Re: [Duplicity-talk] Simple multi-generation backup

[edgar . soldin]

hey Felix,

On 08.12.2022 08:10, Felix Natter via Duplicity-talk wrote:
> Dear duplicity community,
>
> I would like to set up a _simple_ multi-generation backup using duplicity
> to a cloud service:
>
> - target $CLOUD/daily/: backup once per day, keep last X
> - target $CLOUD/weekly/: backup once per week, keep last Y
> - target $CLOUD/monthly/: backup once per month, keep last Z
>
> My daily script (to be called by cron job) looks like this:
>
> duplicity --encrypt-key KEY --full-if-older-than 5D /repos $CLOUD/daily/
> duplicity --encrypt-key KEY remove-all-but-n-full 2 $CLOUD/daily/
>
> And my weekly cron job would call this:
>
> duplicity --encrypt-key KEY --full-if-older-than 3W /repos $CLOUD/weekly/
> duplicity --encrypt-key KEY remove-all-but-n-full 2 $CLOUD/weekly/
>
> and so on for the monthly backup.
>
> Q1: Is that a valid/good way to do it?

kind of wasteful, but sure. why are your fulls not located at the time frame's 
start?
 
> Q2: I tried to make a daily backup. Then I added a file /repos/bla.txt, then
> made a daily backup. I removed it and made another daily backup.
> Then I tried to restore /bla.txt from the backup:

list the backup contents with action command 'list-current-files' . as you 
deleted it, it will probably not be there. use '--time' to point to a time 
where it was not deleted, it should be listed.  from the man page 
https://duplicity.us/stable/duplicity.1.html
"
list-current-files [--time <time>] <url>
Lists the files contained in the most current backup or backup at time. The 
information will be extracted from the signature files, not the archive data 
itself. Thus the whole archive does not have to be downloaded, but on the other 
hand if the archive has been deleted or corrupted, this command will not detect 
it.
"
 
> duplicity restore --file-to-restore /bla.txt $CLOUD/daily /tmp/bla.txt
> # (I tried -t 1D/2D/3D as well)

restore needs a _relative_ path to the backup root. from the man page 
https://duplicity.us/stable/duplicity.1.html
"
restore [--file-to-restore <relpath>] [--time <time>] <url> <target_folder>
You can restore the full monty or selected folders/files from a specific time. 
Use the relative path as it is printed by list-current-files. Usually not 
needed as duplicity enters restore mode when it detects that the URL comes 
before the local folder.
"

> but it couldn't find it in the "daily" backup, so I guess that duplicity
> only looks at the last full/incremental backup of the set in $CLOUD/daily.
> But I need to be able to restore a file that was deleted a few days ago.

list your backup chains to find out which backups exist
"
collection-status [--file-changed <relpath>] [--show-changes-in-set <index>] 
<url>
Summarize the status of the backup repository by printing the chains and sets 
found, and the number of volumes in each.
The --file-changed option summarizes the changes to the file (in the most 
recent backup chain). The --show-changes-in-set option summarizes all the file 
changes in the index:th backup set (where index 0 means the latest set, 1 means 
the next to latest, etc.).
"
from the man page https://duplicity.us/stable/duplicity.1.html

> I think I am misunderstanding things, could you please point me to good
> documentation?

https://duplicity.us/stable/duplicity.1.html
 
> Many Thanks and Best Regards!
> Felix

good luck.. sunny regards ede/duply.net