Merge pull request #4339 from ThomasWaldmann/anarcat-faq-1.1

add warnings on repository copies to avoid future problem, fixes #4272

docs/faq.rst

@@ -26,22 +26,52 @@ or deleting archives, which may make *simultaneous* backups fail.
 Can I copy or synchronize my repo to another location?
 ------------------------------------------------------
 
-Yes, you could just copy all the files. Make sure you do that while no
-backup is running (use `borg with-lock ...`). So what you get here is this:
+If you want to have redundant backup repositories (preferably at separate
+locations), the recommended way to do that is like this:
 
+- ``borg init repo1``
+- ``borg init repo2``
 - client machine ---borg create---> repo1
-- repo1 ---copy---> repo2
+- client machine ---borg create---> repo2
+
+This will create distinct repositories (separate repo ID, separate
+keys) and nothing bad happening in repo1 will influence repo2.
+
+Some people decide against above recommendation and create identical
+copies of a repo (using some copy / sync / clone tool).
+
+While this might be better than having no redundancy at all, you have
+to be very careful about how you do that and what you may / must not
+do with the result (if you decide against our recommendation).
+
+What you would get with this is:
 
-There is no special borg command to do the copying, just use cp or rsync if
-you want to do that.
+- client machine ---borg create---> repo
+- repo ---copy/sync---> copy-of-repo
+
+There is no special borg command to do the copying, you could just
+use any reliable tool that creates an identical copy (cp, rsync, rclone
+might be options).
 
 But think about whether that is really what you want. If something goes
-wrong in repo1, you will have the same issue in repo2 after the copy.
+wrong in repo, you will have the same issue in copy-of-repo.
 
-If you want to have 2 independent backups, it is better to do it like this:
+Make sure you do the copy/sync while no backup is running, see
+:ref:`borg_with-lock` about how to do that.
 
-- client machine ---borg create---> repo1
-- client machine ---borg create---> repo2
+Also, you must not run borg against multiple instances of the same repo
+(like repo and copy-of-repo) as that would create severe issues:
+
+- Data loss: they have the same repository ID, so the borg client will
+  think they are identical and e.g. use the same local cache for them
+  (which is an issue if they happen to be not the same).
+  See :issue:`4272` for an example.
+- Encryption security issues if you would update repo and copy-of-repo
+  independently, due to AES counter reuse.
+
+There is also a similar encryption security issue for the disaster case:
+If you lose repo and the borg client-side config/cache and you restore
+the repo from an older copy-of-repo, you also run into AES counter reuse.
 
 Which file types, attributes, etc. are *not* preserved?
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