Generate backup test data
genbackupdata [--chunk-size=SIZE] [--config=FILE] [-c=SIZE] [--create=SIZE] [--depth=DEPTH] [--dump-config] [--dump-memory-profile=METHOD] [--dump-setting-names] [--file-size=SIZE] [--generate-manpage=TEMPLATE] [-h] [--help] [--help-all] [--list-config-files] [--log=FILE] [--log-keep=N] [--log-level=LEVEL] [--log-max=SIZE] [--log-mode=MODE] [--max-files=MAX-FILES] [--memory-dump-interval=SECONDS] [--no-default-configs] [--no-quiet] [--output=FILE] [--quiet] [--seed=SEED] [--version] [FILE]...
genbackupdata generates test data sets for performance testing of backup software. It creates a directory tree filled with files of different sizes. The total size and the distribution of sizes between small and big are configurable. The program can also modify an existing directory tree by creating new files, and deleting, renaming, or modifying existing files. This can be used to generate test data for successive generations of backups.
The program is deterministic: with a given set of parameters (and a given pre-existing directory tree), it always creates the same output. This way, it is possible to reproduce backup tests exactly, without having to distribute the potentially very large test sets.
The data set consists of plain files and directories. Files are either small text files or big binary files. Text files contain the "lorem ipsum" stanza, binary files contain randomly generated byte streams. The percentage of file data that is small text or big binary files can be set, as can the sizes of the respective file types.
Files and directories are named "fileXXXX" or "dirXXXX", where "XXXX" is a successive integer, separate successions for files and directories. There is an upper limit to how many files a directory may contain. After the file limit is reached, a new sub-directory is created. The first set of files go into the root directory of the test set.
You have to give one of the options --create, --delete, --rename, or --modify for the program to do anything. You can, however, give more than one of them, if DIR already exists. (Giving the same option more than once means that only the last instance is counted.) (DIR) is created if it doesn't exist already.
--chunk-size=SIZE
generate data in chunks of this size (default: 16384)
-c, --create=SIZE
how much data to create (default: 0)
--depth=DEPTH
depth of directory tree (default: 3)
--file-size=SIZE
size of one file (default: 16384)
--generate-manpage=TEMPLATE
SUPPRESSHELP
-h, --help
show this help message and exit
--max-files=MAX-FILES
max files/dirs per dir (default: 128)
--no-quiet
--output=FILE
write output to FILE, instead of standard output
--quiet
do not report progress
--seed=SEED
seed for random number generator (default: 0)
--version
show program's version number and exit
--config=FILE
add FILE to config files
--dump-config
write out the entire current configuration
--dump-setting-names
SUPPRESSHELP
--help-all
show all options
--list-config-files
SUPPRESSHELP
--no-default-configs
clear list of configuration files to read
--log=FILE
write log entries to FILE (default is to not write log files at all); use "syslog" to log to system log, or "none" to disable logging
--log-keep=N
keep last N logs (10)
--log-level=LEVEL
log at LEVEL, one of debug, info, warning, error, critical, fatal (default: debug)
--log-max=SIZE
rotate logs larger than SIZE, zero for never (default: 0)
--log-mode=MODE
set permissions of new log files to MODE (octal; default 0600)
--dump-memory-profile=METHOD
make memory profiling dumps using METHOD, which is one of: none, simple, meliae, or heapy (default: simple)
--memory-dump-interval=SECONDS
make memory profiling dumps at least SECONDS apart
Create data for the first generation of a backup:
genbackupdata --create=10G testdir
Modify an existing set of backup data to create a new generation:
genbackupdata -c 5% -d 2% -m 5% -r 0.5% testdir
The above command can be run for each new generation.