Fastback is a simple command line tool for sending support files (core
files, log files, SOSreports, etc.) to support organizations.
Typically these files need to be uploaded to FTP, HTTP, or SCP
servers.  You can pre-configure Fastback to send files your support
organization so that when a problem happens and you need send a file
you don't need to know or remember all the details of exactly how and
where to upload the file.  You simply run 'fastback' on the file, and
all the details of compressing, encrypting, generating an md5sum, and
uploading the file are done for you.  Fastback keeps a log of all
uploads so you don't have to remember what files were sent when.

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Fastback Usage 

Usage: fastback [OPTION...] FILE

  -e, --encrypt              encrypt FILE before uploading
  -n                         create a new ticket for FILE
  -t, --ticket=TICKET        the ticket to associate FILE with
  -v                         be verbose
  -?, --help                 Give this help list
      --usage                Give a short usage message


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Fastback Configuration

Fastback is configured in the file '/etc/fastback.conf'.  Lines in
this file consist of assignments to configuration options.  Lines can
also be blank, or have shell style comments. There are two
configuration options:

LOGFILE 

  This must be set to the name of a file where Fastback keeps it's log
  of all uploads (successful or not).

URLDIR 

  This must be set to the URL of a directory where files are to be
  uploaded.  This URL should be formatted as Curl URLs.  The URL should
  contain the server name, can contain a directory on that server, and
  must end in a '/'.  The following URL methods are supported:

    FTP (for example, ftp://host.example.com/incoming/)
    HTTP (for example, http://host.example.com/incoming/)
    SCP (for example, scp://host.example.com/incoming/)

  All URLs are absolute unless the directory part of the URL begins with
  a '~'.  For example, scp://host.example.com/~gavin/incoming/.


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Fastback Server Configuration

The server named in the URLDIR configuration line must be configured
to receive files into the named directory.  It is easiest if the
servers are configured to recieve files anonymously (without
authentication), though it is also possible to set up secure transfers
using the security measures built into these protocols.  The following
information can be used to understand how to configure authentication.

For FTP and HTTP transfers, Fastback relies on libcurl (part of the Curl
project).  For a given URLDIR, Fastback does the functional equivalant
of 'curl -T <file-to-upload> <URLDIR>/<uploaded-file-name>'.

For SCP transfers, Fastback relies on 'scp' (part of the OpenSSH project).
For a given SCP URLDIR, Fastback does the functional equivalant of
'scp <file-to-upload> <translated-URLDIR>/<uploaded-file-name'.  The URLDIR
is translated from the Curl style format to the scp style format.

Any authentication should be configured not to require the user to 
enter passwords or passprases while fastback runs, so that fastback can be
used scripts that run unattended.


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Fastback Future 

The intent is that it will be possible to configure Fastback to talk
directly to various ticketing system, bugzilla included.  It will then
be possible to have fastback either attach the file directly to a ticket,
or send the file to an anonymous upload service, and record the upload
information in the ticket.

The intent is that Fastback will be built upon libcurl except where
libcurl doesn't provide the (yet) provided the needed functionality.

Fastback is a simple command line tool for sending files (core files,
log files, SOSreports, etc.) to support organizations, which for the
most part means associating a file to a support ticket.  You configure
Fastback to send files to your support organization's ticketing system
(or get the appropriate configuration from your support organization).
Once configured, Fastback can be invoked to associate/attach/send a file
to an existing ticket, or create a new ticket.