GENBACKUPDATA(1) General Commands Manual GENBACKUPDATA(1)
NAME
genbackupdata - generate backup test data
SYNOPSIS
genbackupdata [--chunk-size=SIZE] [--config=FILE] [-c=SIZE] [--create=SIZE] [--depth=DEPTH] [--dump-config] [--dump-setting-names]
[--file-size=SIZE] [--generate-manpage=TEMPLATE] [-h] [--help] [--list-config-files] [--log=FILE] [--log-keep=N] [--log-level=LEVEL]
[--log-max=SIZE] [--max-files=MAX-FILES] [--no-default-configs] [--output=FILE] [--quiet] [--seed=SEED] [--version]
DESCRIPTION
genbackupdata generates test data sets for performance testing of backup software. It creates a directory tree filled with files of dif-
ferent sizes. The total size and the distribution of sizes between small and big are configurable. The program can also modify an exist-
ing directory tree by creating new files, and deleting, renaming, or modifying existing files. This can be used to generate test data for
successive generations of backups.
The program is deterministic: with a given set of parameters (and a given pre-existing directory tree), it always creates the same output.
This way, it is possible to reproduce backup tests exactly, without having to distribute the potentially very large test sets.
The data set consists of plain files and directories. Files are either small text files or big binary files. Text files contain the
"lorem ipsum" stanza, binary files contain randomly generated byte streams. The percentage of file data that is small text or big binary
files can be set, as can the sizes of the respective file types.
Files and directories are named "fileXXXX" or "dirXXXX", where "XXXX" is a successive integer, separate successions for files and directo-
ries. There is an upper limit to how many files a directory may contain. After the file limit is reached, a new sub-directory is created.
The first set of files go into the root directory of the test set.
You have to give one of the options --create, --delete, --rename, or --modify for the program to do anything. You can, however, give more
than one of them, if DIR already exists. (Giving the same option more than once means that only the last instance is counted.) (DIR) is
created if it doesn't exist already.
OPTIONS
--chunk-size=SIZE
generate data in chunks of this size (default: 16384)
--config=FILE
add FILE to config files
-c, --create=SIZE
how much data to create (default: 0)
--depth=DEPTH
depth of directory tree (default: 3)
--dump-config
write out the entire current configuration
--dump-setting-names
write out all names of settings and quit
--file-size=SIZE
size of one file (default: 16384)
--generate-manpage=TEMPLATE
fill in manual page TEMPLATE
-h, --help
show this help message and exit
--list-config-files
list all possible config files
--log=FILE
write log entries to FILE
--log-keep=N
keep last N logs (10)
--log-level=LEVEL
log at LEVEL, one of debug, info, warning, error, critical, fatal (default: debug)
--log-max=SIZE
rotate logs larger than SIZE, zero for never (default: 0)
--max-files=MAX-FILES
max files/dirs per dir (default: 128)
--no-default-configs
clear list of configuration files to read
--output=FILE
write output to FILE, instead of standard output
--quiet
do not report progress
--seed=SEED
seed for random number generator (default: 0)
--version
show program's version number and exit
EXAMPLES
Create data for the first generation of a backup:
genbackupdata --create=10G testdir
Modify an existing set of backup data to create a new generation:
genbackupdata -c 5% -d 2% -m 5% -r 0.5% testdir
The above command can be run for each new generation.
GENBACKUPDATA(1)