Download Command Line Tool 32Kb(v0.5.1 beta, Feb 2009) - 10.5 Leopard only.
Why? As someone who is often in a Terminal environment I become frustrated with the Time Machine GUI and found it totally inadequate for when I needed to quickly determine what had been backed up and what had changed.
Usage: tms <command>
help - instructions on usage
version - print the current version of this tool
disk - print the current disk
disks - print list of all Time Machine disks
volumes - print list of all volumes
machine - print the current machine
machines - print the list of all machines backed up on the current disk
status - print the current configuration
snapshots - print the list of snapshots for the current machine on the current disk
snaplog {<num>} - print the log for the given (or latest) snapshot
log <file>+ - print revision information for the given files
diff [-u] <file> {<num>} {<num>} - print file diff with the given (or latest) snapshot, or between two snapshots
delta [-size] <num> {<num} - print the difference between two snapshots
The default disk and/or machine can be overridden by first adding:
-disk (<name>|#) - where name is of the form /Volumes/mybackupdisk, or # is the nth disk as listed by 'tms disks' -machine (<name>|#) - where name is the machine name, or # is the nth machine as listed by 'tms machines'
Find out how many unique versions of a file really exist
[RobsG5] user% tms log tms.c /Volumes/disk1/XX/tms/tms.c: num=59 oldest=2008-05-02-00:04:25 newest=2008-05-03-18:42:40 /Volumes/disk1/XX/tms/tms.c: num=63 oldest=2008-05-05-14:11:57 newest=2008-05-05-14:12:37 /Volumes/disk1/XX/tms/tms.c: num=64 oldest=2008-05-05-15:08:27 newest=Current
Determine how a file has changed from the current active version
[RobsG5] user% tms diff tms.c 3c3 < XX --- > YY 21,31d20 < ZZ ...
Find out how many snapshots Time Machine is maintaining
[RobsG5] user% tms snapshots /XX/2008-05-05-150832: num=64 state=4 type=2 ver=1 start=2008-05-05-15:08:27.899941 complete=2008-05-05-15:08:32.026552 /XX/2008-05-05-141237: num=63 state=4 type=3 ver=1 start=2008-05-05-14:12:35.704837 complete=2008-05-05-14:12:37.528816 /XX/2008-05-03-184240: num=62 state=4 type=3 ver=1 start=2008-05-03-18:42:36.938152 complete=2008-05-03-18:42:40.010305 /XX/2008-05-02-000446: num=59 state=4 type=1 ver=1 start=2008-05-02-00:04:44.635859 complete=2008-05-02-00:04:46.422558 /XX/2008-05-01-102433: num=50 state=4 type=1 ver=1 start=2008-05-01-10:24:31.629343 complete=2008-05-01-10:24:33.113212 /XX/2008-04-29-180729: num=49 state=4 type=1 ver=1 start=2008-04-29-18:07:03.455178 complete=2008-04-29-18:07:29.084749 ...
Find out general Time Machine status
[RobsG5] user% tms status /Volumes/disk1: name=disk1 uuid=F04D3A60-2E6E-348D-A6DF-DF7559BE6CEE /Volumes/disk1/Backups.backupdb/RobsG5: name=RobsG5 mac=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX enabled=1 online=1 /Volumes/disk1/Backups.backupdb/RobsG5/2008-05-05-161725: num=65 state=4 type=2 ver=1 start=2008-05-05-16:17:23.050914 complete=2008-05-05-16:17:25.161527
Find out the difference between two snapshots
[RobsG5] user% tms delta 76 delta: 76 vs 77 /Volumes/Leopard/.com.apple.timemachine.supported: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/.DS_Store: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/releasing/.DS_Store: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/releasing/tms/.DS_Store: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/releasing/tms/readme.rtf: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/releasing/tms/tms: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/releasing/tms.zip: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/source/.DS_Store: != /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/source/tms: -> /Volumes/Leopard/Users/rpointon/Desktop/products/tms/source/tms.c: != ...