borg/docs/man/borg.1

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.TH BORG 1 "2017-02-05" "" "borg backup tool"
.SH NAME
borg \- deduplicating and encrypting backup tool
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.SH SYNOPSIS
.sp
borg <command> [options] [arguments]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.\" we don't include the README.rst here since we want to keep this terse.
.
.sp
BorgBackup (short: Borg) is a deduplicating backup program.
Optionally, it supports compression and authenticated encryption.
.sp
The main goal of Borg is to provide an efficient and secure way to backup data.
The data deduplication technique used makes Borg suitable for daily backups
since only changes are stored.
The authenticated encryption technique makes it suitable for backups to not
fully trusted targets.
.sp
Borg stores a set of files in an \fIarchive\fP\&. A \fIrepository\fP is a collection
of \fIarchives\fP\&. The format of repositories is Borg\-specific. Borg does not
distinguish archives from each other in a any way other than their name,
it does not matter when or where archives where created (eg. different hosts).
.SH EXAMPLES
.SS A step\-by\-step example
.INDENT 0.0
.IP 1. 3
Before a backup can be made a repository has to be initialized:
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ borg init \-\-encryption=repokey /path/to/repo
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.IP 2. 3
Backup the \fB~/src\fP and \fB~/Documents\fP directories into an archive called
\fIMonday\fP:
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ borg create /path/to/repo::Monday ~/src ~/Documents
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.IP 3. 3
The next day create a new archive called \fITuesday\fP:
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ borg create \-\-stats /path/to/repo::Tuesday ~/src ~/Documents
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
This backup will be a lot quicker and a lot smaller since only new never
before seen data is stored. The \fB\-\-stats\fP option causes Borg to
output statistics about the newly created archive such as the amount of unique
data (not shared with other archives):
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
Archive name: Tuesday
Archive fingerprint: bd31004d58f51ea06ff735d2e5ac49376901b21d58035f8fb05dbf866566e3c2
Time (start): Tue, 2016\-02\-16 18:15:11
Time (end):   Tue, 2016\-02\-16 18:15:11

Duration: 0.19 seconds
Number of files: 127
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
                      Original size      Compressed size    Deduplicated size
This archive:                4.16 MB              4.17 MB             26.78 kB
All archives:                8.33 MB              8.34 MB              4.19 MB

                      Unique chunks         Total chunks
Chunk index:                     132                  261
\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.IP 4. 3
List all archives in the repository:
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ borg list /path/to/repo
Monday                               Mon, 2016\-02\-15 19:14:44
Tuesday                              Tue, 2016\-02\-16 19:15:11
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.IP 5. 3
List the contents of the \fIMonday\fP archive:
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ borg list /path/to/repo::Monday
drwxr\-xr\-x user   group          0 Mon, 2016\-02\-15 18:22:30 home/user/Documents
\-rw\-r\-\-r\-\- user   group       7961 Mon, 2016\-02\-15 18:22:30 home/user/Documents/Important.doc
\&...
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.IP 6. 3
Restore the \fIMonday\fP archive by extracting the files relative to the current directory:
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ borg extract /path/to/repo::Monday
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.IP 7. 3
Recover disk space by manually deleting the \fIMonday\fP archive:
.INDENT 3.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ borg delete /path/to/repo::Monday
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
\fBNOTE:\fP
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
Borg is quiet by default (it works on WARNING log level).
You can use options like \fB\-\-progress\fP or \fB\-\-list\fP to get specific
reports during command execution.  You can also add the \fB\-v\fP (or
\fB\-\-verbose\fP or \fB\-\-info\fP) option to adjust the log level to INFO to
get other informational messages.
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.SH NOTES
.SS Repository URLs
.sp
\fBLocal filesystem\fP (or locally mounted network filesystem):
.sp
\fB/path/to/repo\fP \- filesystem path to repo directory, absolute path
.sp
\fBpath/to/repo\fP \- filesystem path to repo directory, relative path
.sp
Also, stuff like \fB~/path/to/repo\fP or \fB~other/path/to/repo\fP works (this is
expanded by your shell).
.sp
Note: you may also prepend a \fBfile://\fP to a filesystem path to get URL style.
.sp
\fBRemote repositories\fP accessed via ssh \fI\%user@host\fP:
.sp
\fBuser@host:/path/to/repo\fP \- remote repo, absolute path
.sp
\fBssh://user@host:port/path/to/repo\fP \- same, alternative syntax, port can be given
.sp
\fBRemote repositories with relative pathes\fP can be given using this syntax:
.sp
\fBuser@host:path/to/repo\fP \- path relative to current directory
.sp
\fBuser@host:~/path/to/repo\fP \- path relative to user\(aqs home directory
.sp
\fBuser@host:~other/path/to/repo\fP \- path relative to other\(aqs home directory
.sp
Note: giving \fBuser@host:/./path/to/repo\fP or \fBuser@host:/~/path/to/repo\fP or
\fBuser@host:/~other/path/to/repo\fP is also supported, but not required here.
.sp
\fBRemote repositories with relative pathes, alternative syntax with port\fP:
.sp
\fBssh://user@host:port/./path/to/repo\fP \- path relative to current directory
.sp
\fBssh://user@host:port/~/path/to/repo\fP \- path relative to user\(aqs home directory
.sp
\fBssh://user@host:port/~other/path/to/repo\fP \- path relative to other\(aqs home directory
.sp
If you frequently need the same repo URL, it is a good idea to set the
\fBBORG_REPO\fP environment variable to set a default for the repo URL:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
export BORG_REPO=\(aqssh://user@host:port/path/to/repo\(aq
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
Then just leave away the repo URL if only a repo URL is needed and you want
to use the default \- it will be read from BORG_REPO then.
.sp
Use \fB::\fP syntax to give the repo URL when syntax requires giving a positional
argument for the repo (e.g. \fBborg mount :: /mnt\fP).
.SS Repository / Archive Locations
.sp
Many commands want either a repository (just give the repo URL, see above) or
an archive location, which is a repo URL followed by \fB::archive_name\fP\&.
.sp
Archive names must not contain the \fB/\fP (slash) character. For simplicity,
maybe also avoid blanks or other characters that have special meaning on the
shell or in a filesystem (borg mount will use the archive name as directory
name).
.sp
If you have set BORG_REPO (see above) and an archive location is needed, use
\fB::archive_name\fP \- the repo URL part is then read from BORG_REPO.
.SS Type of log output
.sp
The log level of the builtin logging configuration defaults to WARNING.
This is because we want Borg to be mostly silent and only output
warnings, errors and critical messages, unless output has been requested
by supplying an option that implies output (eg, \-\-list or \-\-progress).
.sp
Log levels: DEBUG < INFO < WARNING < ERROR < CRITICAL
.sp
Use \fB\-\-debug\fP to set DEBUG log level \-
to get debug, info, warning, error and critical level output.
.sp
Use \fB\-\-info\fP (or \fB\-v\fP or \fB\-\-verbose\fP) to set INFO log level \-
to get info, warning, error and critical level output.
.sp
Use \fB\-\-warning\fP (default) to set WARNING log level \-
to get warning, error and critical level output.
.sp
Use \fB\-\-error\fP to set ERROR log level \-
to get error and critical level output.
.sp
Use \fB\-\-critical\fP to set CRITICAL log level \-
to get critical level output.
.sp
While you can set misc. log levels, do not expect that every command will
give different output on different log levels \- it\(aqs just a possibility.
.sp
\fBWARNING:\fP
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
Options \-\-critical and \-\-error are provided for completeness,
their usage is not recommended as you might miss important information.
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.SS Return codes
.sp
Borg can exit with the following return codes (rc):
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
0 = success (logged as INFO)
1 = warning (operation reached its normal end, but there were warnings \-
    you should check the log, logged as WARNING)
2 = error (like a fatal error, a local or remote exception, the operation
    did not reach its normal end, logged as ERROR)
128+N = killed by signal N (e.g. 137 == kill \-9)
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
If you use \fB\-\-show\-rc\fP, the return code is also logged at the indicated
level as the last log entry.
.SS Environment Variables
.sp
Borg uses some environment variables for automation:
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B General:
.INDENT 7.0
.TP
.B BORG_REPO
When set, use the value to give the default repository location. If a command needs an archive
parameter, you can abbreviate as \fI::archive\fP\&. If a command needs a repository parameter, you
can either leave it away or abbreviate as \fI::\fP, if a positional parameter is required.
.TP
.B BORG_PASSPHRASE
When set, use the value to answer the passphrase question for encrypted repositories.
It is used when a passphrase is needed to access a encrypted repo as well as when a new
passphrase should be initially set when initializing an encrypted repo.
See also BORG_NEW_PASSPHRASE.
.TP
.B BORG_NEW_PASSPHRASE
When set, use the value to answer the passphrase question when a \fBnew\fP passphrase is asked for.
This variable is checked first. If it is not set, BORG_PASSPHRASE will be checked also.
Main usecase for this is to fully automate \fBborg change\-passphrase\fP\&.
.TP
.B BORG_DISPLAY_PASSPHRASE
When set, use the value to answer the "display the passphrase for verification" question when defining a new passphrase for encrypted repositories.
.TP
.B BORG_HOSTNAME_IS_UNIQUE=no
Borg assumes that it can derive a unique hostname / identity (see \fBborg debug info\fP).
If this is not the case or you do not want Borg to automatically remove stale locks,
set this to \fIno\fP\&.
.TP
.B BORG_LOGGING_CONF
When set, use the given filename as \fI\%INI\fP\-style logging configuration.
.TP
.B BORG_RSH
When set, use this command instead of \fBssh\fP\&. This can be used to specify ssh options, such as
a custom identity file \fBssh \-i /path/to/private/key\fP\&. See \fBman ssh\fP for other options.
.TP
.B BORG_REMOTE_PATH
When set, use the given path as borg executable on the remote (defaults to "borg" if unset).
Using \fB\-\-remote\-path PATH\fP commandline option overrides the environment variable.
.TP
.B BORG_FILES_CACHE_TTL
When set to a numeric value, this determines the maximum "time to live" for the files cache
entries (default: 20). The files cache is used to quickly determine whether a file is unchanged.
The FAQ explains this more detailed in: \fIalways_chunking\fP
.TP
.B TMPDIR
where temporary files are stored (might need a lot of temporary space for some operations)
.UNINDENT
.TP
.B Some automatic "answerers" (if set, they automatically answer confirmation questions):
.INDENT 7.0
.TP
.B BORG_UNKNOWN_UNENCRYPTED_REPO_ACCESS_IS_OK=no (or =yes)
For "Warning: Attempting to access a previously unknown unencrypted repository"
.TP
.B BORG_RELOCATED_REPO_ACCESS_IS_OK=no (or =yes)
For "Warning: The repository at location ... was previously located at ..."
.TP
.B BORG_CHECK_I_KNOW_WHAT_I_AM_DOING=NO (or =YES)
For "Warning: \(aqcheck \-\-repair\(aq is an experimental feature that might result in data loss."
.TP
.B BORG_DELETE_I_KNOW_WHAT_I_AM_DOING=NO (or =YES)
For "You requested to completely DELETE the repository \fIincluding\fP all archives it contains:"
.TP
.B BORG_RECREATE_I_KNOW_WHAT_I_AM_DOING=NO (or =YES)
For "recreate is an experimental feature."
.UNINDENT
.sp
Note: answers are case sensitive. setting an invalid answer value might either give the default
answer or ask you interactively, depending on whether retries are allowed (they by default are
allowed). So please test your scripts interactively before making them a non\-interactive script.
.TP
.B Directories and files:
.INDENT 7.0
.TP
.B BORG_KEYS_DIR
Default to \(aq~/.config/borg/keys\(aq. This directory contains keys for encrypted repositories.
.TP
.B BORG_KEY_FILE
When set, use the given filename as repository key file.
.TP
.B BORG_SECURITY_DIR
Default to \(aq~/.config/borg/security\(aq. This directory contains information borg uses to
track its usage of NONCES ("numbers used once" \- usually in encryption context) and other
security relevant data.
.TP
.B BORG_CACHE_DIR
Default to \(aq~/.cache/borg\(aq. This directory contains the local cache and might need a lot
of space for dealing with big repositories).
.UNINDENT
.TP
.B Building:
.INDENT 7.0
.TP
.B BORG_OPENSSL_PREFIX
Adds given OpenSSL header file directory to the default locations (setup.py).
.TP
.B BORG_LZ4_PREFIX
Adds given LZ4 header file directory to the default locations (setup.py).
.TP
.B BORG_LIBB2_PREFIX
Adds given prefix directory to the default locations. If a \(aqinclude/blake2.h\(aq is found Borg
will be linked against the system libb2 instead of a bundled implementation. (setup.py)
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
Please note:
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
be very careful when using the "yes" sayers, the warnings with prompt exist for your / your data\(aqs security/safety
.IP \(bu 2
also be very careful when putting your passphrase into a script, make sure it has appropriate file permissions
(e.g. mode 600, root:root).
.UNINDENT
.SS File systems
.sp
We strongly recommend against using Borg (or any other database\-like
software) on non\-journaling file systems like FAT, since it is not
possible to assume any consistency in case of power failures (or a
sudden disconnect of an external drive or similar failures).
.sp
While Borg uses a data store that is resilient against these failures
when used on journaling file systems, it is not possible to guarantee
this with some hardware \-\- independent of the software used. We don\(aqt
know a list of affected hardware.
.sp
If you are suspicious whether your Borg repository is still consistent
and readable after one of the failures mentioned above occured, run
\fBborg check \-\-verify\-data\fP to make sure it is consistent.
.SS Units
.sp
To display quantities, Borg takes care of respecting the
usual conventions of scale. Disk sizes are displayed in \fI\%decimal\fP, using powers of ten (so
\fBkB\fP means 1000 bytes). For memory usage, \fI\%binary prefixes\fP are used, and are
indicated using the \fI\%IEC binary prefixes\fP,
using powers of two (so \fBKiB\fP means 1024 bytes).
.SS Date and Time
.sp
We format date and time conforming to ISO\-8601, that is: YYYY\-MM\-DD and
HH:MM:SS (24h clock).
.sp
For more information about that, see: \fI\%https://xkcd.com/1179/\fP
.sp
Unless otherwise noted, we display local date and time.
Internally, we store and process date and time as UTC.
.SS Resource Usage
.sp
Borg might use a lot of resources depending on the size of the data set it is dealing with.
.sp
If one uses Borg in a client/server way (with a ssh: repository),
the resource usage occurs in part on the client and in another part on the
server.
.sp
If one uses Borg as a single process (with a filesystem repo),
all the resource usage occurs in that one process, so just add up client +
server to get the approximate resource usage.
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B CPU client:
borg create: does chunking, hashing, compression, crypto (high CPU usage)
chunks cache sync: quite heavy on CPU, doing lots of hashtable operations.
borg extract: crypto, decompression (medium to high CPU usage)
borg check: similar to extract, but depends on options given.
borg prune / borg delete archive: low to medium CPU usage
borg delete repo: done on the server
It won\(aqt go beyond 100% of 1 core as the code is currently single\-threaded.
Especially higher zlib and lzma compression levels use significant amounts
of CPU cycles. Crypto might be cheap on the CPU (if hardware accelerated) or
expensive (if not).
.TP
.B CPU server:
It usually doesn\(aqt need much CPU, it just deals with the key/value store
(repository) and uses the repository index for that.
.sp
borg check: the repository check computes the checksums of all chunks
(medium CPU usage)
borg delete repo: low CPU usage
.TP
.B CPU (only for client/server operation):
When using borg in a client/server way with a \fI\%ssh:\-type\fP repo, the ssh
processes used for the transport layer will need some CPU on the client and
on the server due to the crypto they are doing \- esp. if you are pumping
big amounts of data.
.TP
.B Memory (RAM) client:
The chunks index and the files index are read into memory for performance
reasons. Might need big amounts of memory (see below).
Compression, esp. lzma compression with high levels might need substantial
amounts of memory.
.TP
.B Memory (RAM) server:
The server process will load the repository index into memory. Might need
considerable amounts of memory, but less than on the client (see below).
.TP
.B Chunks index (client only):
Proportional to the amount of data chunks in your repo. Lots of chunks
in your repo imply a big chunks index.
It is possible to tweak the chunker params (see create options).
.TP
.B Files index (client only):
Proportional to the amount of files in your last backups. Can be switched
off (see create options), but next backup might be much slower if you do.
The speed benefit of using the files cache is proportional to file size.
.TP
.B Repository index (server only):
Proportional to the amount of data chunks in your repo. Lots of chunks
in your repo imply a big repository index.
It is possible to tweak the chunker params (see create options) to
influence the amount of chunks being created.
.TP
.B Temporary files (client):
Reading data and metadata from a FUSE mounted repository will consume up to
the size of all deduplicated, small chunks in the repository. Big chunks
won\(aqt be locally cached.
.TP
.B Temporary files (server):
None.
.TP
.B Cache files (client only):
Contains the chunks index and files index (plus a collection of single\-
archive chunk indexes which might need huge amounts of disk space,
depending on archive count and size \- see FAQ about how to reduce).
.TP
.B Network (only for client/server operation):
If your repository is remote, all deduplicated (and optionally compressed/
encrypted) data of course has to go over the connection (ssh: repo url).
If you use a locally mounted network filesystem, additionally some copy
operations used for transaction support also go over the connection. If
you backup multiple sources to one target repository, additional traffic
happens for cache resynchronization.
.UNINDENT
.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
\fIborg\-common(1)\fP for common command line options
.sp
\fIborg\-init(1)\fP,
\fIborg\-create(1)\fP, \fIborg\-mount(1)\fP, \fIborg\-extract(1)\fP,
\fIborg\-list(1)\fP, \fIborg\-info(1)\fP,
\fIborg\-delete(1)\fP, \fIborg\-prune(1)\fP,
\fIborg\-recreate(1)\fP
.sp
\fIborg\-compression(1)\fP, \fIborg\-patterns(1)\fP, \fIborg\-placeholders(1)\fP
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
Main web site \fI\%https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/\fP
.IP \(bu 2
Releases \fI\%https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/releases\fP
.IP \(bu 2
Changelog \fI\%https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/blob/master/docs/changes.rst\fP
.IP \(bu 2
GitHub \fI\%https://github.com/borgbackup/borg\fP
.IP \(bu 2
Security contact \fI\%https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/latest/support.html#security\-contact\fP
.UNINDENT
.SH AUTHOR
The Borg Collective
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