Glossary — AutoArchive Developer Manual (ver. 2.0.2)

# Glossary

Archiver Service Component

  Service component that provides the backup functionality.

ArchiveSpec

  The component that provides ability to read archive specification from a file.

Archiving

  The component that provides core functions of AutoArchive application (i. e. working with archives and backups).

archive

  The primary entity that AutoArchive operates with. It has a name and holds the configuration used to create the corresponding backup. Archive is represented by the archive specification file.

archive specification file

  The configuration of an archive. It contains all information needed for creation of a single archive, such as: archive name, archive root directory, list of directories and files which should be included and excluded, etc. It can also contain some of the configuration options. The file has extension ‘.aa’ and is sometimes referred as “.aa file”. For more information see the user documentation.

archive specifications directory

  Directory where archive specification files are stored. It can be configured via the `archive-specs-dir` option.

archiver

  External program or a class that creates an archive from given set of files.

AutoArchive

  The application which is being documented here.

backup

  Result of the backup creation operation. For example a *.tar.gz file.

backup level

  The order of an archive in incremental backup, where backup level 0 means full backup, backup level 1 is an archive that contains only differences from level 0, and so on.

Cmdline UI

  The component that provides textual user interface.

component

  Application part.

Configuration

  The component that provides configuration options.

configured archive

  An archive that has a valid archive specification file recognized by the application.

force option form

  An option with “force-” prefix. See also normal option form.

negation option form

  An option with “no-” prefix. See also normal option form.

normal option form

  A standard option wihout any prefix of a special meaning. See also force option form and negation option form.

orphaned archive

  An archive which is not configured (anymore) but the application still has some information stored about it (is a stored archive).

selected archive

  A configured archive which is passed to the application for processing either by configuration or as an argument (which can be the name of the archive or path to the archive specification file.

Service Components

  Service application level. Contains all services used in the application.

Storage

  A component that provides persistent storage.

stored archive

  An archive for which the application has stored some information.

system configuration file

  System-wide configuration file. It has syntax similar to other configuration files but its options have lower priority. See also user configuration file.

UI

  User interface.

user configuration directory

  A per-user directory where the application looks for user configuration file and stores some internal data. It is also default path for a subdirectory containing archive specification files.

user configuration file

  A per-user configuration file. See also system configuration file.