Using "tar" to backup and exclude files in a script.

I needed to create a manual backup script that I could easily modify to backup specific directories and files while excluding others.  I was having a difficult time excluding files and directories without having to type out each exclusion using --exclude=somefile --exclude=some_other_file --exclude=somedirectory.  My "tar" command would have grown quite large and, in my opinion, is not easy to read. So, I decided to use an array to accomplish my goal.

#!/bin/bash # # SCRIPT: manual_backup.bash # AUTHOR: Bob # DATE: 3-1-2011 # R_DATE: 11-14-2012 # REV: 1.3.T (Valid are A, B, D, T, Q, and P) # (For Alpha, Beta, Dev, Test, QA, and Production) # # PLATFORM: Not platform dependent # # PURPOSE: Backup modified configuration files # # # set -n # Uncomment to check script syntax, without execution. # # NOTE: Do not forget to put the # comment back in or # # the shell script will never execute! # set -x # Uncomment to debug this shell script # ########################################################## # DEFINE FILES AND VARIABLES HERE ########################################################## SCRIPTNAME=$(basename $0 .bash) # List files or directories you want backed up FILELIST=" /etc/hosts /etc/fstab /var/log/*" # List files or directories you want excluded from the backup. # This is an array. EXCLUDELIST=(--exclude=/var/log/messages) EXCLUDELIST+=(--exclude=/var/log/lastlog) EXCLUDELIST+=(--exclude=/var/log/mail) ########################################################## # DEFINE FUNCTIONS HERE ########################################################## function get_date_stamp { DATENOW=$(date +'%m-%d-%y') } function get_host_name { HOST=$(hostname) } ########################################################## # BEGINNING OF MAIN ########################################################## get_date_stamp get_host_name tar -czvf /tmp/$HOST.$SCRIPTNAME.$DATENOW.tar.gz "${EXCLUDELIST[@]}" $FILELIST # End of script