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4.3.1 The [DATE] variable
If you specify the [DATE] variable in the archive name, the file name of each backup will include that
backup’s creation date.
When using this variable, the first backup of a new day will be a full backup. Before creating the next
full backup, the software deletes all backups taken earlier that day. Backups taken before that day
are kept. This means you can store multiple full backups with or without incremental ones, but no
more than one full backup per day. You can sort the backups by date. You can also use a script to
copy, move, or delete the older backups.
The value of this variable is the current date surrounded by brackets ([]). The date format depends on
the regional options on the machine. For example, if the date format is year-month-day, the value for
January 31, 2012, is [2012-01-31]. Characters that are not supported in a file name, such as slashes
(/), are replaced with underscores (_).
You can place this variable anywhere in the archive name. You can use both lowercase and
uppercase letters in this variable.
Examples
Example 1. Suppose that you perform incremental backups twice a day (at midnight and noon) for
two days, starting on January 31, 2012. The archive name is MyArchive-[DATE], the date format is
year-month-day. Here is the list of backup files after day two:
MyArchive-[2012-01-31].tib (full, created on January 31 at midnight)
MyArchive-[2012-01-31]2.tib (incremental, created on January 31 at noon)
MyArchive-[2012-02-01].tib (full, created on February 1 at midnight)
MyArchive-[2012-02-01]2.tib (incremental, created on February 1 at noon)
Example 2. Suppose that you perform full backups, with the same schedule, archive name, and date
format as in the previous example. Then, the list of backup files after day two is the following:
MyArchive-[2012-01-31].tib (full, created on January 31 at noon)
MyArchive-[2012-02-01].tib (full, created on February 1 at noon)
This is because the full backups created at midnight were replaced by new full backups of the same
day.
4.3.2 Backup splitting and simplified file naming
When a backup is split according to backup splitting (p. 111) settings, the same indexing is used to
also name parts of the backup. The file name for the next backup will have the next available index.
For example, suppose that the first backup of the archive MyData has been split in two parts. Then,
the file names for this backup are MyData1.tib and MyData2.tib. The second backup (supposing that
it is not split) will be named MyData3.tib.
4.3.3 Usage examples
This section provides examples of how you can use simplified file naming.
4.3.3.1 Example 1. Daily backup replacing the old one
Consider the following scenario:
