www.nico.schottelius.org/software/ccollect.mdwn

## ccollect - (pseudo) incremental backup with different exclude lists using hardlinks and rsync

<P ALIGN="center">
<a href="screenshots/">
![ccollect-0.8](screenshots/ccollect-0.8-screenshot-20091007.png "Example output of ccollect")
</a>
<P>ccollect backups data from local and remote hosts to your local harddisk.
Although ccollect creates full backups, it requires very less space on the
backup medium, because ccollect uses hardlinks to create an initial copy of
the last backup. Only the inodes used by the hardlinks and the changed files
need additional space.

ccollect uses [rsync](http://www.samba.org/rsync/) for synchronisation.
Since ccollect-0.2 there is [asciidoc](http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/)
based documentation included in the distribution (see below).
You should also be able to configure ccollect with the help of the example
configuration in conf/.

## Documentation

The latest documentation that is based on the current development version:

 * the ccollect handbook
   <a href="doc/ccollect.text">text</a>,
   <a href="doc/ccollect.html">HTML</a>,
   <a href="doc/ccollect.htm">HTML (docbook)</a>,
 * the ccollect manpage
   <a href="doc/man/ccollect.text">text</a>,
   <a href="doc/man/ccollect.1">troff</a>
   <a href="doc/man/ccollect.html">HTML</a>
   <a href="doc/man/ccollect.htm">HTML (docbook)</a>
 * <a href="screenshots/">screenshots</a>.

### Portability
As ccollect is a simple shell script, it should run on
any POSIX compatible OS. It is known or reported to run on:

 * FreeBSD:   amd64/i386
 * Linux:     alpha/hppa/ppc/i386
 * NetBSD:    alpha/sparc64/i386/amd64
 * OpenBSD:   amd64

Feel free to send an e-mail if you are running ccollect on
another OS or architecture.

For more information regarding portability have a look at the [[u2u|net/u2u]] idea.

### Sample configurations
 * <a href="config/ccollect-buche-2006-06-16.tar.bz2">Configuration
   for ccollect 0.4 or later from buche.intern.schottelius.org</a>
 * <a href="config/ccollect-eiche-2006-02-05.tar.bz2">Configuration
   for ccollect 0.3.3 or earlier from eiche.intern.schottelius.org</a>

### Quotes

Thorsten Elle, Dr.-Ing.

    Hallo,

    auf der Suche nach einer Lösung für meine Backups (Debian/amd64) bin ich auf ccollect gestoßen.
    Ist wirklich ein tolles Skript / System und mein Favorit. [...]

Folken

    thx for an uncomplicated, easy and straightforward backup solution.

Matteo Contri

    Hi Nico,
    first of all: congratulation for ccollect, a really lovely script!

    i've tried a lot of backup solution (veritas netbackup, rsnapshot, bacula)
    but no other software is so simple and effective.
    ccollect resolves 93% of backup problems in few minutes with standard tools.

Benedikt Köppel

    Hi Nico,
    
    thank you very much for your great software ccollect. I just started
    using it to backup my notebook, my server and all computers of my family.

Norbert Titko

    works like charm (just upgraded to 0.7.1)

John Lawless

    Dear Nico Schottelius,

    I have started using ccollect and I very much like its design:
    it is elegant and effective.

Patrick Drolet

    Hello,

    Thank you for making ccollect public; it is a very nice and well written
    utility.  I am using it to backup two NAS (DNS323 and QNAP TS-209) across
    the Internet, where bandwidth and upload/download quota is limited.


## Getting ccollect

### Development versions
You can get the latest (development) version via git:

    git clone git://git.schottelius.org/cLinux/ccollect.git

Additionally, the following other git ressources are available:

 * [Gitweb](http://git.schottelius.org/?p=cLinux/ccollect.git;a=summary).
 * [Mirror at github](http://github.com/telmich/ccollect/tree/master)

### Releases
 * [[ccollect-0.8.tar.bz2]]
   ([browse source](ccollect-0.8))
   ([[Changes|ccollect-0.8/doc/changes/0.8]])
   ([[RPM|ccollect-0.8-0.noarch.rpm]])
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.7.1.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.7.1.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.7.1">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.7.1/doc/changes/0.7.1">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.7.0.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.7.0.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.7.0">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.7.0/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.6.2.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.6.2.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.6.2">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.6.2/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.6.1.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.6.1.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.6.1">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.6.1/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.6.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.6.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.6">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.6/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.5.2.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.5.2.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.5.2">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.5.2/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.5.1.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.5.1.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.5.1">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.5.1/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.5.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.5.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.5">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.5/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.4.2.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.4.2.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.4.2">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.4.2/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.4.1.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.4.1.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.4.1">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.4.1/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.4.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.4.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.4">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.4/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.3.3.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.3.3.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3.3">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3.3/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.3.2.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.3.2.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3.2">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3.2/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.3.1.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.3.1.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3.1">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3.1/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.3.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.3.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.3/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.2.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.2.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.2">browse source</A>)
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.2/doc/CHANGES">Changes</A>)
   <!-- -------------------------------------------------------- -->
 * <A HREF="ccollect-0.1.tar.bz2">ccollect-0.1.tar.bz2</A>
   (<A HREF="ccollect-0.1">browse source</A>)

#### Gentoo
ccollect is included into gentoo portage.
Thanks to Ren&eacute; Nussbaumer.

### Debian
The Debian archives provided by
Marcus Wagner (deb http://deb.notestc.de/ clinux/) and
Daniel Aubry (deb http://debian.syhosting.ch/ software/)
are currently outdated.

Feel free to use their work to create recent debs or
even include it into Debian.

## Support
 * There is a general
 [ccollect mailing list](http://l.schottelius.org/mailman/listinfo/ccollect)
 available.
  * **Warning**: Only subscribers can post.
 * You can join the development ***IRC channel***
   [#cLinux on irc.freenode.org](irc://irc.freenode.org/#cLinux).

## Related websites
 * [RadioTux](http://blog.radiotux.de) reports about ccollect in the [[RadioTux@HoRadS #76 edition|dokumentationen/radiotux-horads-76]].
 * The German magazine [Linux-Magazin](http://www.linux-magazin.de/)
   contains the article [[writes about ccollect|dokumentationen/linuxmagazin-clevere-datensicherung-mit-ccollect]].
 * The German magazine [Linux User](http://www.linuxuser.de/)
   [[writes about ccollect in the 2009/08 edition|about/press]].
 * [ccollect-config](http://0xf00.de/ccollect-config.html) -
   a configuration tool written by Frederic Jaeckel
 * [German report about ccollect including a description
   of reverse ssh tunnels](http://muasch.ch/article/show/ccollect-backup-software)
   by Benedikt K&ouml;ppel,

[[!tag unix backup]]