ghost

Shell ghost utility using parted, partclone and dd ( {ba,da,}sh compatible ) (version 2.3.3)

• What can be saved?
• Examples
• Usage
• Detailed Informations
• Dependencies
• License

What can be saved?

The first mega byte until first partition, the very last mega byte from the last partition to the end of the disk and all the partition content with partclone or dd. One mega byte (1MiB) is enough to store partition table (e.g. MBR, GPT) and a possible bootloader (e.g. Grub).

Examples

• Ghost entire disk using dd and partclone:

    # ghost backup /dev/sda
    parted -s '/dev/sda' -- unit B print > './%2Fdev%2Fsda.parted.txt'
    dd if='/dev/sda' of='./%2Fdev%2Fsda.start.bin' count=256 ibs=4096
    dd if='/dev/sda' of='./%2Fdev%2Fsda.end.bin' skip=160041885696 ibs=4096
    partclone.vfat -c -s '/dev/sda1' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda1.partclone.bin.gz'
    partclone.ntfs -c -s '/dev/sda2' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda2.partclone.bin.gz'
    dd if='/dev/sda3' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda3.dd.bin.gz'
    echo -n > './%2Fdev%2Fsda5.xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.mkswap'
    partclone.ext4 -c -s '/dev/sda6' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda6.partclone.bin.gz'
  
    ...
  

• Ghost entire disk using dd:

    # ghost backup --dd /dev/sda
    dd if='/dev/sda' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda.dd.bin.gz'
  
    ...
  

• Ghost entire disk using dd for partitions only:

    # ghost backup --headers /dev/sda
    parted -s '/dev/sda' -- unit B print > './%2Fdev%2Fsda.parted.txt'
    dd if='/dev/sda' of='./%2Fdev%2Fsda.start.bin' count=256 ibs=4096
    dd if='/dev/sda' of='./%2Fdev%2Fsda.end.bin' skip=160041885696 ibs=4096
  
    ...
    # ghost backup --parts --dd /dev/sda
    dd if='/dev/sda1' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda1.dd.bin.gz'
    dd if='/dev/sda2' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda2.dd.bin.gz'
    dd if='/dev/sda3' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda3.dd.bin.gz'
    echo -n > './%2Fdev%2Fsda5.xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.mkswap'
    dd if='/dev/sda6' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda6.dd.bin.gz'
  
    ...
  

• Ghost entire partition using partclone (if available) or dd:

    # ghost backup /dev/sda1
    partclone.vfat -c -s '/dev/sda1' | gzip -c > './%2Fdev%2Fsda1.partclone.bin.gz'
  
    ...
  

• For disk and partitions restoration, see the usage and the following detailled informations just below.

Usage

ghost list                                # show a list of connected block devices
ghost restore [OPTION] [FOLDER]           # restore disks/partitions from files in FOLDER
ghost backup [OPTION] DEV [FOLDER]        # backup entire disk/part in FOLDER

ghost restore [OPTION] [FILES_OR_FOLDERS] # restore headers/partitions from FILE
ghost [OPTION]

• DEV can be either DISK or PART
• DISK is disk path (ex: /dev/sda)
• PART is partition path (ex: /dev/sda1)
• FOLDER is folder path (default is current working directory)
• FILE is file path

OPTION:

-v, --version                  # print the program version and exit
-h, --help                     # print this help and exit
    --info                     # print details about what this program does

backup OPTION:

-n, --dry-run                  # just output backup commands
-Z, --no-gzip                  # tells to not use gzip
    --headers                  # backup disk headers only
    --parts                    # backup disk partitions only
    --dd                       # use `dd` only
    --partclone                # use `partclone` only

restore OPTION:

-n, --dry-run                  # just output restoration commands

Detailed informations

For ghost restore, it will look for this kind of files:

./DISK.start.bin
./DISK.end.bin
./DEV.dd.bin[.gz]
./PART.partclone.bin[.gz]
./PART.[LABEL.]UUID.mkswap (which is empty)

For ghost backup -- DISK, it will create:

./DISK.start.bin
./DISK.end.bin
./PART.partclone.bin.gz (or PART.dd.bin.gz if FSTYPE is not supported)
./PART.[LABEL.]UUID.mkswap

For ghost backup --headers -- DISK, it will create:

./DISK.start.bin
./DISK.end.bin

For ghost backup -- PART, it will create:

./PART.partclone.bin.gz (or PART.dd.bin.gz if FSTYPE is not supported)
or ./PART.[LABEL.]UUID.mkswap (for swap)

(./ can also be FOLDER/.)

Dependencies

Here is a list of command used for this script:

• awk
• basename
• cut
• dd
• echo
• grep
• gzip
• head
• ls
• lsblk
• mkswap
• partclone (optional)
• parted
• printf
• read
• sed
• sort
• stat
• zcat

License

Copyright (c) 2014, 2017 Tristan Cavelier [email protected]

This program is free software. It comes without any warranty, to the extent permitted by applicable law. You can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License, Version 2, as published by Sam Hocevar. See the COPYING file for more details.