1. Creating Backups.

• This script was trimmed to serve as an example.

• The three options shown (email, jop, dots) demonstrates, how to list items with case statements:

  • Single item/directory (jop).
  • Multiple items in single directory (dots).
  • Multiple items in multiple directories (email).

• The text files created after the archive serves as an item list
  with current permissions.

• tar --directory= /path/to/directory/ --create --file INSERT_ARCHIVE_NAME.tar /path/to/file;

#!/bin/bash
#License: GPL v3
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

#Name: getoverhere.sh
#Purpose:
#Version: beta 0.07
#Author: SGOTI (Some Guy On The Internet)
#Date: Sat 29 Jan 2022 02:19:29 AM EST

#variables:
VAR_TBALL=
VAR_TARGET=
VAR_JUMP=
VAR_VALUE=

#start:
cat << "EOT01"
Options:
    email |"${HOME}/.thunderbird/"
    jop |"${HOME}/Documents/joplin"
    dots |"${HOME}/.bashrc .vimrc .bash_aliases"
EOT01

echo -e "What do you want to backup? : \c."
read VAR_VALUE

case ${VAR_VALUE} in
    "email" )
VAR_TBALL="INSERT_EMAIL_NAME$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET="msgFilterRules.dat"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/.thunderbird/*.default-release/ImapMail/imap.mail.yahoo.com/"
    echo -e "Grabbing INSERT_EMAIL_NAME...\n"
tar -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET}
    sleep 1

VAR_TBALL="INSERT_EMAIL_NAME$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET="msgFilterRules.dat"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/.thunderbird/*.default-release/ImapMail/imap.gmail.com/"
    echo -e "Grabbing INSERT_EMAIL_NAME...\n"
tar -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET}
    sleep 1

VAR_TBALL="EMAIL_ARCHIVES$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET="Mail/"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/.thunderbird/*.default-release/"
    echo -e "Grabbing email EMAIL_ARCHIVES...\n"
tar -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET}
    echo -e "Creating List for ${VAR_TBALL}...\n"
ls -lhAR --group-directories-first ${VAR_JUMP}${VAR_TARGET} > EMAIL_ARCHIVES$(date +%m-%d-%Y).txt
    sleep 1

VAR_TBALL="THUNDERBIRD_CALENDER$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET="calenders/"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/Documents/"
    echo -e "Grabbing email THUNDERBIRD_CALENDER...\n"
tar -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET}
    echo -e "Creating List for ${VAR_TBALL}...\n"
ls -lhAR --group-directories-first ${VAR_JUMP}${VAR_TARGET} > THUNDERBIRD_CALENDER$(date +%m-%d-%Y).txt
    sleep 1

VAR_TBALL="THUNDERBIRD_ADDRESS_BOOK$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET="address-book/"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/Documents/"
    echo -e "Grabbing ${VAR_TARGET}...\n"
tar -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET}
    echo -e "Creating List for ${VAR_TBALL}...\n"
ls -lhAR --group-directories-first ${VAR_JUMP}${VAR_TARGET} > THUNDERBIRD_ADDRESS_BOOK$(date +%m-%d-%Y).txt
    sleep 1

VAR_TBALL="THUNDERBIRD_ALL$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET=".thunderbird/"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/"
    echo -e "Grabbing ${VAR_TARGET}...\n"
tar -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET}
    echo -e "Creating List for ${VAR_TBALL}...\n"
ls -lhAR --group-directories-first ${VAR_JUMP}${VAR_TARGET} > THUNDERBIRD_ALL$(date +%m-%d-%Y).txt ;;

    "jop" )
VAR_TBALL="JOPLIN$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET="joplin/"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/Documents/"
    echo "Grabbing ${VAR_TARGET}"
tar -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET}
    sleep 1
    echo -e "Creating List for ${VAR_TBALL}...\n"
ls -lhAR --group-directories-first ${VAR_JUMP}${VAR_TARGET} > JOPLIN$(date +%m-%d-%Y).txt ;;

    "dots" )
VAR_TBALL="dots$(date +%m-%d-%Y).tar.gz"
VAR_TARGET=".bashrc .vimrc .bash_aliases"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/"
    echo "Grabbing ${VAR_TARGET}"
tar -v -C ${VAR_JUMP} --create --file ${VAR_TBALL} --gzip ${VAR_TARGET} ;;

    * )
    echo "Good Heavens..." ;;
esac
exit;

---

2. Restoring from backups.

• tar --extract --directory= /path/to/directory/ --file /path/to/file;
• A cp -v -t /path/to/directory *08-05-2022.tar.gz; command is used to
  send the latest tarballs to the fresh install, from the backup drive.
• Now that you’ve seen the script above, I’ll just give a tar --extract example to keep things short and sweet.

VAR_TBALL="EMAIL_ARCHIVES*.tar.gz"
VAR_JUMP="${HOME}/.thunderbird/*.default-release/"
    echo -e "Restoring EMAIL_ARCHIVES...\n"
tar --extract --directory= ${VAR_JUMP} --file ${VAR_TBALL}
    echo -e "EMAIL_ARCHIVES restored.\n"