The user name of the backup administrator. Backup scripts sends a backup report to this address.

The hour at which the backups are done. This can be a number from 0 to 23, or the time specification in form hours:minutes, or the string ‘now’.

This variable is used by backup. Its value may be overridden using --time option (see Scripted Backups).

The device tar writes the archive to. If TAPE_FILE is a remote archive (see remote-dev), backup script will suppose that your mt is able to access remote devices. If RSH (see RSH) is set, --rsh-command option will be added to invocations of mt.

The blocking factor tar will use when writing the dump archive. See Blocking Factor.

A list of file systems to be dumped (for backup), or restored (for restore). You can include any directory name in the list — subdirectories on that file system will be included, regardless of how they may look to other networked machines. Subdirectories on other file systems will be ignored.

The host name specifies which host to run tar on, and should normally be the host that actually contains the file system. However, the host machine must have GNU tar installed, and must be able to access the directory containing the backup scripts and their support files using the same file name that is used on the machine where the scripts are run (ie. what pwd will print when in that directory on that machine). If the host that contains the file system does not have this capability, you can specify another host as long as it can access the file system through NFS.

If the list of file systems is very long you may wish to put it in a separate file. This file is usually named /etc/backup/dirs, but this name may be overridden in backup-specs using DIRLIST variable.

A path to the file containing the list of the file systems to backup or restore. By default it is /etc/backup/dirs.

A list of individual files to be dumped (for backup), or restored (for restore). These should be accessible from the machine on which the backup script is run.

If the list of file systems is very long you may wish to store it in a separate file. This file is usually named /etc/backup/files, but this name may be overridden in backup-specs using FILELIST variable.

A path to the file containing the list of the individual files to backup or restore. By default it is /etc/backup/files.

Full file name of mt binary.

Full file name of rsh binary or its equivalent. You may wish to set it to ssh, to improve security. In this case you will have to use public key authentication.

Full file name of rsh binary on remote mashines. This will be passed via --rsh-command option to the remote invocation of GNU tar.

Name of temporary file to hold volume numbers. This needs to be accessible by all the machines which have file systems to be dumped.

Name of exclude file list. An exclude file list is a file located on the remote machine and containing the list of files to be excluded from the backup. Exclude file lists are searched in /etc/tar-backup directory. A common use for exclude file lists is to exclude files containing security-sensitive information (e.g., /etc/shadow from backups).

This variable affects only backup.

Time to sleep between dumps of any two successive file systems

This variable affects only backup.

Script to be run when it's time to insert a new tape in for the next volume. Administrators may want to tailor this script for their site. If this variable isn't set, GNU tar will display its built-in prompt , and will expect confirmation from the console.

Message to display on the terminal while waiting for dump time. Usually this will just be some literal text.

Full file name of the GNU tar executable. If this is not set, backup scripts will search tar in the current shell path.