DailyBkup

A tool for backing up your files daily.

Configuration

Backups rely on a yaml configuration file that defines what and how to run a backup.

The program looks for a configuration file in a path specified by the environmental variable DAILYBKUP_CONFIG_FILE. If not set, it defaults to ~/.dailybkup/config.yaml.

A custom configuration file can be set by using the -c flag, which will take precendence over the environmental variable DAILYBKUP_CONFIG_FILE.

python -m dailybkup -c CONFIG_FILE backup

Options

Compression

Defines what and how to compress.

compression:
    files:  # Required
        - /files/1
        - /files/2
    exclude:  # Required
        - /files/3
    tar_executable: "mytar"  # Defaults to "tar"
    tar_flags: ["--dereference", "-z"]  # Defaults to ["--dereference", "--checkpoint=1000", "-v", "-z"]

Using Google Drive as storage

Follow the steps here to create a Service Account with the proper rights for a shared folder on your Google Drive.

Now make sure that, when running the upload command, the environmental variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS is set to the absolute path to the service account json file. This takes care of authentication.

Then add a configuration section:

storage:
    - type_: google_drive
      folder_id: "1-AaKa-AKOSjoajasaAO129SuQwybqLqb"
      suffix: .tar.gpg

Running

Running a backup as as simple as:

python -m dailybkup  backup

Scheduling

One of the easiest tools to run your backups daily is using systemd timers.

Systemd

Here we will schedule a backup to run with the following criteria:

Create both files below:

# file:~/.config/systemd/user/dailybkup.timer
[Unit]
Description=Timer for Daily Backup

[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

# file:~/.config/systemd/user/dailybkup.service
[Unit]
Description=Daily Backup
# Max 3 runs per hour
StartLimitInterval=3600
StartLimitBurst=3

[Service]
EnvironmentFile=%h/.dailybkup/env
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python -m dailybkup -c %h/.dailybkup/config.yaml backup
Restart=on-failure
# Restart after 2min
RestartSec=120

Info

  • We are configuring a backup that will:
    • Run once per day
    • Restart up to 3 times per hour on failure
    • Restart after 120s
  • You may also save those in other places - see Where do I put my systemd unit files
  • If you are configuring multiple backups, give each file a unique name.
  • Make sure /usr/bin/python is valid for your system, or update it accordingly.

Now, set your config.yaml file and an env file on the paths specified above. For example:

# file:~/.dailybkup/config.yaml
storage:
  - type_: b2
    bucket: dailybkup-personal
    suffix: .tar
compression:
  files: [~/Downloads]
  exclude: []
notification:
  - type_: desktop
    sender_config:
      type_: "notify-send"

# file:~/.dailybkup/env
DAILYBKUP_B2_APPLICATION_KEY_ID=mykeyid
DAILYBKUP_B2_APPLICATION_KEY=mykey

Now use systemctl to enable the service

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable dailybkup.timer
systemctl --user start dailybkup.timer

Warning

Since there are sensitive data on the env file, you may want to give it restrictive permissions: chmod 0600 ~/.dailybkup/env

If you don't want to wait and want to give it a try, you can start the backup immediately using

systemctl --user start dailybkup

You can check when the timer will activate by doing

systemctl --user status dailybkup.timer

Releases

1.0.0

Breaking Changes

The configuration for file storage has changed:

Before 

storage:
  - type_: file
    path: /home/user/backup.tar.gpg

Now 

storage:
  - type_: file
    directory: /home/user/bkups
    suffix: .tar.gpg

The old behavior expected path to be the path to a file where the entire backup would be saved.

The new behavior expects directory to be an existing directory. A backup file will be created on this directory. The file name will contain the date of the creation of the file, in the YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS format. If suffix is given, it's appended to the file name.

In the above example, we would end up with a file like /home/user/bkups/2022-12-25T23:28:39.tar.gpg.