PackRat can be invoked in either a full Graphical User Interface (GUI) or from the command line.

The command line can be useful in scenarios where a windows manager is not available, or when you want to invoke PackRat automatically so that it can be used in your backup process.

Passing command line parameters to PackRat will automatically prevent the GUI from starting.
 

Command Line Usage :
  java -jar packrat.jar -S source_dir -D destination_dir -M maxsize [-h]

where :
  source_dir        The Source Directory to backup.
  destination_dir   The Directory where the backup packages should be created.
  maxsize           The Maximum Size of your backup media.
                      (specified in format numUNITS where UNITS must be 1 of
                      B (Bytes), KB (KiloBytes, MB (MegaBytes), GB, (GigaBytes).
  h                 This help screen.

Examples :
(Win) - Package Contents of "C:\Documents and Settings\" into 650 MegaByte Packages and store in C:\backup\ :

      java -jar "C:/Program Files/TechNicholMojo/packrat/packrat.jar" -S "C:/Documents and Settings/" -D C:/backup/ -M 650MB

(Unix) - Package Contents of John's Home folder into 1.2 GigaByte Packages and store in the root backup folder :

      java -jar /root/TechNicholMojo/packrat/packrat.jar -S /home/john/ -D /root/backup/ -M 1.2GB
 
 

Frequency Asked Questions :

  The Directory Structure on my Windows System is C:\Documents and Settings\ but the example uses forward slashes (/) instead of back slashes (\).  Why ?
 

• The back slash (\) is sometimes interpreted as a "special" character and might change the meaning to the characters following it.  The forward slash (/) is recognized as the file (directory) separator regardless of environment where PackRat is running.  By using forward slashes (/) in place of back slashes (\) potential problems can be avoided.

• The double quotes ("") tells packrat that everything between is part of 1 parameter.  Without them PackRat would think that the above Windows example was specifying C:\Documents as the source directory as the space marks the end of one parameter and the beginning of another.