duplicacy-scripts

This is a set of scripts that can be used to manage running Duplicacy(GitHub) on Unix systems. They were developed and tested under Linux but should work in any environment that complies with POSIX except Windows (see note below).

Notes

Release 1.3: The duplicacy binary that was manually installed in the top-level directory per the instructions from earlier versions is no longer used and may be removed.

These scripts download and use the Duplicacy binary from Gilbert Chen's release page on GitHub. The license for Duplicacy imposes some restrictions on its use. Please abide by them.

Limitations in the current implementation of Duplicacy and the fact that Windows does not handle symbolic linking in a POSIX-like way makes these scripts unsuitable for that environment.

Prerequisites

Your system must have the following installed:

• A POSIX-compliant environment
• cURL
• GNU Make
• jq

Installation

To install this package on your system:

Clone this repository: git clone https://github.com/markfeit/duplicacy-scripts.git

cd duplicacy-scripts

Select a location where duplicacy-scripts, the Duplicacy configuration, its cache and log files will be kept. This location will be referred to as $DEST. The default is /opt/duplicacy.

Select the location which will form the root of the volume(s) to be backed up. This will be referred to as $ROOT. The default is /, which is suitable for most systems. (Specific parts of the filesystem may be included or excluded using Duplicacy's filter mechanism.)

Become root and execute:

• make install to install using the defaults
• make DEST=$DEST ROOT=$ROOT install to install using other directories.

Installation may be done as any other user, but be aware that this will limit the set of files backed up to those the user can read. In addition to installing these scripts, a .duplicacy file will be placed in $ROOT.

Set up Duplicacy by placing a preferences and optional filter file in $DEST/prefs Samples are provided in the prefs directory of the sources. These files are not installed by default.

Set up the scripts by editing $DEST/etc/settings. Note that if CONFIG_AUTO_UPDATE is enabled:

• Any changes in the original GitHub repository will be applied to $DEST/etc/settings-update rather than overwriting settings.

• The Duplicacy binary will be updated as new releases happen. Any breaking changes in that will be breaking changes here as well.

At this point, backups and maintenance will be done automatically by cron.

Backups

Backups are run at 00:45 local time each morning. If there is another backup running (common when there is a long initial backup running), the newer backup will be aborted.

Logs of what happens during each backup and other matinenance activities are stored in $DEST/var/log. The latest logs or those for a specific date can be retrieved and read with $DEST/bin/logs.

Restoring Files

To restore files, execute $DEST/bin/restore. Detailed help may be obtained with the --help switch.

Maintenance

Daily (03:00):

• Prune old snapshots according to the rules in etc/prune.
• Remove old log files per CONFIG_LOG_LIFE in settings.
• Remove old cache files per CONFIG_CACHE_LIFE in settings.
• Pull and update the software (if enabled in $DEST/etc/settings).

Weekly (Sunday at 03:15):

• Fossilize and remove chunks that are no longer referenced.

• Check integrity. This verifies that all chunks that should be present and attempts to resurrect missing chunks from fossils if possible. There is no attempt to download and verify the contents of the chunks. (Not implemented yet.)

Monthly (First Sunday at 03:30):

• Nothing yet.