The ABE supports several command line arguments. Using this way you can avoid loading into ABE's user interface to perform some operations. You need to create and completely configure an ABE project before using this way.
If started with command line params, the ABE returns the following completion codes:
1 - the operation was completed successfully;
0 - the operation failed (see the log for details);
You can use this completion code in your batch files. The following sample .bat-file shows you one of the ways how to use it:
;--- sample.bat ---
"C:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" /b "C:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\Projects\test.svg"
goto answer%errorlevel%
:answer1
echo Backup successful
goto end
:answer0
echo Bckup failed!
:end
echo done!
;--- sample.bat ----
Currently the ABE supports the following command line arguments:
/b - create a new backup (with Default Backup Mode).
If you place the "/b" option followed by ABE project file name to the abp.exe command line, it creates a new backup of the project files. This way is very convenient when you want to include backup command into the batch file or to use an automation utility for backup creating. Please take a look to our Active Task Manager automation utility if you don't use one yet. See the Providing Automated Backups topic to learn how to use ABE with automation utilities.
Syntax:
/b <ABE-project to backup>
Example:
"c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" /b "c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\example.svg"
/bf - create a new backup (with Full Backup Mode).
The same as the "/b" option, except that the backup will be created with the Full mode.
Syntax:
/bf <ABE-project to backup>
Example:
"c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" /bf "c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\example.svg"
/bi - create a new backup (with Incremental Backup Mode).
The same as the "/b" option, except that the backup will be created with the Incremental mode.
Syntax:
/bi <ABE-project to backup>
Example:
"c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" /bi "c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\example.svg"
/bd - create a new backup (with Differential Backup Mode).
The same as the "/b" option, except that the backup will be created with the Differential mode.
Syntax:
/bd <ABE-project to backup>
Example:
"c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" /bd "c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\example.svg"
/r - restore the specified backup.
The "/r" option followed by ABE project file name and the backup filename to restore restores the selected backup to the default Target folder.
Syntax:
/r <ABE-project to to restore> <project's backup to restore>
Example:
"c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" /r "c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\example.svg" d:\archive\example.zip
/l - restore the last backup.
The "/l" (lowercase L) option followed by ABE project file name restores the last backup to the default Target folder.
Syntax:
/l <ABE-project to to restore> <project's backup to restore>
Example:
"c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" /l "c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\example.svg"
no command - open the ABE-project.
Place the ABE-project file name to the abp.exe command line to open this project.
Syntax:
<ABE-project to open>
Example:
"c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\abe.exe" "c:\Program Files\Active Backup Expert\example.svg"