borg-backup.sh

A simple shell script for driving Borg Backup.

Usage

Make a borg-backup.conf from the provided template, e.g:

## Read from /etc/borg-backup.conf by default.
## Override by passing in CONFIG=/path/to.conf in the environment.
##
## This file is sourced by the shell.

###############################################################################
## Mandatory: Target destination for backups. Directory must exist.
##
TARGET=backup@fancy-backup-server:/backups/${HOSTNAME}

###############################################################################
## Mandatory: A passphrase to derive an encryption key from.
##
## Be wary of permissions on this file.
##
PASSPHRASE='ambiguous antelope capacitor paperclip'

###############################################################################
## Optional: Compression
##
## zlib is default, and is a good compromise between space and speed
## lz4 is somewhat weak, but very fast - a good choice for local backups or systems
## with fast links and slow CPUs.
##
COMPRESSION=lz4

###############################################################################
## Optional: Global prune configuration
##
PRUNE='-H 24 -d 14 -w 8 -m 6'

###############################################################################
## Mandatory: Backup name list
##
BACKUPS='homes etc'

###############################################################################
## Mandatory: Backup configuration.
##
## One per backup name. Any borg create argument other than archive name is valid.
##
BACKUP_homes='/home/freaky -e /home/freaky/Maildir/mutt-cache'
BACKUP_etc='/etc /usr/local/etc'

###############################################################################
## Optional: Per-backup prune configuration.
##
## These override the global configuration for individual backups.
#
PRUNE_etc='--keep-hourly=72 --keep-daily=365'

This will produce two independent Borg archives. If using a remote host over SSH, consider locking down the public key, and using append-only mode to limit the damage a compromised client can cause.

Initialize repositories:

$ borg-backup.sh init

And create your initial snapshots:

$ borg-backup.sh create

Any time you want to make a new backup, re-run the create command. Borg will create a new snapshot, adding only new data.

To list archives:

$ borg-backup.sh list

And to extract - in this case, /etc/rc.conf from the etc backup etc-2017-02-21T20:00Z:

$ borg-backup.sh extract etc ::etc-2017-02-21T20:00Z etc/rc.conf --stdout

To prune old backups:

$ borg-backup.sh prune

Note if you set the server to append-only mode, this will only mark data for deletion, it will not free space.

To verify the repository and all archive metadata:

$ borg-backup.sh check

Or the repository and the last archive:

$ borg-backup.sh quickcheck

Or only the repository (a purely server-side check):

$ borg-backup.sh repocheck

For any Borg operation not covered explicitly, borg-backup.sh provides a borg subcommand, which passes through the argument list to borg, having set up the environment for the given repository. Refer to the Borg documentation for detailed usage instructions.

Alternatives

If you want something a bit fancier, borgmatic is worth a look.