1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
|
.. IMPORTANT: this file is auto-generated from borg's built-in help, do not edit!
.. _borg_create:
borg create
-----------
.. code-block:: none
borg [common options] create [options] NAME [PATH...]
.. only:: html
.. class:: borg-options-table
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **positional arguments** |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``NAME`` | specify the archive name |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``PATH`` | paths to archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **options** |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``-n``, ``--dry-run`` | do not create a backup archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``-s``, ``--stats`` | print statistics for the created archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--list`` | output a verbose list of items (files, dirs, ...) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--filter STATUSCHARS`` | only display items with the given status characters (see description) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--json`` | output stats as JSON. Implies ``--stats``. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--stdin-name NAME`` | use NAME in archive for stdin data (default: 'stdin') |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--stdin-user USER`` | set user USER in archive for stdin data (default: do not store user/uid) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--stdin-group GROUP`` | set group GROUP in archive for stdin data (default: do not store group/gid) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--stdin-mode M`` | set mode to M in archive for stdin data (default: 0660) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--content-from-command`` | interpret PATH as a command and store its stdout. See also the section 'Reading from stdin' below. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--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. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--paths-from-command`` | interpret PATH as command and treat its output as ``--paths-from-stdin`` |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--paths-delimiter DELIM`` | set path delimiter for ``--paths-from-stdin`` and ``--paths-from-command`` (default: ``\n``) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| .. class:: borg-common-opt-ref |
| |
| :ref:`common_options` |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **Include/Exclude options** |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``-e PATTERN``, ``--exclude PATTERN`` | exclude paths matching PATTERN |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--exclude-from EXCLUDEFILE`` | read exclude patterns from EXCLUDEFILE, one per line |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--pattern PATTERN`` | include/exclude paths matching PATTERN |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--patterns-from PATTERNFILE`` | read include/exclude patterns from PATTERNFILE, one per line |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--exclude-caches`` | exclude directories that contain a CACHEDIR.TAG file (http://www.bford.info/cachedir/spec.html) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--exclude-if-present NAME`` | exclude directories that are tagged by containing a filesystem object with the given NAME |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--keep-exclude-tags`` | if tag objects are specified with ``--exclude-if-present``, do not omit the tag objects themselves from the backup archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **Filesystem options** |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``-x``, ``--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. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--numeric-ids`` | only store numeric user and group identifiers |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--atime`` | do store atime into archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--noctime`` | do not store ctime into archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--nobirthtime`` | do not store birthtime (creation date) into archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--noflags`` | do not read and store flags (e.g. NODUMP, IMMUTABLE) into archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--noacls`` | do not read and store ACLs into archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--noxattrs`` | do not read and store xattrs into archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--sparse`` | detect sparse holes in input (supported only by fixed chunker) |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--files-cache MODE`` | operate files cache in MODE. default: ctime,size,inode |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--files-changed MODE`` | specify how to detect if a file has changed during backup (ctime, mtime, disabled). default: ctime |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--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. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **Archive options** |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--comment COMMENT`` | add a comment text to the archive |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--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. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``--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 |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| | ``-C COMPRESSION``, ``--compression COMPRESSION`` | select compression algorithm, see the output of the "borg help compression" command for details. |
+-------------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
.. raw:: html
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).ready(function () {
$('.borg-options-table colgroup').remove();
})
</script>
.. only:: latex
NAME
specify the archive name
PATH
paths to archive
options
-n, --dry-run do not create a backup archive
-s, --stats print statistics for the created archive
--list output a verbose list of items (files, dirs, ...)
--filter STATUSCHARS only display items with the given status characters (see description)
--json output stats as JSON. Implies ``--stats``.
--stdin-name NAME use NAME in archive for stdin data (default: 'stdin')
--stdin-user USER set user USER in archive for stdin data (default: do not store user/uid)
--stdin-group GROUP set group GROUP in archive for stdin data (default: do not store group/gid)
--stdin-mode M set mode to M in archive for stdin data (default: 0660)
--content-from-command interpret PATH as a command and store its stdout. See also the section 'Reading from stdin' below.
--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.
--paths-from-command interpret PATH as command and treat its output as ``--paths-from-stdin``
--paths-delimiter DELIM set path delimiter for ``--paths-from-stdin`` and ``--paths-from-command`` (default: ``\n``)
:ref:`common_options`
|
Include/Exclude options
-e PATTERN, --exclude PATTERN exclude paths matching PATTERN
--exclude-from EXCLUDEFILE read exclude patterns from EXCLUDEFILE, one per line
--pattern PATTERN include/exclude paths matching PATTERN
--patterns-from PATTERNFILE read include/exclude patterns from PATTERNFILE, one per line
--exclude-caches exclude directories that contain a CACHEDIR.TAG file (http://www.bford.info/cachedir/spec.html)
--exclude-if-present NAME exclude directories that are tagged by containing a filesystem object with the given NAME
--keep-exclude-tags if tag objects are specified with ``--exclude-if-present``, do not omit the tag objects themselves from the backup archive
Filesystem options
-x, --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.
--numeric-ids only store numeric user and group identifiers
--atime do store atime into archive
--noctime do not store ctime into archive
--nobirthtime do not store birthtime (creation date) into archive
--noflags do not read and store flags (e.g. NODUMP, IMMUTABLE) into archive
--noacls do not read and store ACLs into archive
--noxattrs do not read and store xattrs into archive
--sparse detect sparse holes in input (supported only by fixed chunker)
--files-cache MODE operate files cache in MODE. default: ctime,size,inode
--files-changed MODE specify how to detect if a file has changed during backup (ctime, mtime, disabled). default: ctime
--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.
Archive options
--comment COMMENT add a comment text to the archive
--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.
--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
-C COMPRESSION, --compression COMPRESSION select compression algorithm, see the output of the "borg help compression" command for details.
Description
~~~~~~~~~~~
This command creates a backup archive containing all files found while recursively
traversing all specified paths. Paths are added to the archive as they are given,
which means that if relative paths are desired, the command must be run from the correct
directory.
The slashdot hack in paths (recursion roots) is triggered by using ``/./``:
``/this/gets/stripped/./this/gets/archived`` means to process that fs object, but
strip the prefix on the left side of ``./`` from the archived items (in this case,
``this/gets/archived`` will be the path in the archived item).
When specifying '-' as a path, borg will read data from standard input and create a
file named 'stdin' in the created archive from that data. In some cases, it is more
appropriate to use --content-from-command. See the section *Reading from stdin*
below for details.
The archive will consume almost no disk space for files or parts of files that
have already been stored in other archives.
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.
In the archive name, you may use the following placeholders:
{now}, {utcnow}, {fqdn}, {hostname}, {user} and some others.
Backup speed is increased by not reprocessing files that are already part of
existing archives and were not modified. The detection of unmodified files is
done by comparing multiple file metadata values with previous values kept in
the files cache.
This comparison can operate in different modes as given by ``--files-cache``:
- ctime,size,inode (default)
- mtime,size,inode (default behaviour of borg versions older than 1.1.0rc4)
- ctime,size (ignore the inode number)
- mtime,size (ignore the inode number)
- rechunk,ctime (all files are considered modified - rechunk, cache ctime)
- rechunk,mtime (all files are considered modified - rechunk, cache mtime)
- disabled (disable the files cache, all files considered modified - rechunk)
inode number: better safety, but often unstable on network filesystems
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 `inode` in this case to
improve performance, but reliability of change detection might be reduced.
ctime vs. mtime: safety vs. speed
- ctime is a rather safe way to detect changes to a file (metadata and contents)
as it cannot 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.
- 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.
The ``--files-changed`` option controls how Borg detects if a file has changed during backup:
- ctime (default): Use ctime to detect changes. This is the safest option.
- mtime: Use mtime to detect changes.
- disabled: Disable the "file has changed while we backed it up" detection completely.
This is not recommended unless you know what you're doing, as it could lead to
inconsistent backups if files change during the backup process.
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.
The ``--progress`` 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.
When using ``--stats``, you will get some statistics about how much data was
added - the "This Archive" deduplicated size there is most interesting as that is
how much your repository will grow. Please note that the "All archives" stats refer to
the state after creation. Also, the ``--stats`` and ``--dry-run`` options are mutually
exclusive because the data is not actually compressed and deduplicated during a dry run.
For more help on include/exclude patterns, see the :ref:`borg_patterns` command output.
For more help on placeholders, see the :ref:`borg_placeholders` command output.
.. man NOTES
The ``--exclude`` patterns are not like tar. In tar ``--exclude`` .bundler/gems will
exclude foo/.bundler/gems. In borg it will not, you need to use ``--exclude``
'\*/.bundler/gems' to get the same effect.
In addition to using ``--exclude`` patterns, it is possible to use
``--exclude-if-present`` 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 ``--exclude-if-present`` in your backup,
and not include any other contents of the containing folder, this can be enabled
through using the ``--keep-exclude-tags`` option.
The ``-x`` or ``--one-file-system`` option excludes directories, that are mountpoints (and everything in them).
It detects mountpoints by comparing the device number from the output of ``stat()`` of the directory and its
parent directory. Specifically, it excludes directories for which ``stat()`` 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 ``--one-file-system``, you should double-check that the backup works as intended.
.. _list_item_flags:
Item flags
++++++++++
``--list`` 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.
If you are interested only in a subset of that output, you can give e.g.
``--filter=AME`` and it will only show regular files with A, M or E status (see
below).
A uppercase character represents the status of a regular file relative to the
"files" 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 'A' and 'M' also new data
chunks are stored. For 'U' all data chunks refer to already existing chunks.
- 'A' = regular file, added (see also :ref:`a_status_oddity` in the FAQ)
- 'M' = regular file, modified
- 'U' = regular file, unchanged
- 'C' = regular file, it changed while we backed it up
- 'E' = regular file, an error happened while accessing/reading *this* file
A lowercase character means a file type other than a regular file,
borg usually just stores their metadata:
- 'd' = directory
- 'b' = block device
- 'c' = char device
- 'h' = regular file, hard link (to already seen inodes)
- 's' = symlink
- 'f' = fifo
Other flags used include:
- '+' = included, item would be backed up (if not in dry-run mode)
- '-' = excluded, item would not be / was not backed up
- 'i' = backup data was read from standard input (stdin)
- '?' = missing status code (if you see this, please file a bug report!)
Reading backup data from stdin
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There are two methods to read from stdin. Either specify ``-`` as path and
pipe directly to borg::
backup-vm --id myvm --stdout | borg create --repo REPO ARCHIVE -
Or use ``--content-from-command`` 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::
borg create --content-from-command --repo REPO ARCHIVE -- backup-vm --id myvm --stdout
``--`` is used to ensure ``--id`` and ``--stdout`` are **not** considered
arguments to ``borg`` but rather ``backup-vm``.
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,
**one can end up with truncated output being backed up**. Using
``--content-from-command``, 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.
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 ``--files-cache disabled`` and speed up backup
creation a bit.
By default, the content read from stdin is stored in a file called 'stdin'.
Use ``--stdin-name`` to change the name.
Feeding all file paths from externally
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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).
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
``--paths-from-stdin`` or ``--paths-from-command`` (with the latter, borg will
fail to create an archive should the command fail).
Borg supports paths with the slashdot hack to strip path prefixes here also.
So, be careful not to unintentionally trigger that.
|
