pilot-xfer - backup, sync, and restore databases from a Palm handheld
device, such as those made from Palm, Handspring, Handera, TRGPro, Sony or
other Palm Compatible Handheld PDA device
(Note that some options are not shown above and short option aliases are
excluded for brevity. Please use
pilot-xfer
--help to get the full list of available options)
DESCRIPTION
pilot-xfer
allows the user to install databases contained in the standard .prc, .pdb,
and .pqa formats onto a Palm, retrieve databases from the Palm, list the
databases contained in a Palm, and backup or restore all of the databases at
once.
TARGET DEVICE
The default serial device used to communicate with a Palm is
/dev/pilot.
If the environment variable
$PILOTPORT
is set, its value will override the default.
A serial device specified on the command-line will be used regardless of any
$PILOTPORT
setting.
OPTIONS
Many options exist, including...
-a dir,
Archives files which have been removed from the Palm to
dir
instead of just deleting (unlinking) them
-b dir, --backup dir
Backs up the Palm into the specified directory (which will be created if it
does not already exist). This operation must be specified
after
any
exclude
option.
-c, --count
Counts the files as they go by, but shunts the displaying of the "Skipping
file..." messages
-d dbname [...], --delete dbname [...]
Delete the specified database(s) by name (without extension). Obviously, be
very careful with this one.
-e file, --exclude file
Reads a list of databases from
file.
Prevents
--backup,
--sync,
or
--update
from operating on the listed database(s).
This option must be specified before the
--backup,
--sync,
or
--update
operation whose action it modifies.
-f dbname [...], --fetch dbname [...]
Fetch each specified database out of the Palm into the current directory.
-F
Modifies the behavior of
--backup,
--sync,
and
--update
to back up non-OS databases which have been stored in FlashROM
-h, --help
Displays a summary list of
pilot-xfer's
usage and exits.
-i file [...], --install file [...]
Install each specified file into the Palm. Wildcards are valid with this syntax.
-l, --list
List the databases in the Palm, excluding OS-specific databases.
-L, --Listall
List all of the databases on the Palm, including OS-specific native databases.
-m file [...], --merge file [...]
Adds the records in each specified file into the corresponding Palm database.
-O
Modifies the behavior of
--backup,
--sync,
and
--update
to back up OS databases which are stored in FlashROM
-P, --Purge
Purge any deleted data that hasn't been cleaned up by a sync (this is a safe
operation, and will prevent your Palm from accumulating crud if you delete
records but aren't syncing with a PIM.) The only information you can lose is
archived but un-synced records.
-q, --quiet
Causes
pilot-xfer
to be quiet and not display the "Skipping file..." messages
-r dir, --restore dir
Installs all files contained in a directory into the Palm.
(Use this to restore your Palm after a hard reset has cleared its memory, using
your
backup
directory as a baseline.)
-s dir, --sync dir
Backs up the Palm into the specified directory (which will be created if it
does not already exist). Any Palm databases which have not been modified or
created since the versions stored in the specified directory will not be backed up.
NOTE:
Any Palm databases which have been deleted will have their corresponding backup
file removed.
This operation must be specified
after
any
exclude
option.
-u dir, --update dir
Backs up the Palm into the specified directory (which will be created if it does
not already exist). Any Palm databases which have not been modified or created
since the versions stored in the specified directory will not be backed up.
This operation must be specified
after
any
exclude
option.
-U
This will back up the UnsavedPreferences.pdb file from the Palm. Normally this
file is not backed up by normal means (Palm Computing recommends that you do
not
restore this file upon restoration of your device using
--restore
This also modifies the behavior of
--backup--sync
and
--update
-v, --version
Displays the version of
pilot-link
from which this program was installed and exits.
USAGE
The program will connect to a target Palm handheld device and port, prompt
the user to hit HotSync, and perform the requested options specified by the
user on the commandline.
To restore that backup to a non-standard serial port (for example, to a
xcopilot or POSE session, assuming you have xcopilot or POSE configured
properly for this operation, see the appropriate man pages for details on
configuring your emulator):
Unable detect when the Palm handheld is full when installing files. It will proceed as if successful
though may not actually install the files.
Unable to detect if the local files/directory are writable when fetching or backing up from the Palm device, or
if the target drive/partition is full.
pilot-xfer
written by Kenneth Albanowski. This manual page was originally written by
Kenneth Albanowski and David H. Silber. Completely rewritten by David A.
Desrosiers for pilot-link 0.10 and later revisions.