8.1 The rôle of Configurations

When you want to create a backup, you are confronted with lots of options that affect which files get included, the way the archive is written, compressed or whatever. Instead of having you set these options manually whenever you write a backup, KBACKUP lets you create named configurations.

For example, you can set all the options and the parent directory to back up your home-directory in a compressed archive to tape. Now you save these settings under a name (e.g. ``Home''). Whenever again you want to make a backup of your home directory, all you have to do is enter the Configuration -menu and load the configuration ``Home''. This will automatically restore the settings you had chosen.

When using incremental backups, the configuration gains some more importance. The date and time to compare the files to while creating the incremental backup, are dependent on the actual configuration. So making a backup with the configuration ``A'' does not affect the date and time for incremental backups using configuration ``B''.