Borg

description: Backup Commandline tool

lang: ENG

Recurrent flags

  • --dry-run can be used to see the effect of the command.
  • --list allows to list concerned files.
  • --stats gives some statistics about the archives.

Init a borg repository

# Generate a strong passphrase
openssl rand -base64 50 > "/path/to/passphrase"

# Export command to retrieve PASSPHRASE
export BORG_PASSCOMMAND="cat /path/to/passphrase"

# Init a borg repository in a specific location
borg init --encryption=repokey /path/to/borg/repo
  • --encryption=repokey means with store the key with the borg repository. Without it, you can't restore your data.

Create an archive

# Export command to retrieve PASSPHRASE
export BORG_PASSCOMMAND="cat /path/to/passphrase"

borg create "/path/to/borg/repo"::backup_name [FILES TO BACKUP]
  • --stats can be used to display information while backing up data.
  • backup_name can use {hostname} to include the name of the host in the name.

Prune archives

# Export command to retrieve PASSPHRASE
export BORG_PASSCOMMAND="cat /path/to/passphrase"

borg prune --keep-daily=7 --keep-monthly=4 "/path/to/borg/repo"
  • --keep-X: they can be combined to keep daily and monthly backup. In the example above it keeps archives from the last 7 days plus 1 archive for each month is the last 4 months.
    • --keep-daily=N: keeps N daily archives
    • --keep-monthly=N: keeps N monthly archive
    • --keep-yearly=N: remove archive older than N years
  • --stats: displays stats

Compact data

# Export command to retrieve PASSPHRASE
export BORG_PASSCOMMAND="cat /path/to/passphrase"

borg compact "/path/to/borg/repo"

List archives

# Export command to retrieve PASSPHRASE
export BORG_PASSCOMMAND="cat /path/to/passphrase"

borg list "/path/to/borg/repo"

Extract archive

borg extract -v --list "/path/to/borg/repo"::backup_name [archive_repo_paths]
  • -v is for verbose mode.
  • --list allows to display files taken into account.
  • [archive_repo_paths] is a list of path separated by space to only restore specific paths. If it's absent, it restores all of them.

Delete archive

# Export command to retrieve PASSPHRASE
export BORG_PASSCOMMAND="cat /path/to/passphrase"

borg delete --list "/path/to/borg/repo"::backup_name
  • --list allows to display files taken into account.