Warning: This document is for the development version of Bareos Documentation. The main version is bareos-23.

API

General

This document is intended mostly for developers who wish to develop a new GUI interface to Bareos.

Minimal Code in Console Program

All the Catalog code is in the Directory (with the exception of dbcheck and bscan). Therefore also user level security and access is implemented in this central place. If code would be spreaded everywhere such as in a GUI this will be more difficult. The other advantage is that any code you add to the Director is automatically available to all interface programs, like the tty console and other programs.

GUI Interface is Difficult

Interfacing to an interactive program such as Bareos can be very difficult because the interfacing program must interpret all the prompts that may come. This can be next to impossible. There are are a number of ways that Bareos is designed to facilitate this:

  • The Bareos network protocol is packet based, and thus pieces of information sent can be ASCII or binary.

  • The packet interface permits knowing where the end of a list is.

  • The packet interface permits special “signals” to be passed rather than data.

  • The Director has a number of commands that are non-interactive. They all begin with a period, and provide things such as the list of all Jobs, list of all Clients, list of all Pools, list of all Storage, … Thus the GUI interface can get to virtually all information that the Director has in a deterministic way. See https://github.com/bareos/bareos/blob/master/core/src/dird/ua_dotcmds.cc for more details on this.

  • Most console commands allow all the arguments to be specified on the command line: e.g. run job=NightlyBackup level=Full

dot commands

Besides the normal commands (like list, status, run, mount, …) the Director offers a number of so called dot commands. They all begin with a period, are all non-interactive, easily parseable and are indended to be used by other Bareos interface programs (GUIs).

See https://github.com/bareos/bareos/blob/master/core/src/dird/ua_dotcmds.cc for more details.

  • .actiononpurge

  • .api [ 0 | 1 | 2 | off | on | json ]

  • .clients

    • List all client resources

  • .catalogs

    • List all catalog resources

  • .defaults job=<job-name> | client=<client-name> | storage=<storage-name | pool=<pool-name>

    • List default settings

  • .filesets

    • List all filesets

  • .help [ all | item=cmd ]

    • Print parsable information about a command

  • .jobdefs

    • List add JobDef resources

  • .jobs

    • List job resources

  • .levels

    • List all backup levels

  • .locations

  • .messages

  • .media

    • List all medias

  • .mediatypes

    • List all media types

  • .msgs

    • List all message resources

  • .pools

    • List all pool resources

  • .profiles

    • List all profile resources

  • .quit

    • Close connection

  • .sql query=<sqlquery>

    • Send an arbitary SQL command

  • .schedule

    • List all schedule resources

  • .status

  • .storages

    • List all storage resources

  • .types

    • List all job types

  • .volstatus

    • List all volume status

  • .bvfs_lsdirs

  • .bvfs_lsfiles

  • .bvfs_update

  • .bvfs_get_jobids

  • .bvfs_versions

  • .bvfs_restore

  • .bvfs_cleanup

  • .bvfs_clear_cache

API Modes

The .api command can be used to switch between the different API modes. Besides the .api command, there is also the gui on | off command. However, this command can be ignored, as it set to gui on in command execution anyway.

API mode 0 (off)

.api 0

By default, a console connection to the Director is in interactive mode, meaning the api mode is off. This is the normal mode you get when using the bconsole. The output should be human readable.

API mode 1 (on)

Deprecated since version 16.2.0.

To get better parsable output, a console connection could be switched to API mode 1 (on).

.api 1

or (form times where they have only been one API flavour)

.api

This mode is intended to create output that is earlier parsable. Internaly some commands vary there output for the API mode 1, but not all.

In API mode 1 some output is only delimted by the end of a packet, by not a new line. bconsole does not display end of packets (for good reason, as some output (e.g. status) is send in multiple packets). If running in a bconsole, this leads not parsable output for human.

Example:

*.api 0
api: 0
*.defaults job=BackupClient1
job=BackupClient1
pool=Incremental
messages=Standard
client=client1.example.com-fd
storage=File
where=
level=Incremental
type=Backup
fileset=SelfTest
enabled=1
catalog=MyCatalog
*.api 1
api: 1
*.defaults job=BackupClient1
job=BackupClient1pool=Incrementalmessages=Standardclient=client1.example.com-fdstorage=Filewhere=level=Incrementaltype=Backupfileset=SelfTestenabled=1catalog=MyCatalog

This mode has been introduced by BAT and is now deprecated.

API mode 2 (json)

The API mode 2 (or JSON mode) has been introduced in Bareos-15.2 and differs from API mode 1 in several aspects:

  • JSON output

  • The JSON output is in the format of JSON-RPC 2.0 responce objects (http://www.jsonrpc.org/specification#response_object). This should make it easier to implement a full JSON-RPC service later.

  • No user interaction inside a command (meaning: if not all parameter are given to a run command, the command fails).

  • Each command creates exaclty one responce object.

Currently a subset of the available commands return there result in JSON format, while others still write plain text output. When finished, it should be safe to run all commands in JSON mode.

A successful responce should return

"result": {
    "<type_of_the_results>": [
        {
            <result_object_1_key_1>: <result_object_1_value_1>,
            <result_object_1_key_2>: <result_object_1_value_2>,
            ...
        },
        {
            <result_object_2_key_1>: <result_object_2_value_1>,
            <result_object_2_key_2>: <result_object_2_value_2>,
            ...
        },
        ...
    ]
}

All keys are lower case.

Examples

  • list

    • e.g.

    *list jobs
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": null,
"result": {
  "jobs": [
    {
      "type": "B",
      "starttime": "2015-06-25 16:51:38",
      "jobfiles": "18",
      "jobid": "1",
      "name": "BackupClient1",
      "jobstatus": "T",
      "level": "F",
      "jobbytes": "4651943"
    },
    {
      "type": "B",
      "starttime": "2015-06-25 17:25:23",
      "jobfiles": "0",
      "jobid": "2",
      "name": "BackupClient1",
      "jobstatus": "T",
      "level": "I",
      "jobbytes": "0"
    },
    ...
  ]
}
}

    • keys are the table names

  • llist

    • e.g.

    *llist jobs
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": null,
"result": {
  "jobs": [
    {
      "name": "BackupClient1",
      "realendtime": "2015-06-25 16:51:40",
      "Type": "B",
      "schedtime": "2015-06-25 16:51:33",
      "poolid": "1",
      "level": "F",
      "jobfiles": "18",
      "volsessionid": "1",
      "jobid": "1",
      "job": "BackupClient1.2015-06-25_16.51.35_04",
      "priorjobid": "0",
      "endtime": "2015-06-25 16:51:40",
      "jobtdate": "1435243900",
      "jobstatus": "T",
      "jobmissingfiles": "0",
      "joberrors": "0",
      "purgedfiles": "0",
      "starttime": "2015-06-25 16:51:38",
      "clientname": "ting.dass-it-fd",
      "clientid": "1",
      "volsessiontime": "1435243839",
      "filesetid": "1",
      "poolname": "Full",
      "fileset": "SelfTest"
    },
    {
      "name": "BackupClient1",
      "realendtime": "2015-06-25 17:25:24",
      "type": "B",
      "schedtime": "2015-06-25 17:25:10",
      "poolid": "3",
      "level": "I",
      "jobfiles": "0",
      "volsessionid": "2",
      "jobid": "2",
      "job": "BackupClient1.2015-06-25_17.25.20_04",
      "priorjobid": "0",
      "endtime": "2015-06-25 17:25:24",
      "jobtdate": "1435245924",
      "jobstatus": "T",
      "jobmissingfiles": "0",
      "JobErrors": "0",
      "purgedfiles": "0",
      "starttime": "2015-06-25 17:25:23",
      "clientname": "ting.dass-it-fd",
      "clientid": "1",
      "volsessiontime": "1435243839",
      "filesetid": "1",
      "poolname": "Incremental",
      "fileset": "SelfTest"
    },
    ...
  ]
}
}

    • like the list command, but more values

  • .jobs

    • e.g.

    *.jobs
{
"jsonrpc": "2.0",
"id": null,
"result": {
  "jobs": [
    {
      "name": "BackupClient1"
    },
    {
      "name": "BackupCatalog"
    },
    {
      "name": "RestoreFiles"
    }
  ]
}
}
Example of a JSON-RPC Error Response

Example of a JSON-RPC Error Response (http://www.jsonrpc.org/specification#error_object):

*gui
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": null,
  "error": {
    "data": {
      "result": {},
      "messages": {
        "error": [
          "ON or OFF keyword missing.\n"
        ]
      }
    },
    "message": "failed",
    "code": 1
  }
}

  • an error response is emitted, if the command returns false or emitted an error message (void UAContext::error_msg(const char *fmt, ...)). Messages and the result so far will be part of the error response object.

Bvfs API

The BVFS (Bareos Virtual File System) do provide a API for browsing the backed up files in the catalog and select files for restoring.

The Bvfs module works correctly with BaseJobs, Copy and Migration jobs.

The initial version in Bacula have be founded by Bacula Systems.

General notes

  • All fields are separated by a tab (api mode 0 and 1). (api mode 2: JSON format).

  • The output format for api mode 0 and 1 have changed for bareos >= 17.2. In earlier versions the second column of the bvfs_lsdirs, bvfs_lsfiles and bvfs_versions command have been the FilenameId. As bareos >= 17.2 internally don’t use the FilenameId any longer, this column have been removed.

  • You can specify limit= and offset= to list smoothly records in very big directories. By default, limit=2000.

  • All operations (except cache creation) are designed to run instantly.

  • The cache creation is dependent of the number of directories. As Bvfs shares information across jobs, the first creation can be slow.

  • Due to potential encoding problem, it’s advised to use pathid instead of path in queries.

Limitation - BVFS: bvfs_lsdirs limit/offset not working correctly on MySQL

As described in Issue #975 the limit/offset does not work correctly for bvfs_lsdirs on MySQL. The problem has been fixed for PostgreSQL, but the SQL syntax required to formulate the query is unavailable on MySQL so there is no easy way to replicate that fix on MySQL.

Get dependent jobs from a given JobId

Bvfs allows you to query the catalog against any combination of jobs. You can combine all Jobs and all FileSet for a Client in a single session.

To get all JobId needed to restore a particular job, you can use the .bvfs_get_jobids command.

.bvfs_get_jobids jobid=num [all]

Example:

*.bvfs_get_jobids jobid=10
1,2,5,10
*.bvfs_get_jobids jobid=10 all
1,2,3,5,10

In this example, a normal restore will need to use JobIds 1,2,5,10 to compute a complete restore of the system.

With the all option, the Director will use all defined FileSet for this client.

Generating Bvfs cache

The .bvfs_update command computes the directory cache for jobs specified in argument, or for all jobs if unspecified.

.bvfs_update [jobid=numlist]

Example:

*.bvfs_update jobid=1,2,3

You can run the cache update process in a RunScript after the catalog backup.

List directories

Bvfs allows you to list directories in a specific path.

*.bvfs_lsdirs pathid=num path=/apath jobid=numlist limit=num offset=num
PathId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Path
PathId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Path
PathId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Path
...

In bareos < 17.2 the output has been:

PathId  FilenameId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Path

You need to pathid or path. Using path= will list “/” on Unix and all drives on Windows.

FilenameId is 0 for all directories.

*.bvfs_lsdirs pathid=4 jobid=1,11,12
4       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     .
5       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     ..
3       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     regress/

In this example, to list directories present in regress/, you can use

*.bvfs_lsdirs pathid=3 jobid=1,11,12
3       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     .
4       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     ..
2       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     tmp/

List files

API mode 0

Bvfs allows you to list files in a specific path.

.bvfs_lsfiles pathid=num path=/apath jobid=numlist limit=num offset=num
PathId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Filename
PathId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Filename
PathId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Filename
...

In bareos < 17.2 the output has been:

PathId  FilenameId  FileId  JobId  LStat  Filename

You need to pathid or path. Using path= will list “/” on Unix and all drives on Windows. If FilenameId is 0, the record listed is a directory.

*.bvfs_lsdir pathid=4 jobid=1,11,12
4       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     .
5       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     ..
1       0       0       A A A A A A A A A A A A A A     regress/

In this example, to list files present in regress/, you can use

*.bvfs_lsfiles pathid=1 jobid=1,11,12
1   52   12    gD HRid IGk BAA I BMqcPH BMqcPE BMqe+t A     titi
1   53   12    gD HRid IGk BAA I BMqe/K BMqcPE BMqe+t B     toto
1   54   12    gD HRie IGk BAA I BMqcPH BMqcPE BMqe+3 A     tutu
1   55   12    gD HRid IGk BAA I BMqe/K BMqcPE BMqe+t B     ficheriro1.txt
1   56   12    gD HRie IGk BAA I BMqe/K BMqcPE BMqe+3 D     ficheriro2.txt

API mode 1

*.api 1
*.bvfs_lsfiles jobid=1 pathid=1
1   7   1   gD OEE4 IHo B GHH GHH A G9S BAA 4 BVjBQG BVjBQG BVjBQG A A C    bpluginfo
1   4   1   gD OEE3 KH/ B GHH GHH A W BAA A BVjBQ7 BVjBQG BVjBQG A A C  bregex
...

API mode 2

*.api 2
*.bvfs_lsfiles jobid=1 pathid=1
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": null,
  "result": {
    "files": [
      {
        "jobid": 1,
        "type": "F",
        "fileid": 7,
        "lstat": "gD OEE4 IHo B GHH GHH A G9S BAA 4 BVjBQG BVjBQG BVjBQG A A C",
        "pathid": 1,
        "stat": {
          "atime": 1435243526,
          "ino": 3686712,
          "dev": 2051,
          "mode": 33256,
          "gid": 25031,
          "nlink": 1,
          "uid": 25031,
          "ctime": 1435243526,
          "rdev": 0,
          "size": 28498,
          "mtime": 1435243526
        },
        "name": "bpluginfo",
        "linkfileindex": 0
      },
      {
        "jobid": 1,
        "type": "F",
        "fileid": 4,
        "lstat": "gD OEE3 KH/ B GHH GHH A W BAA A BVjBQ7 BVjBQG BVjBQG A A C",
        "pathid": 1,
        "stat": {
          "atime": 1435243579,
          "ino": 3686711,
          "dev": 2051,
          "mode": 41471,
          "gid": 25031,
          "nlink": 1,
          "uid": 25031,
          "ctime": 1435243526,
          "rdev": 0,
          "size": 22,
          "mtime": 1435243526
        },
        "name": "bregex",
        "linkfileindex": 0
      },
      ...
    ]
  }
}

API mode JSON contains all information also available in the other API modes, but displays them more verbose.

Get all versions of a specific file

Bvfs allows you to find all versions of a specific file for a given Client with the .bvfs_version command. To avoid problems with encoding, this function uses only PathId and FilenameId.

The jobid argument is mandatory but unused.

*.bvfs_versions jobid=0 client=filedaemon pathid=num fname=filename [copies] [versions]
PathId FileId JobId LStat Md5 VolName InChanger
PathId FileId JobId LStat Md5 VolName InChanger
...

Example:

*.bvfs_versions jobid=0 client=localhost-fd pathid=1 fnane=toto
1  49  12  gD HRid IGk D Po Po A P BAA I A   /uPgWaxMgKZlnMti7LChyA  Vol1  1

Restore set of files

Bvfs allows you to create a SQL table that contains files that you want to restore. This table can be provided to a restore command with the file option.

*.bvfs_restore fileid=numlist dirid=numlist hardlink=numlist path=b2num
OK
*restore file=?b2num ...

To include a directory (with dirid), Bvfs needs to run a query to select all files. This query could be time consuming.

hardlink list is always composed of a serie of two numbers (jobid, fileindex). This information can be found in the LinkFileIndex (LinkFI) field of the LStat packet.

The path argument represents the name of the table that Bvfs will store results. The format of this table is b2[0-9]+. (Should start by b2 and followed by digits).

Example:

*.bvfs_restore fileid=1,2,3,4 hardlink=10,15,10,20 jobid=10 path=b20001
OK

Cleanup after Restore

To drop the table used by the restore command, you can use the .bvfs_cleanup command.

*.bvfs_cleanup path=b20001

Clearing the BVFS Cache

To clear the BVFS cache, you can use the .bvfs_clear_cache command.

*.bvfs_clear_cache yes
OK

Example for directory browsing using bvfs

# update the bvfs cache for all jobs
*.bvfs_update
Automatically selected Catalog: MyCatalog
Using Catalog "MyCatalog

# Get jobids required to reconstruct a current full backup.
# This is optional. Only required if you care about a full backup.
# If you are only interessed in a single (differential or incremental) backup job,
# just use the single jobid.
*.bvfs_get_jobids jobid=123
117,118,123

# get root directory of the combined jobs 117,118,123
*.bvfs_lsdir jobid=117,118,123 path=
134 0   0   A A A A A A A A A A A A A A .
133 0   0   A A A A A A A A A A A A A A /

# path=/ (pathid=133) is the root directory.
# Check the root directory for subdirectories.
.bvfs_lsdir jobid=117,118,123 pathid=133
133 0   0   A A A A A A A A A A A A A A .
130 0   0   A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ..
1   23  123 z GiuU EH9 C GHH GHH A BAA BAA I BWA5Px BaIDUN BaIDUN A A C sbin/

# the first really backed up path is /sbin/ (pathid=1)
# as it has values other than 0 for FileId, JobId and LStat.
# Now we check, if it has futher subdirectories.
*.bvfs_lsdir jobid=1 pathid=1
1   23  123 z GiuU EH9 C GHH GHH A BAA BAA I BWA5Px BaIDUN BaIDUN A A C .
129 0   0   A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ..

# pathid=1 has no further subdirectories.
# Now we list the files in pathid=1 (/sbin/)
.bvfs_lsfiles jobid=117,118,123 pathid=1
1   18  123 z Gli+ IHo B GHH GHH A NVkY BAA BrA BaIDUJ BaIDUJ BaIDUJ A A C  bareos-dir
1   21  123 z GkuS IHo B GHH GHH A C1bw BAA XA BaIDUG BaIDUG BaIDUG A A C   bareos-fd
1   19  123 z Glju IHo B GHH GHH A CeNg BAA UI BaIDUJ BaIDUJ BaIDUJ A A C   bareos-sd
...

# there are a number of files in /sbin/.
# We check, if there are different versions of the file bareos-dir.
*.bvfs_versions jobid=0 client=bareos-fd pathid=1 fname=bareos-dir
1   18  123 z Gli+ IHo B GHH GHH A NVkY BAA BrA BaIDUJ BaIDUJ BaIDUJ A A C  928EB+EJGFtWD7wQ8bVjew  Full-0001   0
1   1067    127 z Glnc IHo B GHH GHH A NVkY BAA BrA BaKDT2 BaKDT2 BaKDT2 A A C  928EB+EJGFtWD7wQ8bVjew  Incremental-0007    0

# multiple versions of the file bareos-dir have been backed up.