backintime - Man Page
Create and manage incremental backups using rsync
Synopsis
backintime [<global args>] <commands> [<args>]
backintime [-h | --help] [-p | --profile NAME|ID] [--config PATH] [--quiet] [--debug] [-v | --version] [--license] [--diagnostics] <commands> [<args>]
backintime [-h | --help] [-p | --profile NAME|ID] [--config PATH] [--quiet] [--debug] [-v | --version] [--license] [--diagnostics] { backup [--checksum] [--background] | show [--path] [--last] | restore [--checksum] [--delete] [--local-backup | --no-local-backup] [--only-new] [WHAT] [WHERE] [BACKUP_ID] | remove [--skip-confirmation] [BACKUP_ID ...] | prune | unmount | shutdown | check-config [--no-crontab] | pw-cache [{start,stop,restart,reload,status}] }
Description
Back In Time is a simple backup tool for Linux. The backup is done by taking backups of a specified set of directories and files. This is the command line tool. The graphical tool is backintime-qt(1).
Incremental or full?
The backups are incremental and full at the same time. Modified files are transferred, while unchanged files are linked to the new destination using the hard link feature of rsync(1). This saves storage space. In other words each backup is technically a full backup (contains each file) but copies only the really changed files (to save disk space) and "reuses" unchanged files by setting a so-called "hard-link".
Scheduling
For automatic and scheduled backups cron(1) is used.
Restoring
Restoring is straightforward via file manager, command line or Back In Time itself.
Modes
Several backup profile modes are supported. The simplest is the Local profile, which creates backups of items on the local machine and stores them on the same machine. Additionally, Local Encrypted profiles encrypt the backups using EncFS. To store backups on a remote machine, the SSH profile can be used. These backups can also be encrypted using the SSH Encrypted profile.
Regarding encrypted profiles, please take a look at A NOTE ON SECURITY.
Global Options
- -h, --help
Display a short help.
- -p, --profile NAME|ID
Select profile by name or ID.
- --config PATH
Read config from PATH. (Default: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/backintime/config)
- --quiet
Suppress status messages on standard output.
- --debug
Show debug messages.
- -v, --version
Show version.
- --license
Show license.
- --diagnostics
Show diagnostic information to support debugging.
Commands
backup
Create a new backup, but only if the profile is scheduled and if the machine is not running on battery.
- --checksum
Force to use checksum for checking if files have been changed.
- --background
Run in background via daemonization.
show
List backup ID’s or paths.
- --path
List backup paths instead of their ID.
- --last
Show the last (youngest) backup only.
restore
Restores entire backups or selected files and folders from them.
- --checksum
Force to use checksum for checking if files have been changed.
- --delete
Restore and delete newer files which are not in the backup. WARNING: deleting files in filesystem root could break your whole system!!!
- --local-backup
Create backup files before changing local files.
- --no-local-backup
Temporarily disable creation of backup files before changing local files.
- --only-new
Only restore files which do not exist or are newer than those in destination. Using "rsync --update" option.
- WHAT
Restore file or directory WHAT.
- WHERE
Restore to WHERE; empty argument will default to original destination.
- BACKUP_ID
Specific ID or an integer as index (0=last backup; -1=very first backup).
remove
Remove a backup.
- --skip-confirmation
Skip the confirmation question. Be careful!
- BACKUP_ID
ID of the backup to be removed.
prune
Remove and keep backups based on "Remove & Retention" policy.
unmount
Unmount the profile.
shutdown
Shut down the computer after the backup is finished.
check-config
Checks the configuration of all profiles. The config file is verified, the backup destination path is created for each profile, and crontab entries are setup for scheduled profiles.
--no-crontab
Do not install crontab entries.
pw-cache
Control the Password Cache for non-interactive cronjobs.
[start|stop|restart|reload|status]
Commands can be send to the daemon.
A Note on Security and Encfs
Because of security issues with EncFS it is planned to remove it from Back In Time. To continue the support of encrypted backups it is the goal to replace it with an alternative if possible. See this document for details and the current state of the transition process.
https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/doc/ENCRYPT_TRANSITION.md
The security issues are mentioned in a security audit from 2014 and not fixed until today. The EnCFS project is not maintained anymore and his former maintainer recommend to switch to GoCryptFS. See the following links for further readings:
- EncFS Security Audit (updated blog post): https://defuse.ca/audits/encfs.htm
- EncFS Security Audit (original mailing list entry): https://sourceforge.net/p/encfs/mailman/message/31849549
- Back In Time Issue #1734 about transition of the encryption feature: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1734
See Also
backintime-qt(1), backintime-config(5), backintime-askpass(1)
Back In Time project website: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime
Back In Time mailing list: https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/bit-dev.python.org
Author
Back In Time Team
Referenced By
backintime-askpass(1), backintime-qt(1).