usage.rst 26 KB

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  1. .. include:: global.rst.inc
  2. .. highlight:: none
  3. .. _detailed_usage:
  4. Usage
  5. =====
  6. |project_name| consists of a number of commands. Each command accepts
  7. a number of arguments and options. The following sections will describe each
  8. command in detail.
  9. General
  10. -------
  11. .. include:: usage_general.rst.inc
  12. In case you are interested in more details (like formulas), please see
  13. :ref:`internals`. For details on the available JSON output, refer to
  14. :ref:`json_output`.
  15. Common options
  16. ++++++++++++++
  17. All |project_name| commands share these options:
  18. .. include:: usage/common-options.rst.inc
  19. .. include:: usage/init.rst.inc
  20. Examples
  21. ~~~~~~~~
  22. ::
  23. # Local repository, repokey encryption, BLAKE2b (often faster, since Borg 1.1)
  24. $ borg init --encryption=repokey-blake2 /path/to/repo
  25. # Local repository (no encryption)
  26. $ borg init --encryption=none /path/to/repo
  27. # Remote repository (accesses a remote borg via ssh)
  28. $ borg init --encryption=repokey-blake2 user@hostname:backup
  29. # Remote repository (store the key your home dir)
  30. $ borg init --encryption=keyfile user@hostname:backup
  31. .. include:: usage/create.rst.inc
  32. Examples
  33. ~~~~~~~~
  34. ::
  35. # Backup ~/Documents into an archive named "my-documents"
  36. $ borg create /path/to/repo::my-documents ~/Documents
  37. # same, but list all files as we process them
  38. $ borg create --list /path/to/repo::my-documents ~/Documents
  39. # Backup ~/Documents and ~/src but exclude pyc files
  40. $ borg create /path/to/repo::my-files \
  41. ~/Documents \
  42. ~/src \
  43. --exclude '*.pyc'
  44. # Backup home directories excluding image thumbnails (i.e. only
  45. # /home/*/.thumbnails is excluded, not /home/*/*/.thumbnails)
  46. $ borg create /path/to/repo::my-files /home \
  47. --exclude 're:^/home/[^/]+/\.thumbnails/'
  48. # Do the same using a shell-style pattern
  49. $ borg create /path/to/repo::my-files /home \
  50. --exclude 'sh:/home/*/.thumbnails'
  51. # Backup the root filesystem into an archive named "root-YYYY-MM-DD"
  52. # use zlib compression (good, but slow) - default is lz4 (fast, low compression ratio)
  53. $ borg create -C zlib,6 /path/to/repo::root-{now:%Y-%m-%d} / --one-file-system
  54. # Backup a remote host locally ("pull" style) using sshfs
  55. $ mkdir sshfs-mount
  56. $ sshfs root@example.com:/ sshfs-mount
  57. $ cd sshfs-mount
  58. $ borg create /path/to/repo::example.com-root-{now:%Y-%m-%d} .
  59. $ cd ..
  60. $ fusermount -u sshfs-mount
  61. # Make a big effort in fine granular deduplication (big chunk management
  62. # overhead, needs a lot of RAM and disk space, see formula in internals
  63. # docs - same parameters as borg < 1.0 or attic):
  64. $ borg create --chunker-params 10,23,16,4095 /path/to/repo::small /smallstuff
  65. # Backup a raw device (must not be active/in use/mounted at that time)
  66. $ dd if=/dev/sdx bs=10M | borg create /path/to/repo::my-sdx -
  67. # No compression (default)
  68. $ borg create /path/to/repo::arch ~
  69. # Super fast, low compression
  70. $ borg create --compression lz4 /path/to/repo::arch ~
  71. # Less fast, higher compression (N = 0..9)
  72. $ borg create --compression zlib,N /path/to/repo::arch ~
  73. # Even slower, even higher compression (N = 0..9)
  74. $ borg create --compression lzma,N /path/to/repo::arch ~
  75. # Use short hostname, user name and current time in archive name
  76. $ borg create /path/to/repo::{hostname}-{user}-{now} ~
  77. # Similar, use the same datetime format as borg 1.1 will have as default
  78. $ borg create /path/to/repo::{hostname}-{user}-{now:%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S} ~
  79. # As above, but add nanoseconds
  80. $ borg create /path/to/repo::{hostname}-{user}-{now:%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f} ~
  81. # Backing up relative paths by moving into the correct directory first
  82. $ cd /home/user/Documents
  83. # The root directory of the archive will be "projectA"
  84. $ borg create /path/to/repo::daily-projectA-{now:%Y-%m-%d} projectA
  85. .. include:: usage/extract.rst.inc
  86. Examples
  87. ~~~~~~~~
  88. ::
  89. # Extract entire archive
  90. $ borg extract /path/to/repo::my-files
  91. # Extract entire archive and list files while processing
  92. $ borg extract --list /path/to/repo::my-files
  93. # Verify whether an archive could be successfully extracted, but do not write files to disk
  94. $ borg extract --dry-run /path/to/repo::my-files
  95. # Extract the "src" directory
  96. $ borg extract /path/to/repo::my-files home/USERNAME/src
  97. # Extract the "src" directory but exclude object files
  98. $ borg extract /path/to/repo::my-files home/USERNAME/src --exclude '*.o'
  99. # Restore a raw device (must not be active/in use/mounted at that time)
  100. $ borg extract --stdout /path/to/repo::my-sdx | dd of=/dev/sdx bs=10M
  101. .. Note::
  102. Currently, extract always writes into the current working directory ("."),
  103. so make sure you ``cd`` to the right place before calling ``borg extract``.
  104. .. include:: usage/check.rst.inc
  105. .. include:: usage/rename.rst.inc
  106. Examples
  107. ~~~~~~~~
  108. ::
  109. $ borg create /path/to/repo::archivename ~
  110. $ borg list /path/to/repo
  111. archivename Mon, 2016-02-15 19:50:19
  112. $ borg rename /path/to/repo::archivename newname
  113. $ borg list /path/to/repo
  114. newname Mon, 2016-02-15 19:50:19
  115. .. include:: usage/list.rst.inc
  116. Examples
  117. ~~~~~~~~
  118. ::
  119. $ borg list /path/to/repo
  120. Monday Mon, 2016-02-15 19:15:11
  121. repo Mon, 2016-02-15 19:26:54
  122. root-2016-02-15 Mon, 2016-02-15 19:36:29
  123. newname Mon, 2016-02-15 19:50:19
  124. ...
  125. $ borg list /path/to/repo::root-2016-02-15
  126. drwxr-xr-x root root 0 Mon, 2016-02-15 17:44:27 .
  127. drwxrwxr-x root root 0 Mon, 2016-02-15 19:04:49 bin
  128. -rwxr-xr-x root root 1029624 Thu, 2014-11-13 00:08:51 bin/bash
  129. lrwxrwxrwx root root 0 Fri, 2015-03-27 20:24:26 bin/bzcmp -> bzdiff
  130. -rwxr-xr-x root root 2140 Fri, 2015-03-27 20:24:22 bin/bzdiff
  131. ...
  132. $ borg list /path/to/repo::archiveA --list-format="{mode} {user:6} {group:6} {size:8d} {isomtime} {path}{extra}{NEWLINE}"
  133. drwxrwxr-x user user 0 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 .
  134. drwxrwxr-x user user 0 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code
  135. drwxrwxr-x user user 0 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject
  136. -rw-rw-r-- user user 1416192 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject/file.ext
  137. ...
  138. .. include:: usage/diff.rst.inc
  139. Examples
  140. ~~~~~~~~
  141. ::
  142. $ borg init -e=none testrepo
  143. $ mkdir testdir
  144. $ cd testdir
  145. $ echo asdf > file1
  146. $ dd if=/dev/urandom bs=1M count=4 > file2
  147. $ touch file3
  148. $ borg create ../testrepo::archive1 .
  149. $ chmod a+x file1
  150. $ echo "something" >> file2
  151. $ borg create ../testrepo::archive2 .
  152. $ rm file3
  153. $ touch file4
  154. $ borg create ../testrepo::archive3 .
  155. $ cd ..
  156. $ borg diff testrepo::archive1 archive2
  157. [-rw-r--r-- -> -rwxr-xr-x] file1
  158. +135 B -252 B file2
  159. $ borg diff testrepo::archive2 archive3
  160. added 0 B file4
  161. removed 0 B file3
  162. $ borg diff testrepo::archive1 archive3
  163. [-rw-r--r-- -> -rwxr-xr-x] file1
  164. +135 B -252 B file2
  165. added 0 B file4
  166. removed 0 B file3
  167. .. include:: usage/delete.rst.inc
  168. Examples
  169. ~~~~~~~~
  170. ::
  171. # delete a single backup archive:
  172. $ borg delete /path/to/repo::Monday
  173. # delete the whole repository and the related local cache:
  174. $ borg delete /path/to/repo
  175. You requested to completely DELETE the repository *including* all archives it contains:
  176. repo Mon, 2016-02-15 19:26:54
  177. root-2016-02-15 Mon, 2016-02-15 19:36:29
  178. newname Mon, 2016-02-15 19:50:19
  179. Type 'YES' if you understand this and want to continue: YES
  180. .. include:: usage/prune.rst.inc
  181. Examples
  182. ~~~~~~~~
  183. Be careful, prune is a potentially dangerous command, it will remove backup
  184. archives.
  185. The default of prune is to apply to **all archives in the repository** unless
  186. you restrict its operation to a subset of the archives using ``--prefix``.
  187. When using ``--prefix``, be careful to choose a good prefix - e.g. do not use a
  188. prefix "foo" if you do not also want to match "foobar".
  189. It is strongly recommended to always run ``prune -v --list --dry-run ...``
  190. first so you will see what it would do without it actually doing anything.
  191. There is also a visualized prune example in ``docs/misc/prune-example.txt``.
  192. ::
  193. # Keep 7 end of day and 4 additional end of week archives.
  194. # Do a dry-run without actually deleting anything.
  195. $ borg prune -v --list --dry-run --keep-daily=7 --keep-weekly=4 /path/to/repo
  196. # Same as above but only apply to archive names starting with the hostname
  197. # of the machine followed by a "-" character:
  198. $ borg prune -v --list --keep-daily=7 --keep-weekly=4 --prefix='{hostname}-' /path/to/repo
  199. # Keep 7 end of day, 4 additional end of week archives,
  200. # and an end of month archive for every month:
  201. $ borg prune -v --list --keep-daily=7 --keep-weekly=4 --keep-monthly=-1 /path/to/repo
  202. # Keep all backups in the last 10 days, 4 additional end of week archives,
  203. # and an end of month archive for every month:
  204. $ borg prune -v --list --keep-within=10d --keep-weekly=4 --keep-monthly=-1 /path/to/repo
  205. .. include:: usage/info.rst.inc
  206. Examples
  207. ~~~~~~~~
  208. ::
  209. $ borg info /path/to/repo::root-2016-02-15
  210. Name: root-2016-02-15
  211. Fingerprint: 57c827621f21b000a8d363c1e163cc55983822b3afff3a96df595077a660be50
  212. Hostname: myhostname
  213. Username: root
  214. Time (start): Mon, 2016-02-15 19:36:29
  215. Time (end): Mon, 2016-02-15 19:39:26
  216. Command line: /usr/local/bin/borg create --list -C zlib,6 /path/to/repo::root-2016-02-15 / --one-file-system
  217. Number of files: 38100
  218. Original size Compressed size Deduplicated size
  219. This archive: 1.33 GB 613.25 MB 571.64 MB
  220. All archives: 1.63 GB 853.66 MB 584.12 MB
  221. Unique chunks Total chunks
  222. Chunk index: 36858 48844
  223. .. include:: usage/mount.rst.inc
  224. .. include:: usage/umount.rst.inc
  225. Examples
  226. ~~~~~~~~
  227. borg mount
  228. ++++++++++
  229. ::
  230. $ borg mount /path/to/repo::root-2016-02-15 /tmp/mymountpoint
  231. $ ls /tmp/mymountpoint
  232. bin boot etc home lib lib64 lost+found media mnt opt root sbin srv tmp usr var
  233. $ borg umount /tmp/mymountpoint
  234. ::
  235. $ borg mount -o versions /path/to/repo /tmp/mymountpoint
  236. $ ls -l /tmp/mymountpoint/home/user/doc.txt/
  237. total 24
  238. -rw-rw-r-- 1 user group 12357 Aug 26 21:19 doc.txt.cda00bc9
  239. -rw-rw-r-- 1 user group 12204 Aug 26 21:04 doc.txt.fa760f28
  240. $ fusermount -u /tmp/mymountpoint
  241. borgfs
  242. ++++++
  243. ::
  244. $ echo '/mnt/backup /tmp/myrepo fuse.borgfs defaults,noauto 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
  245. $ echo '/mnt/backup::root-2016-02-15 /tmp/myarchive fuse.borgfs defaults,noauto 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
  246. $ mount /tmp/myrepo
  247. $ mount /tmp/myarchive
  248. $ ls /tmp/myrepo
  249. root-2016-02-01 root-2016-02-2015
  250. $ ls /tmp/myarchive
  251. bin boot etc home lib lib64 lost+found media mnt opt root sbin srv tmp usr var
  252. .. Note::
  253. ``borgfs`` will be automatically provided if you used a distribution
  254. package, ``pip`` or ``setup.py`` to install |project_name|. Users of the
  255. standalone binary will have to manually create a symlink (see
  256. :ref:`pyinstaller-binary`).
  257. .. include:: usage/key_export.rst.inc
  258. .. include:: usage/key_import.rst.inc
  259. .. _borg-change-passphrase:
  260. .. include:: usage/key_change-passphrase.rst.inc
  261. Examples
  262. ~~~~~~~~
  263. ::
  264. # Create a key file protected repository
  265. $ borg init --encryption=keyfile -v /path/to/repo
  266. Initializing repository at "/path/to/repo"
  267. Enter new passphrase:
  268. Enter same passphrase again:
  269. Remember your passphrase. Your data will be inaccessible without it.
  270. Key in "/root/.config/borg/keys/mnt_backup" created.
  271. Keep this key safe. Your data will be inaccessible without it.
  272. Synchronizing chunks cache...
  273. Archives: 0, w/ cached Idx: 0, w/ outdated Idx: 0, w/o cached Idx: 0.
  274. Done.
  275. # Change key file passphrase
  276. $ borg key change-passphrase -v /path/to/repo
  277. Enter passphrase for key /root/.config/borg/keys/mnt_backup:
  278. Enter new passphrase:
  279. Enter same passphrase again:
  280. Remember your passphrase. Your data will be inaccessible without it.
  281. Key updated
  282. Fully automated using environment variables:
  283. ::
  284. $ BORG_NEW_PASSPHRASE=old borg init -e=repokey repo
  285. # now "old" is the current passphrase.
  286. $ BORG_PASSPHRASE=old BORG_NEW_PASSPHRASE=new borg key change-passphrase repo
  287. # now "new" is the current passphrase.
  288. .. include:: usage/serve.rst.inc
  289. Examples
  290. ~~~~~~~~
  291. borg serve has special support for ssh forced commands (see ``authorized_keys``
  292. example below): it will detect that you use such a forced command and extract
  293. the value of the ``--restrict-to-path`` option(s).
  294. It will then parse the original command that came from the client, makes sure
  295. that it is also ``borg serve`` and enforce path restriction(s) as given by the
  296. forced command. That way, other options given by the client (like ``--info`` or
  297. ``--umask``) are preserved (and are not fixed by the forced command).
  298. ::
  299. # Allow an SSH keypair to only run borg, and only have access to /path/to/repo.
  300. # Use key options to disable unneeded and potentially dangerous SSH functionality.
  301. # This will help to secure an automated remote backup system.
  302. $ cat ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
  303. command="borg serve --restrict-to-path /path/to/repo",no-pty,no-agent-forwarding,no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-user-rc ssh-rsa AAAAB3[...]
  304. .. include:: usage/upgrade.rst.inc
  305. Examples
  306. ~~~~~~~~
  307. ::
  308. # Upgrade the borg repository to the most recent version.
  309. $ borg upgrade -v /path/to/repo
  310. making a hardlink copy in /path/to/repo.upgrade-2016-02-15-20:51:55
  311. opening attic repository with borg and converting
  312. no key file found for repository
  313. converting repo index /path/to/repo/index.0
  314. converting 1 segments...
  315. converting borg 0.xx to borg current
  316. no key file found for repository
  317. .. _borg_key_migrate-to-repokey:
  318. Upgrading a passphrase encrypted attic repo
  319. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  320. attic offered a "passphrase" encryption mode, but this was removed in borg 1.0
  321. and replaced by the "repokey" mode (which stores the passphrase-protected
  322. encryption key into the repository config).
  323. Thus, to upgrade a "passphrase" attic repo to a "repokey" borg repo, 2 steps
  324. are needed, in this order:
  325. - borg upgrade repo
  326. - borg key migrate-to-repokey repo
  327. .. include:: usage/recreate.rst.inc
  328. Examples
  329. ~~~~~~~~
  330. ::
  331. # Make old (Attic / Borg 0.xx) archives deduplicate with Borg 1.x archives
  332. # Archives created with Borg 1.1+ and the default chunker params are skipped (archive ID stays the same)
  333. $ borg recreate /mnt/backup --chunker-params default --progress
  334. # Create a backup with little but fast compression
  335. $ borg create /mnt/backup::archive /some/files --compression lz4
  336. # Then compress it - this might take longer, but the backup has already completed, so no inconsistencies
  337. # from a long-running backup job.
  338. $ borg recreate /mnt/backup::archive --compression zlib,9
  339. # Remove unwanted files from all archives in a repository
  340. $ borg recreate /mnt/backup -e /home/icke/Pictures/drunk_photos
  341. # Change archive comment
  342. $ borg create --comment "This is a comment" /mnt/backup::archivename ~
  343. $ borg info /mnt/backup::archivename
  344. Name: archivename
  345. Fingerprint: ...
  346. Comment: This is a comment
  347. ...
  348. $ borg recreate --comment "This is a better comment" /mnt/backup::archivename
  349. $ borg info /mnt/backup::archivename
  350. Name: archivename
  351. Fingerprint: ...
  352. Comment: This is a better comment
  353. ...
  354. .. include:: usage/with-lock.rst.inc
  355. .. include:: usage/break-lock.rst.inc
  356. Miscellaneous Help
  357. ------------------
  358. .. include:: usage/help.rst.inc
  359. Debug Commands
  360. --------------
  361. There is a ``borg debug`` command that has some subcommands which are all
  362. **not intended for normal use** and **potentially very dangerous** if used incorrectly.
  363. For example, ``borg debug put-obj`` and ``borg debug delete-obj`` will only do
  364. what their name suggests: put objects into repo / delete objects from repo.
  365. Please note:
  366. - they will not update the chunks cache (chunks index) about the object
  367. - they will not update the manifest (so no automatic chunks index resync is triggered)
  368. - they will not check whether the object is in use (e.g. before delete-obj)
  369. - they will not update any metadata which may point to the object
  370. They exist to improve debugging capabilities without direct system access, e.g.
  371. in case you ever run into some severe malfunction. Use them only if you know
  372. what you are doing or if a trusted |project_name| developer tells you what to do.
  373. Additional Notes
  374. ----------------
  375. Here are misc. notes about topics that are maybe not covered in enough detail in the usage section.
  376. --chunker-params
  377. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  378. The chunker params influence how input files are cut into pieces (chunks)
  379. which are then considered for deduplication. They also have a big impact on
  380. resource usage (RAM and disk space) as the amount of resources needed is
  381. (also) determined by the total amount of chunks in the repository (see
  382. `Indexes / Caches memory usage` for details).
  383. ``--chunker-params=10,23,16,4095`` results in a fine-grained deduplication
  384. and creates a big amount of chunks and thus uses a lot of resources to manage
  385. them. This is good for relatively small data volumes and if the machine has a
  386. good amount of free RAM and disk space.
  387. ``--chunker-params=19,23,21,4095`` (default) results in a coarse-grained
  388. deduplication and creates a much smaller amount of chunks and thus uses less
  389. resources. This is good for relatively big data volumes and if the machine has
  390. a relatively low amount of free RAM and disk space.
  391. If you already have made some archives in a repository and you then change
  392. chunker params, this of course impacts deduplication as the chunks will be
  393. cut differently.
  394. In the worst case (all files are big and were touched in between backups), this
  395. will store all content into the repository again.
  396. Usually, it is not that bad though:
  397. - usually most files are not touched, so it will just re-use the old chunks
  398. it already has in the repo
  399. - files smaller than the (both old and new) minimum chunksize result in only
  400. one chunk anyway, so the resulting chunks are same and deduplication will apply
  401. If you switch chunker params to save resources for an existing repo that
  402. already has some backup archives, you will see an increasing effect over time,
  403. when more and more files have been touched and stored again using the bigger
  404. chunksize **and** all references to the smaller older chunks have been removed
  405. (by deleting / pruning archives).
  406. If you want to see an immediate big effect on resource usage, you better start
  407. a new repository when changing chunker params.
  408. For more details, see :ref:`chunker_details`.
  409. --umask
  410. ~~~~~~~
  411. If you use ``--umask``, make sure that all repository-modifying borg commands
  412. (create, delete, prune) that access the repository in question use the same
  413. ``--umask`` value.
  414. If multiple machines access the same repository, this should hold true for all
  415. of them.
  416. --read-special
  417. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  418. The --read-special option is special - you do not want to use it for normal
  419. full-filesystem backups, but rather after carefully picking some targets for it.
  420. The option ``--read-special`` triggers special treatment for block and char
  421. device files as well as FIFOs. Instead of storing them as such a device (or
  422. FIFO), they will get opened, their content will be read and in the backup
  423. archive they will show up like a regular file.
  424. Symlinks will also get special treatment if (and only if) they point to such
  425. a special file: instead of storing them as a symlink, the target special file
  426. will get processed as described above.
  427. One intended use case of this is backing up the contents of one or multiple
  428. block devices, like e.g. LVM snapshots or inactive LVs or disk partitions.
  429. You need to be careful about what you include when using ``--read-special``,
  430. e.g. if you include ``/dev/zero``, your backup will never terminate.
  431. Restoring such files' content is currently only supported one at a time via
  432. ``--stdout`` option (and you have to redirect stdout to where ever it shall go,
  433. maybe directly into an existing device file of your choice or indirectly via
  434. ``dd``).
  435. To some extent, mounting a backup archive with the backups of special files
  436. via ``borg mount`` and then loop-mounting the image files from inside the mount
  437. point will work. If you plan to access a lot of data in there, it likely will
  438. scale and perform better if you do not work via the FUSE mount.
  439. Example
  440. +++++++
  441. Imagine you have made some snapshots of logical volumes (LVs) you want to backup.
  442. .. note::
  443. For some scenarios, this is a good method to get "crash-like" consistency
  444. (I call it crash-like because it is the same as you would get if you just
  445. hit the reset button or your machine would abrubtly and completely crash).
  446. This is better than no consistency at all and a good method for some use
  447. cases, but likely not good enough if you have databases running.
  448. Then you create a backup archive of all these snapshots. The backup process will
  449. see a "frozen" state of the logical volumes, while the processes working in the
  450. original volumes continue changing the data stored there.
  451. You also add the output of ``lvdisplay`` to your backup, so you can see the LV
  452. sizes in case you ever need to recreate and restore them.
  453. After the backup has completed, you remove the snapshots again. ::
  454. $ # create snapshots here
  455. $ lvdisplay > lvdisplay.txt
  456. $ borg create --read-special /path/to/repo::arch lvdisplay.txt /dev/vg0/*-snapshot
  457. $ # remove snapshots here
  458. Now, let's see how to restore some LVs from such a backup. ::
  459. $ borg extract /path/to/repo::arch lvdisplay.txt
  460. $ # create empty LVs with correct sizes here (look into lvdisplay.txt).
  461. $ # we assume that you created an empty root and home LV and overwrite it now:
  462. $ borg extract --stdout /path/to/repo::arch dev/vg0/root-snapshot > /dev/vg0/root
  463. $ borg extract --stdout /path/to/repo::arch dev/vg0/home-snapshot > /dev/vg0/home
  464. .. _append_only_mode:
  465. Append-only mode
  466. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  467. A repository can be made "append-only", which means that Borg will never overwrite or
  468. delete committed data (append-only refers to the segment files, but borg will also
  469. reject to delete the repository completely). This is useful for scenarios where a
  470. backup client machine backups remotely to a backup server using ``borg serve``, since
  471. a hacked client machine cannot delete backups on the server permanently.
  472. To activate append-only mode, edit the repository ``config`` file and add a line
  473. ``append_only=1`` to the ``[repository]`` section (or edit the line if it exists).
  474. In append-only mode Borg will create a transaction log in the ``transactions`` file,
  475. where each line is a transaction and a UTC timestamp.
  476. In addition, ``borg serve`` can act as if a repository is in append-only mode with
  477. its option ``--append-only``. This can be very useful for fine-tuning access control
  478. in ``.ssh/authorized_keys`` ::
  479. command="borg serve --append-only ..." ssh-rsa <key used for not-always-trustable backup clients>
  480. command="borg serve ..." ssh-rsa <key used for backup management>
  481. Example
  482. +++++++
  483. Suppose an attacker remotely deleted all backups, but your repository was in append-only
  484. mode. A transaction log in this situation might look like this: ::
  485. transaction 1, UTC time 2016-03-31T15:53:27.383532
  486. transaction 5, UTC time 2016-03-31T15:53:52.588922
  487. transaction 11, UTC time 2016-03-31T15:54:23.887256
  488. transaction 12, UTC time 2016-03-31T15:55:54.022540
  489. transaction 13, UTC time 2016-03-31T15:55:55.472564
  490. From your security logs you conclude the attacker gained access at 15:54:00 and all
  491. the backups where deleted or replaced by compromised backups. From the log you know
  492. that transactions 11 and later are compromised. Note that the transaction ID is the
  493. name of the *last* file in the transaction. For example, transaction 11 spans files 6
  494. to 11.
  495. In a real attack you'll likely want to keep the compromised repository
  496. intact to analyze what the attacker tried to achieve. It's also a good idea to make this
  497. copy just in case something goes wrong during the recovery. Since recovery is done by
  498. deleting some files, a hard link copy (``cp -al``) is sufficient.
  499. The first step to reset the repository to transaction 5, the last uncompromised transaction,
  500. is to remove the ``hints.N`` and ``index.N`` files in the repository (these two files are
  501. always expendable). In this example N is 13.
  502. Then remove or move all segment files from the segment directories in ``data/`` starting
  503. with file 6::
  504. rm data/**/{6..13}
  505. That's all to it.
  506. Drawbacks
  507. +++++++++
  508. As data is only appended, and nothing removed, commands like ``prune`` or ``delete``
  509. won't free disk space, they merely tag data as deleted in a new transaction.
  510. Be aware that as soon as you write to the repo in non-append-only mode (e.g. prune,
  511. delete or create archives from an admin machine), it will remove the deleted objects
  512. permanently (including the ones that were already marked as deleted, but not removed,
  513. in append-only mode).
  514. Note that you can go back-and-forth between normal and append-only operation by editing
  515. the configuration file, it's not a "one way trip".
  516. Further considerations
  517. ++++++++++++++++++++++
  518. Append-only mode is not respected by tools other than Borg. ``rm`` still works on the
  519. repository. Make sure that backup client machines only get to access the repository via
  520. ``borg serve``.
  521. Ensure that no remote access is possible if the repository is temporarily set to normal mode
  522. for e.g. regular pruning.
  523. Further protections can be implemented, but are outside of Borg's scope. For example,
  524. file system snapshots or wrapping ``borg serve`` to set special permissions or ACLs on
  525. new data files.
  526. SSH batch mode
  527. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  528. When running |project_name| using an automated script, ``ssh`` might still ask for a password,
  529. even if there is an SSH key for the target server. Use this to make scripts more robust::
  530. export BORG_RSH='ssh -oBatchMode=yes'