fails, then a hard-link will be done as fallback.

About hard-links and CoW

For both to work, from and to paths must be under the same partition. Cross partition hard-links are impossible, as well as CoW copies.

Example

Clone a file.

- name: clone file task example
  actions:
    - clone-file:
        from: '/path/to/a/file.txt'
        to: 'file.txt'
        preserveStats: True
        reflink: True  # in btrfs, this will make a really fast copy