NAME
    charon.ftp - remove backup files that exceed a certain age from an FTP
    aite

SYNOPSIS
    charon.ftp --host *host* [--ssl] --user *name* (--password *password* |
    --readpassword) [--dir directory] --maxage *days* (--profile
    *identifier* | --all) [--truncate] [--dry-run] [--verbose] [--help]


    The program charon.ftp removes backup archives created by tartarus from
    an FTP server once they reach a certain age and expire. Files that are
    older than the number of days specified on the command line are
    considerer candidates for removal unless other, non-expired backups are
    based on them, so full backups may survive longer than expected.

OPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS
    --host *server*
        Specify the FTP server to connect to

    --ssl
        Use SSL to secure the connection (requires Net::FTPSSL)

    --user *name*
        Define the username to authenticate with

    --password *pass*
        Set the password to authenticate with

    --readpassword
        Instead of specifying the password on the commandline, it can also
        be read from the standard input. This is preferable for obvious
        security reasons.

    --dir
        Specify the directory on the server the backups files are stored in.

    --maxage *n*
        Set the maximum number of days after which a backup is expired.

    --profile *name*
        Set the profile name to process. This is mandatory unless --all is
        supplied.

    --all
        When this is set, the expiration date is applied to alle files found
        on the server and identified as tartarus backups.

    --truncate
        This option enables replacing files with /dev/null on FTP server
        before deletion. Some FTP servers won't allow deleting files when
        the quota is reached, this flag enables a workaround.

    --dry-run
        This option prevents charon from actually deleting files.

    --verbose
        This option makes charon more verbose about the actions made

    --help
        This parameter shows a brief command reference.

EXAMPLE
    Using the script is fairly simple and can probably be best explained by
    looking at an example:

        $ charon.ftp --host safehaven --user john --password SECRET --dir / --maxage 7 --profile home --verbose --dry-run

    This command line will try to log into the server "safehaven" using the
    user name "john" and his password "SECRET" and remove backup file from
    the profile "home" with are more than 7 days old. Due to the command
    line switch "--dry-run", no files are actually deleted - the script will
    only explain its potential actions in its output.

Integration with Tartarus
    Charon does not (and in fact, cannot) read tartarus backup profiles; by
    using hooks however it can be called from Tartarus after completing a
    successfull backup run. This way, Tartarus can pass the configuration
    variables to Charon:

        # Hook in Charon
        TARTARUS_POST_PROCESS_HOOK() {
            # pass configuration variables to charon
            # transmit the password through stdin to hide it from "ps ax"
            local CHARON="/usr/sbin/charon.ftp"
            local MAX_AGE_IN_DAYS="7"
            echo -n "$STORAGE_FTP_PASSWORD" | $CHARON \
                --host "$STORAGE_FTP_SERVER" --user "$STORAGE_FTP_USER" \
                --readpassword \
                --dir "$STORAGE_FTP_DIR" \
                --maxage "$MAX_AGE_IN_DAYS" \
                --profile "$NAME"
        }

    TARTARUS_POST_PROCESS_HOOK will only be executed in case of a
    successfull backup, so there won't be any files removed if tartarus
    encounters an error during the new backup creation.

AUTHOR
    Stefan Tomanek <stefan.tomanek@wertarbyte.de>