borg/docs/man/borg-create.1

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.TH "BORG-CREATE" "1" "2025-08-02" "" "borg backup tool"
.SH NAME
borg-create \- Create new archive
.SH SYNOPSIS
.sp
borg [common options] create [options] NAME [PATH...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
This command creates a backup archive containing all files found while recursively
traversing all paths specified. Paths are added to the archive as they are given,
that means if relative paths are desired, the command has to be run from the correct
directory.
.sp
The slashdot hack in paths (recursion roots) is triggered by using \fB/./\fP:
\fB/this/gets/stripped/./this/gets/archived\fP means to process that fs object, but
strip the prefix on the left side of \fB\&./\fP from the archived items (in this case,
\fBthis/gets/archived\fP will be the path in the archived item).
.sp
When giving \(aq\-\(aq as path, borg will read data from standard input and create a
file \(aqstdin\(aq in the created archive from that data. In some cases it\(aqs more
appropriate to use \-\-content\-from\-command, however. See section \fIReading from
stdin\fP below for details.
.sp
The archive will consume almost no disk space for files or parts of files that
have already been stored in other archives.
.sp
The archive name does NOT need to be unique, you can and should use the same
name for a series of archives. The unique archive identifier is its ID (hash)
and you can abbreviate the ID as long as it is unique.
.sp
In the archive name, you may use the following placeholders:
{now}, {utcnow}, {fqdn}, {hostname}, {user} and some others.
.sp
Backup speed is increased by not reprocessing files that are already part of
existing archives and weren\(aqt modified. The detection of unmodified files is
done by comparing multiple file metadata values with previous values kept in
the files cache.
.sp
This comparison can operate in different modes as given by \fB\-\-files\-cache\fP:
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
ctime,size,inode (default)
.IP \(bu 2
mtime,size,inode (default behaviour of borg versions older than 1.1.0rc4)
.IP \(bu 2
ctime,size (ignore the inode number)
.IP \(bu 2
mtime,size (ignore the inode number)
.IP \(bu 2
rechunk,ctime (all files are considered modified \- rechunk, cache ctime)
.IP \(bu 2
rechunk,mtime (all files are considered modified \- rechunk, cache mtime)
.IP \(bu 2
disabled (disable the files cache, all files considered modified \- rechunk)
.UNINDENT
.sp
inode number: better safety, but often unstable on network filesystems
.sp
Normally, detecting file modifications will take inode information into
consideration to improve the reliability of file change detection.
This is problematic for files located on sshfs and similar network file
systems which do not provide stable inode numbers, such files will always
be considered modified. You can use modes without \fIinode\fP in this case to
improve performance, but reliability of change detection might be reduced.
.sp
ctime vs. mtime: safety vs. speed
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
ctime is a rather safe way to detect changes to a file (metadata and contents)
as it can not be set from userspace. But, a metadata\-only change will already
update the ctime, so there might be some unnecessary chunking/hashing even
without content changes. Some filesystems do not support ctime (change time).
E.g. doing a chown or chmod to a file will change its ctime.
.IP \(bu 2
mtime usually works and only updates if file contents were changed. But mtime
can be arbitrarily set from userspace, e.g. to set mtime back to the same value
it had before a content change happened. This can be used maliciously as well as
well\-meant, but in both cases mtime based cache modes can be problematic.
.UNINDENT
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B The \fB\-\-files\-changed\fP option controls how Borg detects if a file has changed during backup:
.INDENT 7.0
.IP \(bu 2
ctime (default): Use ctime to detect changes. This is the safest option.
.IP \(bu 2
mtime: Use mtime to detect changes.
.IP \(bu 2
disabled: Disable the \(dqfile has changed while we backed it up\(dq detection completely.
This is not recommended unless you know what you\(aqre doing, as it could lead to
inconsistent backups if files change during the backup process.
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
The mount points of filesystems or filesystem snapshots should be the same for every
creation of a new archive to ensure fast operation. This is because the file cache that
is used to determine changed files quickly uses absolute filenames.
If this is not possible, consider creating a bind mount to a stable location.
.sp
The \fB\-\-progress\fP option shows (from left to right) Original and (uncompressed)
deduplicated size (O and U respectively), then the Number of files (N) processed so far,
followed by the currently processed path.
.sp
When using \fB\-\-stats\fP, you will get some statistics about how much data was
added \- the \(dqThis Archive\(dq deduplicated size there is most interesting as that is
how much your repository will grow. Please note that the \(dqAll archives\(dq stats refer to
the state after creation. Also, the \fB\-\-stats\fP and \fB\-\-dry\-run\fP options are mutually
exclusive because the data is not actually compressed and deduplicated during a dry run.
.sp
For more help on include/exclude patterns, see the \fIborg_patterns\fP command output.
.sp
For more help on placeholders, see the \fIborg_placeholders\fP command output.
.SH OPTIONS
.sp
See \fIborg\-common(1)\fP for common options of Borg commands.
.SS arguments
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B NAME
specify the archive name
.TP
.B PATH
paths to archive
.UNINDENT
.SS options
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B  \-n\fP,\fB  \-\-dry\-run
do not create a backup archive
.TP
.B  \-s\fP,\fB  \-\-stats
print statistics for the created archive
.TP
.B  \-\-list
output verbose list of items (files, dirs, ...)
.TP
.BI \-\-filter \ STATUSCHARS
only display items with the given status characters (see description)
.TP
.B  \-\-json
output stats as JSON. Implies \fB\-\-stats\fP\&.
.TP
.BI \-\-stdin\-name \ NAME
use NAME in archive for stdin data (default: \(aqstdin\(aq)
.TP
.BI \-\-stdin\-user \ USER
set user USER in archive for stdin data (default: do not store user/uid)
.TP
.BI \-\-stdin\-group \ GROUP
set group GROUP in archive for stdin data (default: do not store group/gid)
.TP
.BI \-\-stdin\-mode \ M
set mode to M in archive for stdin data (default: 0660)
.TP
.B  \-\-content\-from\-command
interpret PATH as command and store its stdout. See also section Reading from stdin below.
.TP
.B  \-\-paths\-from\-stdin
read DELIM\-separated list of paths to back up from stdin. All control is external: it will back up all files given \- no more, no less.
.TP
.B  \-\-paths\-from\-command
interpret PATH as command and treat its output as \fB\-\-paths\-from\-stdin\fP
.TP
.BI \-\-paths\-delimiter \ DELIM
set path delimiter for \fB\-\-paths\-from\-stdin\fP and \fB\-\-paths\-from\-command\fP (default: \fB\en\fP)
.UNINDENT
.SS Include/Exclude options
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.BI \-e \ PATTERN\fR,\fB \ \-\-exclude \ PATTERN
exclude paths matching PATTERN
.TP
.BI \-\-exclude\-from \ EXCLUDEFILE
read exclude patterns from EXCLUDEFILE, one per line
.TP
.BI \-\-pattern \ PATTERN
include/exclude paths matching PATTERN
.TP
.BI \-\-patterns\-from \ PATTERNFILE
read include/exclude patterns from PATTERNFILE, one per line
.TP
.B  \-\-exclude\-caches
exclude directories that contain a CACHEDIR.TAG file ( <http://www.bford.info/cachedir/spec.html> )
.TP
.BI \-\-exclude\-if\-present \ NAME
exclude directories that are tagged by containing a filesystem object with the given NAME
.TP
.B  \-\-keep\-exclude\-tags
if tag objects are specified with \fB\-\-exclude\-if\-present\fP, don\(aqt omit the tag objects themselves from the backup archive
.UNINDENT
.SS Filesystem options
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B  \-x\fP,\fB  \-\-one\-file\-system
stay in the same file system and do not store mount points of other file systems \- this might behave different from your expectations, see the description below.
.TP
.B  \-\-numeric\-ids
only store numeric user and group identifiers
.TP
.B  \-\-atime
do store atime into archive
.TP
.B  \-\-noctime
do not store ctime into archive
.TP
.B  \-\-nobirthtime
do not store birthtime (creation date) into archive
.TP
.B  \-\-noflags
do not read and store flags (e.g. NODUMP, IMMUTABLE) into archive
.TP
.B  \-\-noacls
do not read and store ACLs into archive
.TP
.B  \-\-noxattrs
do not read and store xattrs into archive
.TP
.B  \-\-sparse
detect sparse holes in input (supported only by fixed chunker)
.TP
.BI \-\-files\-cache \ MODE
operate files cache in MODE. default: ctime,size,inode
.TP
.BI \-\-files\-changed \ MODE
specify how to detect if a file has changed during backup (ctime, mtime, disabled). default: ctime
.TP
.B  \-\-read\-special
open and read block and char device files as well as FIFOs as if they were regular files. Also follows symlinks pointing to these kinds of files.
.UNINDENT
.SS Archive options
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.BI \-\-comment \ COMMENT
add a comment text to the archive
.TP
.BI \-\-timestamp \ TIMESTAMP
manually specify the archive creation date/time (yyyy\-mm\-ddThh:mm:ss[(+|\-)HH:MM] format, (+|\-)HH:MM is the UTC offset, default: local time zone). Alternatively, give a reference file/directory.
.TP
.BI \-\-chunker\-params \ PARAMS
specify the chunker parameters (ALGO, CHUNK_MIN_EXP, CHUNK_MAX_EXP, HASH_MASK_BITS, HASH_WINDOW_SIZE). default: buzhash,19,23,21,4095
.TP
.BI \-C \ COMPRESSION\fR,\fB \ \-\-compression \ COMPRESSION
select compression algorithm, see the output of the \(dqborg help compression\(dq command for details.
.UNINDENT
.SH EXAMPLES
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
# Backup ~/Documents into an archive named \(dqmy\-documents\(dq
$ borg create my\-documents ~/Documents

# same, but list all files as we process them
$ borg create \-\-list my\-documents ~/Documents

# Backup /mnt/disk/docs, but strip path prefix using the slashdot hack
$ borg create \-\-repo /path/to/repo docs /mnt/disk/./docs

# Backup ~/Documents and ~/src but exclude pyc files
$ borg create my\-files                \e
    ~/Documents                       \e
    ~/src                             \e
    \-\-exclude \(aq*.pyc\(aq

# Backup home directories excluding image thumbnails (i.e. only
# /home/<one directory>/.thumbnails is excluded, not /home/*/*/.thumbnails etc.)
$ borg create my\-files /home \-\-exclude \(aqsh:home/*/.thumbnails\(aq

# Backup the root filesystem into an archive named \(dqroot\-archive\(dq
# use zlib compression (good, but slow) \- default is lz4 (fast, low compression ratio)
$ borg create \-C zlib,6 \-\-one\-file\-system root\-archive /

# Backup into an archive name like FQDN\-root
$ borg create \(aq{fqdn}\-root\(aq /

# Backup a remote host locally (\(dqpull\(dq style) using sshfs
$ mkdir sshfs\-mount
$ sshfs root@example.com:/ sshfs\-mount
$ cd sshfs\-mount
$ borg create example.com\-root .
$ cd ..
$ fusermount \-u sshfs\-mount

# Make a big effort in fine granular deduplication (big chunk management
# overhead, needs a lot of RAM and disk space, see formula in internals docs):
$ borg create \-\-chunker\-params buzhash,10,23,16,4095 small /smallstuff

# Backup a raw device (must not be active/in use/mounted at that time)
$ borg create \-\-read\-special \-\-chunker\-params fixed,4194304 my\-sdx /dev/sdX

# Backup a sparse disk image (must not be active/in use/mounted at that time)
$ borg create \-\-sparse \-\-chunker\-params fixed,4194304 my\-disk my\-disk.raw

# No compression (none)
$ borg create \-\-compression none arch ~

# Super fast, low compression (lz4, default)
$ borg create arch ~

# Less fast, higher compression (zlib, N = 0..9)
$ borg create \-\-compression zlib,N arch ~

# Even slower, even higher compression (lzma, N = 0..9)
$ borg create \-\-compression lzma,N arch ~

# Only compress compressible data with lzma,N (N = 0..9)
$ borg create \-\-compression auto,lzma,N arch ~

# Use short hostname and user name as archive name
$ borg create \(aq{hostname}\-{user}\(aq ~

# Backing up relative paths by moving into the correct directory first
$ cd /home/user/Documents
# The root directory of the archive will be \(dqprojectA\(dq
$ borg create \(aqdaily\-projectA\(aq projectA

# Use external command to determine files to archive
# Use \-\-paths\-from\-stdin with find to back up only files less than 1MB in size
$ find ~ \-size \-1000k | borg create \-\-paths\-from\-stdin small\-files\-only
# Use \-\-paths\-from\-command with find to back up files from only a given user
$ borg create \-\-paths\-from\-command joes\-files \-\- find /srv/samba/shared \-user joe
# Use \-\-paths\-from\-stdin with \-\-paths\-delimiter (for example, for filenames with newlines in them)
$ find ~ \-size \-1000k \-print0 | borg create \e
    \-\-paths\-from\-stdin \e
    \-\-paths\-delimiter \(dq\e0\(dq \e
    smallfiles\-handle\-newline
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.SH NOTES
.sp
The \fB\-\-exclude\fP patterns are not like tar. In tar \fB\-\-exclude\fP .bundler/gems will
exclude foo/.bundler/gems. In borg it will not, you need to use \fB\-\-exclude\fP
\(aq*/.bundler/gems\(aq to get the same effect.
.sp
In addition to using \fB\-\-exclude\fP patterns, it is possible to use
\fB\-\-exclude\-if\-present\fP to specify the name of a filesystem object (e.g. a file
or folder name) which, when contained within another folder, will prevent the
containing folder from being backed up.  By default, the containing folder and
all of its contents will be omitted from the backup.  If, however, you wish to
only include the objects specified by \fB\-\-exclude\-if\-present\fP in your backup,
and not include any other contents of the containing folder, this can be enabled
through using the \fB\-\-keep\-exclude\-tags\fP option.
.sp
The \fB\-x\fP or \fB\-\-one\-file\-system\fP option excludes directories, that are mountpoints (and everything in them).
It detects mountpoints by comparing the device number from the output of \fBstat()\fP of the directory and its
parent directory. Specifically, it excludes directories for which \fBstat()\fP reports a device number different
from the device number of their parent.
In general: be aware that there are directories with device number different from their parent, which the kernel
does not consider a mountpoint and also the other way around.
Linux examples for this are bind mounts (possibly same device number, but always a mountpoint) and ALL
subvolumes of a btrfs (different device number from parent but not necessarily a mountpoint).
macOS examples are the apfs mounts of a typical macOS installation.
Therefore, when using \fB\-\-one\-file\-system\fP, you should double\-check that the backup works as intended.
.SS Item flags
.sp
\fB\-\-list\fP outputs a list of all files, directories and other
file system items it considered (no matter whether they had content changes
or not). For each item, it prefixes a single\-letter flag that indicates type
and/or status of the item.
.sp
If you are interested only in a subset of that output, you can give e.g.
\fB\-\-filter=AME\fP and it will only show regular files with A, M or E status (see
below).
.sp
A uppercase character represents the status of a regular file relative to the
\(dqfiles\(dq cache (not relative to the repo \-\- this is an issue if the files cache
is not used). Metadata is stored in any case and for \(aqA\(aq and \(aqM\(aq also new data
chunks are stored. For \(aqU\(aq all data chunks refer to already existing chunks.
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqA\(aq = regular file, added (see also \fIa_status_oddity\fP in the FAQ)
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqM\(aq = regular file, modified
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqU\(aq = regular file, unchanged
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqC\(aq = regular file, it changed while we backed it up
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqE\(aq = regular file, an error happened while accessing/reading \fIthis\fP file
.UNINDENT
.sp
A lowercase character means a file type other than a regular file,
borg usually just stores their metadata:
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqd\(aq = directory
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqb\(aq = block device
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqc\(aq = char device
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqh\(aq = regular file, hardlink (to already seen inodes)
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqs\(aq = symlink
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqf\(aq = fifo
.UNINDENT
.sp
Other flags used include:
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
\(aq+\(aq = included, item would be backed up (if not in dry\-run mode)
.IP \(bu 2
\(aq\-\(aq = excluded, item would not be / was not backed up
.IP \(bu 2
\(aqi\(aq = backup data was read from standard input (stdin)
.IP \(bu 2
\(aq?\(aq = missing status code (if you see this, please file a bug report!)
.UNINDENT
.SS Reading backup data from stdin
.sp
There are two methods to read from stdin. Either specify \fB\-\fP as path and
pipe directly to borg:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
backup\-vm \-\-id myvm \-\-stdout | borg create \-\-repo REPO ARCHIVE \-
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
Or use \fB\-\-content\-from\-command\fP to have Borg manage the execution of the
command and piping. If you do so, the first PATH argument is interpreted
as command to execute and any further arguments are treated as arguments
to the command:
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.EX
borg create \-\-content\-from\-command \-\-repo REPO ARCHIVE \-\- backup\-vm \-\-id myvm \-\-stdout
.EE
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
\fB\-\-\fP is used to ensure \fB\-\-id\fP and \fB\-\-stdout\fP are \fBnot\fP considered
arguments to \fBborg\fP but rather \fBbackup\-vm\fP\&.
.sp
The difference between the two approaches is that piping to borg creates an
archive even if the command piping to borg exits with a failure. In this case,
\fBone can end up with truncated output being backed up\fP\&. Using
\fB\-\-content\-from\-command\fP, in contrast, borg is guaranteed to fail without
creating an archive should the command fail. The command is considered failed
when it returned a non\-zero exit code.
.sp
Reading from stdin yields just a stream of data without file metadata
associated with it, and the files cache is not needed at all. So it is
safe to disable it via \fB\-\-files\-cache disabled\fP and speed up backup
creation a bit.
.sp
By default, the content read from stdin is stored in a file called \(aqstdin\(aq.
Use \fB\-\-stdin\-name\fP to change the name.
.SS Feeding all file paths from externally
.sp
Usually, you give a starting path (recursion root) to borg and then borg
automatically recurses, finds and backs up all fs objects contained in
there (optionally considering include/exclude rules).
.sp
If you need more control and you want to give every single fs object path
to borg (maybe implementing your own recursion or your own rules), you can use
\fB\-\-paths\-from\-stdin\fP or \fB\-\-paths\-from\-command\fP (with the latter, borg will
fail to create an archive should the command fail).
.sp
Borg supports paths with the slashdot hack to strip path prefixes here also.
So, be careful not to unintentionally trigger that.
.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
\fIborg\-common(1)\fP, \fIborg\-delete(1)\fP, \fIborg\-prune(1)\fP, \fIborg\-check(1)\fP, \fIborg\-patterns(1)\fP, \fIborg\-placeholders(1)\fP, \fIborg\-compression(1)\fP, \fIborg\-repo\-create(1)\fP
.SH AUTHOR
The Borg Collective
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