Borger

A script for home folder backups using Borg.

Features

Multiple destinations using config files.
Automatically initializes repository in the remote destination.
Automatically pruning of old backups.

Usage

Create a config for your servername destination at ~/.config/borger/servername:

# Backup destination
export SSH_SERVER="user@host"
export SSH_PORT="2202"

# Repository path
export BORG_REPO_DIR="/var/backups/users/$USER/borg"
export BORG_REPO="ssh://$SSH_SERVER:$SSH_PORT/$BORG_REPO_DIR"

# Setting one of those, so you won't be asked for your repository passphrase:
#export BORG_PASSPHRASE='HACKME'
#export BORG_PASSCOMMAND='pass show backup'
#export BORG_PASSCOMMAND='keyringer default decrypt borg 2> /dev/null'

Then run borger:

borger servername

If you want to backup to local folder or a locally-mounted USB disk, use the following config at ~/.config/borger/my-disk:

# Repository path
export BORG_REPO="/media/my-disk/backups/users/$USER/borg"

# Setting one of those, so you won't be asked for your repository passphrase:
#export BORG_PASSPHRASE='HACKME'
#export BORG_PASSCOMMAND='pass show backup'
#export BORG_PASSCOMMAND='keyringer default decrypt borg 2> /dev/null'

Then run borger normally:

borger my-disk

Note that BORGER_REPO param assumes that the path is available. If this path represents a mountpoint for an external drive then you should mount it manually.

Optional config

These include:

# Optional backup config
export KEEPDAILY="7"         # how many days   to keep
export KEEPWEEKLY="4"        # how many weeks  to keep
export KEEPMONTHLY="6"       # how many months to keep
export ENCRYPTION="keyfile"  # encryption strategy, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS
export PLACEHOLDER="{user}"  # placeholder to tag archives
export INTERVAL="1h"         # interval between backups in the continuous mode

Continuous backups

If you want to run your backups continuously, use

borger servername --continuous

By default borger waits 1h before starting the new backup procedure which can be adjusted using the INTERVAL config variable. See this issue for a discussion on continuous backups.

Listing your backups

As simply as

borger servername --list
borger mydisk     --list

Multiple configuration profiles

You can process multiple backup destinations in the same command by placing each configuration in a subfolder of ~/.config/borger, like ~/.config/borger/default/servername and ~/.config/borger/default/mydisk and invoking both using commands like

borger default
borger default --list
borger default --continuous

Each config could even be a symbolic links to other configs, so you can build different backup profiles for different situations, eg. when your laptop is at home, office or if you're backing up to multiple external drives at the same time.

WARNING

Borger uses keyfile encrytion by default. That means you should backup your keyfile somewhere else. If you don't want that, use encryption="repokey" at your config.

See Repository Encryption for details.

Known issues

Borger needs a better lock/session management to prevent errors like

Failed to create/acquire the lock (timeout)