
#include "bacula_template.inc" title="The Console Program" num=7

<h1>Bacula Console</h1>

<h2>General</h2>

The <b>Bacula Console</b> (sometimes called the User Agent) is a program
that allows the user or the System Administrator, to interact with the
Bacula Director daemon while the daemon is running.

<p>The current Bacula Console comes in two versions: a
shell interface (TTY style), and a GNOME GUI interface.
Both permit the administrator or authorized users to interact
with Bacula. You can determine the status of a particular
job, examine the contents of the Catalog as well as
perform certain tape manipulations with the Console program.

<p>Since the Console program interacts with the Director by
the network, your Console and Director programs do not necessarily
need to run on the same machine.


<p>In fact, a certain minimal knowledge of the Console program is needed
in order for Bacula to be able to write on more than one tape, because
when Bacula requests a new tape, it waits until the user, via the
Console program, indicates that the new tape is mounted.

<h2>Configuration</h2>
When the Console starts, it reads a standard Bacula configuration file
named <b>console.conf</b> or <b> gnome-console.conf</b> in the case of
the GNOME Console version.  This file allows default configuration of
the Console, and at the current time, the only Resource Record defined
is the Director resource, which gives the Console the name and address
of the Director.  For more information on configuration of the Console
program, please see the <a href=consoleconf.html>Console Configuration
File</a> Chapter of this document.

<h2>Running the Console Program</h2>
After launching the Console program, it will prompt you for the next
command with an asterisk (*).  (Note, in the GNOME version, the prompt
is not present; you simply enter the commands you want in the command
text box at the bottom of the screen.) Generally, for all commands, you
can simply enter the command name and the Console program will prompt
you for the necessary arguments.  Alternatively, in most cases, you may
enter the command followed by arguments.  The general format is:

<pre>
 &lt;command&gt; &lt;keyword1&gt;[=&lt;argument1&gt;] &lt;keyword2&gt;[=&lt;argument2&gt;] ...
</pre>
where <b>command</b> is one of the commands listed below; 
<b>keyword</b> is one of the keywords listed below (usually
followed by an argument); and <b>argument</b> is the value.
<p></p>
For example:
<pre>
list files jobid=23
</pre>
will list all files saved for JobId 23. Or:
<pre>
show pools
</pre>
will display all the Pool resource records.

<h2>Stopping the Console Program</h2>
Normally, you simply enter <b>quit</b> or <b>exit</b> and the
Console program will terminate. However, it waits until the
Director acknowledges the command. If the Director is already
doing a lengthy command (e.g. prune), it may take some time.
If you want to immediately terminate the Console program,
enter the <b>.quit</b> command.
<p>
There is currently no way to interrupt a Console command
once issued (i.e. ctl-C does not work). However, if you
are at a prompt that is asking you to select one of 
several possibilities and you would like to abort the
command, you can enter a period (<b>.</b>), and in most
cases, you will either be returned to the main command prompt
or if appropriate the previous prompt (in the case of nested
prompts). In a few places such as where it is asking for a 
Volume name, the period will be taken to be the Volume name.
In that case, you will most likely be able to cancel at the
next prompt.

<h2>Console Commands</h2>
The following commands are currently implemented:
<dl>
  <dt>add</dt><dd>This command is used to add Volumes to an existing Pool.
         The Volume names entered are placed in the Catalog and thus
         become available for backup operations.  Normally, the     
         <b>label</b> command is used rather than this command because
         the <b>label</b> command labels the physical media (tape) and
         does the equivalent of the <b>add</b> command.
         This command affects
         only the Catalog and not the physical media.  The physical
         media must exist and be labeled before use (usually with the
         <b>label</b> command). This command can, however, be useful
         if you wish to add a number of Volumes to the Pool that
         will be physically labeled at a later time.  It can also
         be useful if you are importing a tape from another site.
         </dd>
  <dt>autodisplay</dt><dd>This command accepts <b>on</b> or <b>off</b>
         as an argument, and turns auto-display of messages on or off
         respectively.  The default for the console program is
         <b>off</b>, which means that you will be notified when there are
         console messages pending, but they will not automatically be
         displayed.  The default for the gnome-console program is
         <b>on</b>, which means that messages will be displayed when
         they are received (usually within 5 seconds of them being
         generated). 
         <p>When autodisplay is turned off, you must explicitly
         retrieve the messages with the <b>messages</b> command.  When
         autodisplay is turned on, the messages will be displayed on the
         console as they are received.</dd>
   <dt>automount</dt><dd>This command accepts <b>on</b> or <b>off</b> as
       the argument, and turns auto-mounting of the tape after a
       <b>label</b> command on or off respectively.  The default is
       <b>on</b>. If <b>automount</b> is turned off, you must explicitly
       <b>mount</b> the tape after a label command to use it.

  <dt>cancel</dt><dd>This command is used to cancel a job and accepts
         <b>jobid=nnn</b> or <b>job=xxx</b> as an argument where nnn is
         replaced by the JobId and xxx is replaced by the
         job name. If you do not specify a keyword, the Console
         program will prompt you with the names of all the active
         jobs allowing you to choose one.
         <p>Once a Job is marked to be canceled, it may take a bit
         of time (generally within a minute) before it actually
         terminates, depending on what operations it is doing.  If
         a Job is waiting for a tape to be mounted, it will normally
         check every 20 minutes. You can cause it to be immediately
         check (and thus canceled) by issuing a <b>mount</b> command
         from the Console. </dd>

  <dt>create</dt><dd>This command is used to create a Pool record in the
         database using the Pool resource record defined in the 
         Director's configuration file. So in a sense, this
         command simply transfers the information from the Pool resource
         in the configuration file into the Catalog.  Normally this command
         is done automatically for you when the Director starts.
         If you use this command on an existing Pool, it will
         automatically update the Catalog to have the same information
         as the Pool resource.  After creating a Pool, you will most
         likely use the <b>label</b> command to label one or more
         volumes and add their names to the Media database.  <p>When
         starting a Job, when <b>Bacula</b> determines that there is no
         Pool record in the database, but there is a Pool resource of
         the appropriate name, it will create it for you.  </dd>

  <dt>delete</dt><dd>The delete command is used to delete a Pool record
     from the Catalog as well as all associated Volume records that were
     created.  This command is very dangerous and we strongly recommend
     that you do not use it unless you know what you are doing.  <p> The
     full form of this command is:
      <p> delete pool=&lt;pool-name&gt;<p>
     or
       <p> delete media pool=&lt;pool-name&gt; volume=&lt;volume-name&gt; 

     <p> The first form deletes a Pool record
     from the catalog database.  The second form deletes a Volume record
     from the specified pool in the catalog database.</dd>

  <dt>help</dt><dd>This command displays the list of commands available.</dd>

  <dt>label</dt><dd>This command is used to label physical volumes.
       The full form of this command is:<p>
       label storage=&lt;storage-name&gt; volume=&lt;volume-name&gt;
       <p>
       If you leave out any part, you will be prompted for it.
       The media type is automatically taken from the Storage resource
       definition that you supply. Once the necessary information is
       obtained, the Console program contacts the specified Storage
       daemon and requests that the tape be labeled. If the tape labeling
       is successful, the Console program will create a Volume record
       in the appropriate Pool.
       <p>
       The label command can fail for a number of reasons:
       <ol>
         <li>The Volume name you specify is already in the
             Volume database.</li>
         <li>The Storage daemon has a tape already mounted on the
             device, in which case you must <b>unmount</b>
             the device, insert a blank tape, then do the
             <b>label</b> command.
         <li>The tape in the device is already a Bacula labeled tape.
             (Bacula will never relabel a Bacula labeled tape).</li>
         <li>There is no tape in the drive.</li>
       </ol>
       <p>
       There are two ways to relabel a volume that already has
       a Bacula label. The brute
       force method is to write an end of file mark on the tape
       using the system <b>mt</b> program, something like the
       following:
       <pre>
       mt -f /dev/st0 rewind
       mt -f /dev/st0 weof
       </pre>
       Then you use the <b>label</b> command to add a new label.
       However, this could leave traces of the old volume in the
       catalog.
       <p>The preferable method to relabel a tape is to first <b>purge</b>
       the volume, either automatically, or explicitly with the
       <b>purge</b> command, then use the <b>relabel</b> command described
       below.
       </dd>

  <dt>list</dt><dd>The list command lists the requested contents of the
      Catalog.  The various fields of each record are listed on a single
      line.  If there The various forms of the list command are:<p>

      list jobs<p>
      list jobid=&lt;id&gt;<p>
      list job=&lt;job-name&gt;<p>
      list jobmedia<p>
      list jobmedia jobid=&lt;id&gt;<p>
      list jobmedia job=&lt;job-name&gt;<p>
      list files jobid=&lt;id&gt;<p>
      list files job=&lt;job-name&gt;<p>
      list pools<p>
      list clients<p>
      list jobtotals<p>
      list volumes<p>
      list volumes jobid=&lt;id&gt;<p>
      list volumes pool=&lt;pool-name&gt;<p>
      list volumes job=&lt;job-name&gt;<p>
      list volume=&lt;volume-name&gt;
      <p>
      If you wish to add specialized commands that list the contents
      of the catalog, you can do so by adding them to the 
      <b>query.sql</b> file. However, this takes some knowledge
      of programming SQL. Please see the <b>query</b> command below for
      additional information.  See below for listing the full contents
      of a catalog record with the <b>llist</b> command.
      <p>As an example, the command <b>list pools</b> might produce
      the following output:
      <pre>
      +--------+---------+---------+---------+----------+-------------+
      | PoolId | Name    | NumVols | MaxVols | PoolType | LabelFormat |
      +--------+---------+---------+---------+----------+-------------+
      |      1 | Default |       0 |       0 | Backup   | *           |
      |      2 | Recycle |       0 |       8 | Backup   | File        |
      +--------+---------+---------+---------+----------+-------------+
      </pre>
      </dd>

  <dt>llist</dt><dd>The llist or &quot;long list&quot; command takes
      all the same arguments that the list command described above does.
      The difference is that the llist command list the full contents
      of each database record selected. It does so by listing the
      various fields of the record vertically, with one field per
      line. It is possible to produce a very large number of output
      lines with this command. 
      <p>If instead of the <b>list pools</b> as in the example above,
      you enter <b>llist pools</b> you might get the following output:
      <pre>
          PoolId: 1
            Name: Default
         NumVols: 0
         MaxVols: 0
         UseOnce: 0
      UseCatalog: 1
 AcceptAnyVolume: 1
    VolRetention: 1,296,000
  VolUseDuration: 86,400
      MaxVolJobs: 0
     MaxVolBytes: 0
       AutoPrune: 0
         Recycle: 1
        PoolType: Backup
     LabelFormat: *

          PoolId: 2
            Name: Recycle
         NumVols: 0
         MaxVols: 8
         UseOnce: 0
      UseCatalog: 1
 AcceptAnyVolume: 1
    VolRetention: 3,600
  VolUseDuration: 3,600
      MaxVolJobs: 1
     MaxVolBytes: 0
       AutoPrune: 0
         Recycle: 1
        PoolType: Backup
     LabelFormat: File
      </pre>
     </dd>

  <dt>messages</dt><dd>This command causes any pending
       console messages to be immediately displayed.</dd>

  <dt>mount</dt><dd>The mount command is used to mount a volume on a
    physical device.  This command is used only if there is no Volume in
    a drive and <b>Bacula</b> requests a mount or when you
    have specifically unmounted a Volume with the <b>unmount</b> console
    command. The various forms of the mount command are:<p>
    mount storage=&lt;storage-name&gt;<p>
    mount [ jobid=&lt;id&gt; | job=&lt;job-name&gt; ]<p>
    If you have specified <b>Automatic Mount = yes</b> in the
    Storage daemon's Device resource, under most circumstances,
    <b>Bacula</b> will automatically access the Volume unless you
    have explicitly <b>unmount</b>ed it in the Console program.
    </dd> 

  <dt>prune</dt><dd>The Prune command allows you to safely
     remove expired database records from Jobs and Volumes. In all
     cases, the Prune command applies a retention period to the
     specified records. You can Prune expired File entries from
     Job records; you can Prune expired Job records from the
     database, and you can Prune both expired Job and File records
     from specified Volumes.

  <dt>purge</dt><dd>The Purge command will delete associated
     records from Jobs and Volumes without considering the
     retention period. This command is dangerous beause you
     can delete records associated with current backups of
     files, and we recommend
     that you do not use it unless you know what you are doing.

  <dt>relabel</dt><dd>This command is used to label physical volumes.
       The full form of this command is:<p>
       label storage=&lt;storage-name&gt; volume=&lt;newvolume-name&gt; 
       name=&lt;old-volume-name&gt;
       <p>
       If you leave out any part, you will be prompted for it.
       In order for the Volume (old-volume-name) to be relabeled,
       it must be in the catalog, and the volume status must
       be marked <b>Purged</b>. This happens automatically as a
       result of applying retention periods, or you may explicitly
       purge the volume using the <b>purge</b> command.  
       <p>Once the volume is relabeled, the old data is lost and
       cannot be recovered.</dd>
   
  <dt>restore</dt><dd>The restore command allows you to select one
     or more Jobs (JobIds) to be restored using various methods.
     Once the JobIds are selected, the File records
     for those Jobs are placed in an internal <b>Bacula</b> directory
     tree, and the restore enters a file selection mode that allows
     you to interactively walk up and down the file tree selecting
     individual files to be restored. This mode is somewhat similar to
     the standard Unix <b>restore</b> program's interactive file
     selection mode.  
     <p>
     For details of the <b>restore</b> command, please see the
     <a href="restore.html">Restore Chapter</a> of this manual.</dd>


  <dt>run</dt><dd>This command allows you to schedule jobs
     to be run immediately. The full form of the command is:<p>
     run job=&lt;job-name&gt; client=&lt;client-name&gt; fileset=&lt;FileSet-name&gt;
       level=&lt;level-keyword&gt; storage=&lt;storage-name&gt;
       where=&lt;directory-prefix&gt; when=&lt;universal-time-specification&gt;
    <p>
     Any information that is needed but not specified will be 
     listed for selection, and before starting the job, you will
     be prompted to accept, reject, or modify the parameters of
     the job to be run.
     <p>On my system, when I enter a run command, I get the following
     prompt:
     <pre>
A job name must be specified.
The defined Job resources are:
     1: Matou
     2: Polymatou
     3: Rufus
     4: Minimatou
     5: Minou
     6: PmatouVerify
     7: MatouVerify
     8: RufusVerify
     9: Watchdog
Select Job resource (1-9): 
     </pre>
     If I then select number 5, I am prompted with:
     <pre>
Run Backup job
JobName:  Minou
FileSet:  Minou Full Set
Level:    Incremental
Client:   Minou
Storage:  DLTDrive
Pool:     Default
When:     2003-04-23 17:08:18
OK to run? (yes/mod/no): 
     </pre>
     If I now enter <b>yes</b>, the Job will be run. If I enter <b>mod</b>,
     I will be presented with the following prompt.
     <pre>
Parameters to modify:
     1: Level
     2: Storage
     3: Job
     4: FileSet
     5: Client
     6: When
     7: Pool
Select parameter to modify (1-7): 
     </pre>
     If you wish to start a job at a later time, you can do so by setting
     the When time. Use the <b>mod</b> option and select <b>When</b> (no. 6).
     Then enter the desired start time in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format.
     </dd> 

   <dt>setdebug</dt><dd>This command is used to set the debug level in each
      daemon. The form of this command is:<p>
      setdebug level=nn [client=&lt;client-name&gt; | dir | director | storage=&lt;storage-name&gt; | all]
      <p>

  <dt>show</dt><dd>The show command will
     list the Director's resource records as defined in
     the Director's configuration file (normally <b>bacula-dir.conf</b>). 
     This command is used mainly for debugging purposes by developers.
     Don't confuse this command with the <b>list</b>, which displays
     the contents of the catalog.
     </dd>

  <dt>sqlquery</dt><dd>The sqlquery command puts the Console program
     into SQL query mode where each line you enter is concatenated
     to the previous line until a semicolon (;) is seen. The semicolon
     terminates the command, which is then passed directly
     to the SQL database engine. When the output from the SQL engine
     is displayed, the formation of a new SQL command begins. To
     terminate SQL query mode and return to the Console command 
     prompt, you enter a period (.) in column 1.<p>
     Using this command, you can query the SQL catalog database
     directly. Note you should really know what you are doing otherwise
     you could damage the catalog database. See the <b>query</b> command below
     for simpler and safer way of entering SQL queries.
     <p>Depending on what database engine you are using (MySQL or SQLite),
     you will have somewhat different SQL commands available. For more
     detailed information, please refer to the MySQL or SQLite documentation.

  <dt>status</dt><dd>This command will display the status of the next
      jobs that are scheduled during the next twenty-four hours as 
      well as the status of currently running jobs.</dd>

  <dt>unmount</dt><dd>This command causes the indicated Bacula Storage
      daemon to unmount the specified device. The forms of the command
      are the same as the mount command:<p>
      unmount storage=&lt;storage-name&gt;<p>
      unmount [ jobid=&lt;id&gt; | job=&lt;job-name&gt; ]<p>

  <dt>update</dt><dd>This command will update catalog for 
      either a specific Pool record, a Volume record, or the Slots in an
      autochanger with barcode capability.  In the case of updating a
      Pool record, the new information will be automatically taken from
      the corresponding Director's configuration resource record.  It
      can be used to increase the maximum number of volumes permitted or
      to set a maximum number of volumes.  

     <p>In the case of updating a
      Volume, you will be prompted for which value you wish to change.
      The following Volume parameters may be changed: 
      <pre> 
         Volume Status 
         Volume Retention Period 
         Volume Use Duration 
         Maximum Volume Jobs 
         Maximum Volume Bytes 
         Recycle Flag 
         Slot 
         Volume Files 
      </pre>
     
    <p>For slots <b>update slots</b>, <b>Bacula</b> will obtain a
       list of slots and their barcodes from the Storage daemon,
       and for each barcode found, it will automatically update the
       slot in the catalog Media record to correspond to the new value.
       This is very useful if you have moved cassettes in the magazine,
       or if you have removed the magazine and inserted a different
       one.


  <dt>use</dt><dd>This command allows you to specify which Catalog
      database to use.  Normally, you will be using only one database so
      this will be done automatically.  In the case that you are using
      more than one database, you can use this command to switch from
      one to another.</dd>

  <dt>version</dt><dd>The command prints the Director's version.</dd>

  <dt>quit</dt><dd>This command terminates the console program. The
      console program sends the <b>quit</b> request to the Director
      and waits for acknowledgment. If the Director is busy doing
      a previous command for you that has not terminated, it may
      take some time. You may quit immediately by issuing the
      <b>.quit</b> command (i.e. quit preceded by a period).

  <dt>query</dt><dd>This command reads a predefined SQL query from
      the query file (the name and location of the
      query file is defined with the QueryFile resource record in
      the Director's configuration file). You are prompted to select
      a query from the file, and possibly enter one or more parameters,
      then the command is submitted to the Catalog database SQL engine.
      <p>The following queries are currently available (version 1.24):
      <pre>
Available queries:
     1: List Job totals:
     2: List where a file is saved:
     3: List where the most recent copies of a file are saved:
     4: List total files/bytes by Job:
     5: List total files/bytes by Volume:
     6: List last 20 Full Backups for a Client:
     7: List Volumes used by selected JobId:
     8: List Volumes to Restore All Files:
     9: List where a File is saved:
Choose a query (1-9): 
      </pre>
  <dt>exit</dt><dd>This command terminates the console program.</dd>

  <dt>wait</dt><dd>The wait command causes the Director to pause
      until there are no jobs running. This command is useful in
      a batch situation such as regression testing where you 
      wish to start a job and wait until that job completes      
      before continuing.</dd>
</dl>

<h2>Special dot Commands</h2>
There is a list of commands that are prefixed with a period (.).
These commands are intended to be used either by batch programs
or graphical user interface front-ends. They are not normally used
by interactive users.  Once GUI development begins, this list
will be considerably expanded.
The following is the list of dot commands:
<pre>
.die         cause the Director to segment fault (for debugging)
.jobs        list all job names
.filesets    list all fileset names
.clients     list all client names
.msgs        return any queued messages
.quit        quit
.exit        quit
</pre>

<h2>Special at Commands</h2>
Normally, all commands entered to the Console program are immediately
forwarded to the Director, which may be on another machine, to be
executed. However, there is a small list of <b>at</b> commands,
all beginning with a at character (@), that will not be sent to
the Director, but rather interpreted by the Console program directly.
Note, these commands are implemented only in the tty console program
and not in the GNOME Console.
These commands are:
<dl>
  <dt>@input &lt;filename&gt;</dt><dd>Read and execute the commands
    contained in the file specified.</dd>

  <dt>@output &lt;filename&gt; w/a</dt><dd>Send all following output to the
    filename specified either overwritting the file (w) or appending to
    the file (a). To redirect the output to the terminal, simply enter
    <b>@output</b> without a filename specification. WARNING: be careful
    not to overwrite a valid file. A typical example during a regression
    test might be:
    <pre>
    @output /dev/null
    commands ...
    @output
    </pre>
    </dd>

  <dt>@tee &lt;filename&gt; w/a</dt><dd>Send all subsequent output to
    both the specified file and the terminal. It is turned off by
    specifying <b>@tee</b> without a filename.</dd>

  <dt>@sleep &lt;seconds&gt;</dt><dd>Sleep the specified number of seconds.
    </dd>

  <dt>@time</dt><dd>Print the current time and date.</dd>

  <dt>@version</dt><dd>Print the Console's version.</dd>

  <dt>@quit</dt><dd>quit</dd>
  <dt>@exit</dt><dd>quit</dd>
</dt>

<h2>Adding Volumes to a Pool</h2>
If you have used the <b>label</b> command to label a 
Volume, it will be automatically added to the Pool, 
and you will not need to add any media to the pool.
<p>
Alternatively, you may choose to add a number of
Volumes to the pool without labeling them. At a 
later time when the Volume is requested by <b>Bacula</b>
you will need to label it. 
<p>
Before adding a volume,
you must know the following information:
<ol>
  <li>The name of the Pool (normally &quot;Default&quot;)</li>
  <li>The Media Type as specified in the Storage Resource
      in the Director's configuration file (e.g. &quot;DLT8000&quot;)</li>
  <li>The number and names of the Volumes you wish to create.</li>
</ol>
For example, to add media to a Pool, you would issue the 
following commands to the console program:
<pre>
*add
Enter name of Pool to add Volumes to: Default
Enter the Media Type: DLT8000
Enter number of Media volumes to create. Max=1000: 10
Enter base volume name: Save  
Enter the starting number: 1
10 Volumes created in pool Default
*
</pre>
To see what you have added, enter:
<pre>
*list media pool=Default
+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------------------+
| MediaId | VolumeName | MediaType | VolStatus | VolBytes | LastWritten         |
+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------------------+
|      11 | Save0001   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      12 | Save0002   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      13 | Save0003   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      14 | Save0004   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      15 | Save0005   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      16 | Save0006   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      17 | Save0007   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      18 | Save0008   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      19 | Save0009   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
|      20 | Save0010   | DLT8000   | Append    |        0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
+---------+------------+-----------+-----------+----------+---------------------+
*
</pre>
Notice that the console program automatically appended a number to the
base Volume name that you specify (Save in this case). If you don't want
it to append a number, you can simply answer 0 (zero) to the question
&quot;Enter number of Media volumes to create. Max=1000:&quot;, and
in this case, it will create a single Volume with the exact name you
specify.

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