# Defining Properties of Files That Compose Backup

Defining properties of the files that will be contained in backup includes the following:

1. Defining that archives with backup object contents should not be compressed.

2. Defining that a prefix should be added to names of the backup files.

3. Defining that backup files should be split into parts of the specified size.

## Defining that archives with backup object contents should not be compressed

By default, Plesk saves backed up content to compressed `.zip` archives to save disk space when the backup is stored. However, restoring backups that contain compressed archives requires almost two times more disk space than restoring those with uncompressed files. If you want to create your backups without compression, use the `-z` option in your backup command.

## Defining that a prefix should be added to names of the backup files

In order to better distinguish files that were created during one backup session from another, `pleskbackup` adds a prefix to backup file name. By default, it is `backup`, so every backup file name looks like `backup_` `<file-name>` `.` `<ext>`. The prefix in names of the files that compose a particular backup can be customized by using the `--prefix` option. The option’s value will be added as a prefix to names of files of the created backup.

For example, to create a backup of the server mail configuration so that all files in backup have prefix `mail-friday`:

    pleskbackup --server --only-mail --configuration --prefix="friday"

## Defining that backup files should be split into parts of the specified size

The `pleskbackup` utility is capable of splitting backup files into parts of a particular size, which is vitally useful in cases when the file size is critical. Such cases can be, for example, the following:

- if backups are burnt to DVDs, file size should not exceed approximately 4 Gbytes

- if backups are stored on the FAT32 file system, file size should not exceed approximately 4 Gbytes

- if backups are stored on FTP, FTP server may have its own restrictions on the size of a single file transferred to the server

To make pleskbackup split the backup files to parts of a particular size, use the `-s|--split` option and specify the required size as the option value. For details on the format of size specification, refer to the section Backup Utility Commands and Options. The default value used by `pleskbackup` if no custom size is specified is 2 Gbytes. The utility numbers file parts created as a result of split by adding numerical suffixes to the file names starting from `.1`.

For example, to back up a subscription and split backup files into parts of no more than 700 Mbytes:

    pleskbackup --domains-name example.com --only-hosting --split=700M