Difference between revisions of "Python-for-Automation/C2/File-Backup-and-Compression/English"

Title Slide

Learning Objectives

• Automate file backup using Python
• Compress backups in various formats such as zip, tar.gz, tar.bz2
• Schedule the backup process to run at a fixed time every day

System Requirements

• Ubuntu Linux OS version 22.04
• Python 3.12.3

Prerequisite

https://www.spoken-tutorial.org

• You must have basic knowledge of using Linux Terminal and Python
• For pre-requisite Linux and Python Tutorials, please visit this website
• Python libraries required for automation must be installed

Code files

• The files used in this tutorial are provided in the Code files link.

• Please download and extract the files.

• Make a copy and then use them while practicing.

run_backup.py is used to call the functions defined in file_backup.py.

Ensure that both source codes are saved in the same location.

Schedule.txt contains the commands required to schedule the backup process everyday

We pass the source and backup directories and compression format as parameters.

compress=False

if not os.path.exists(backup_dir):

os.makedirs(backup_dir)

This existing current_backup directory is removed using rmtree function.

This prevents multiple copies of the backup directory from being created.

for root, dirs, files in os.walk(source_dir):

We then try to recreate the same directory structure in the backup folder.

root

relative_path = os.path.relpath(root, source_dir)

This helps in maintaining the same structure as the source directory.

if not os.path.exists(dest_dir):

os.makedirs(dest_dir)

If it does not, then the destination directory is created.

It will also do the same for the destination files in the backup directory.

if not os.path.exists(dest_file)

If it does not exist, then the file is copied.

The file gets copied only if it is modified.

This helps to minimize the processing when we perform backup everyday.

shutil.copy2(source_file, dest_file)

shutil.rmtree(current_backup_dir)

If the format is zip, we use make_archive method to create a zip archive.

os.path.basename(source_dir)

run_backup.py

Now, let us go through this code.

import file_backup.py

This is our sample directory that we will use for testing.

source_directory = ‘’

backup_directory_path = ‘’

Backup_directory_path shows the path where back up has to be saved.

Please change the path according to the location of your directory.

Press Ctrl + Alt + T

source Automation/bin/activate

Type source space Automation forward slash bin forward slash activate.

Then press Enter.

> cd Downloads

> python3 run_backup.py

Highlight:

Next type python3 run_backup.py and press Enter.

We see a message that backup is done successfully and it is stored in this location.

Let us see the output in this directory.

Open current_backup

Open the current_backup directory and you will find all the files from our source directory.

So we have successfully completed the file backup.

Let us modify this file to see he file compression is working properly.

Open the Doc3.odt and add some images or text.

Save the file.

• In Downloads
• Right click on Sample, select properties
• Highlight size

Here we can see the size of this directory.

After compression this size should reduce.

compress=True

Save run_backup.py

This will compress the backup directory.

Save the file.

python3 run_backup.py

We see a message that indicates successful backup and compression.

• Point to current_backup.zip
• Right click on current_backup.zip and select properties
• Highlight size

Again right click on the compressed current_backup.zip and select properties.

We can see that the size of the compressed folder is lesser than Sample folder.

Next we will learn how to schedule this program to run automatically at a specified time.

To open and edit the crontab editor, in the terminal, type EDITOR=nano space crontab space hyphen e.

We will type our commands here.

Copy commands from schedule.txt and paste in crontab

This file contains the necessary commands required to run a scheduler.

Copy these commands.

Switch back to the terminal and paste the commands at the end of the crontab editor.

50 11 * * *

I will set this to 11:30 because that is when I want the backup to be scheduled.

* * *

/usr/bin/python3

/home/jasmine/Downloads/run_backup.py

>> /home/jasmine/Downloads/bkp_logfile.log

Please change the path according to your system.

2>&1

Save crontab: Ctrl+X Y Enter

Now, press Ctrl plus X and then press Y followed by Enter to save and exit.

Now we have scheduled the run_backup.py file to be executed at 11:30 everyday.

We will check if the scheduler has completed the backup the next day.

Directory

Point to Doc4.txt

We can see that all the files have been backed up.

Open bkp_logfile.log Highlight output in bkp_logfile.log

Here, the output or error messages of the program will be stored after the cron job is completed.

deactivate

Summary

In this tutorial, we have learnt to

• Automate file backup using Python
• Compress backups in various formats (zip, tar.gz, tar.bz2)
• Schedule the backup process to run at a fixed time each day

Assignment

1. Change the compression format to tar.gz in run_backup.py file
2. In the crontab editor, change the schedule to once a week.

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