Version 2.5 of the Python interpreter was released on 19 Sep 2006, so virtually any current Linux and BSD distributions should include it or a later version.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

Although Cedar Backup will technically work with any RSH-compatible server and client pair (such as the classic “rsh” client), most users should only use an SSH (secure shell) server and client.

The defacto standard today is OpenSSH. Some systems package the server and the client together, and others package the server and the client separately. Note that master nodes need an SSH client, and client nodes need to run an SSH server.

If you can't find SSH client or server packages for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

The mkisofs command is used create ISO filesystem images that can later be written to backup media.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

I have classified Gentoo as “unknown” because I can't find a specific package for that platform. I think that maybe mkisofs is part of the cdrtools package (see below), but I'm not sure. Any Gentoo users want to enlighten me?

The cdrecord command is used to write ISO images to CD media in a backup device.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

The dvd+rw-tools package provides the growisofs utility, which is used to write ISO images to DVD media in a backup device.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

The eject command is used to open and close the tray on a backup device (if the backup device has a tray). Sometimes, the tray must be opened and closed in order to "reset" the device so it notices recent changes to a disc.

The volname command is used to determine the volume name of media in a backup device.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

The mount and umount commands are used to mount and unmount CD/DVD media after it has been written, in order to run a consistency check.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

I have classified Gentoo as “unknown” because I can't find a specific package for that platform. It may just be that these two utilities are considered standard, and don't have an independent package of their own. Any Gentoo users want to enlighten me?

I have classified Mac OS X “built-in” because that operating system does contain a mount command. However, it isn't really compatible with Cedar Backup's idea of mount, and in fact what Cedar Backup needs is closer to the hdiutil command. However, there are other issues related to that command, which is why the store action is not really supported on Mac OS X.

The grepmail command is used by the mbox extension to pull out only recent messages from mbox mail folders.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

The gpg command is used by the encrypt extension to encrypt files.

If you can't find a package for your system, install from the package source, using the “upstream” link.

The split command is used by the split extension to split up large files.

This command is typically part of the core operating system install and is not distributed in a separate package.

AWS CLI is Amazon's official command-line tool for interacting with the Amazon Web Services infrastruture. Cedar Backup uses AWS CLI to copy backup data up to Amazon S3 cloud storage.

After you install AWS CLI, you need to configure your connection to AWS with an appropriate access id and access key. Amazon provides a good setup guide.

The initial implementation of the amazons3 extension was written using AWS CLI 1.4. As of this writing, not all Linux distributions include a package for this version. On these platforms, the easiest way to install it is via PIP: apt-get install python-pip, and then pip install awscli. The Debian package includes an appropriate dependency starting with the jesse release.

The cback-amazons3-sync command relies on the Chardet python package to check filename encoding. You only need this package if you are going to use the sync tool.