Using KDar

When you first start KDar, you will be asked to provide the name of a directory where archives will be stored by default. If you are not happy with the default location, just click on the directory icon to browse your filesystem and select a suitable storage directory. If necessary, use the toolbar at the top of the dialog to create a new directory. I recommend "/var/backups/dar-backups", or something like that. This indicates that the archives are accessible by the command-line "dar", as well as by KDar.

A short splash screen is shown while KDar starts up. You can disable it from the Settings dialog.

The menu is set up as File | Archive | Messages | Settings | Help.

To Quit, type Ctrl-Q or File->Quit. KDar will wait for any running operation to finish before closing the window. If you want to cancel the operation, select the Archive->Stop Operation menu item, or just click on the red and white X symbol in the toolbar. You will be prompted whether you really want to cancel the operation, or continue.

KDar uses and creates "disk archives", which are files that end with ".dar". One of the key features of KDar is that its archives can be created in parts, called "slices". The size of each slice can be set from a list of common media types such as "DVD", "CD-R", "Zip", or it can be customized to be any size. Each archive slice is denoted by a period and a number before the ".dar" extension, such as ".1.dar", ".2.dar", etc. Each archive has a different name, called the "basename", that briefly describes what the archive contains. So a full archive slice name consists of a "basename" followed by the slice number and the extension ".dar".

For example, a full backup of your filesystem might have archive slices that look like "localhost-20040808-full.1.dar", "localhost-20040808-full.2.dar", and so-on, up to the number of slices in the archive.

You can also ask KDar not to split the archive into individual slices. The resulting archive still follows the naming convention described above: its slice number is "1".

Many actions in KDar need an archive loaded to work. To load, or "open", a disk archive, select File->Open archive.

If you selected an archive with .*.dar on the end of the filename (i.e. test-archive.1.dar), KDar will automatically remove it for you. You can also type in the archive name without the slice number and extension. Recently-opened archives can be accessed quickly from File->Open Recent.

KDar can load an archive from the command-line. Just type the archive path and name as an argument.

KDar's archives are simply DAR archives, so they are fully compatible with Denis Corbin's "dar" program. Dar is very useful in situations where you don't have access to X-Windows, say after a disk crash where you need to boot from a rescue disk.

If you do not yet have any archives, you can easily create one now, as described in the next section.