CLI version and questions about option flags

Support
#1

I think the CLI version will work for my needs. I have a ssh server running a few hours away with 1TB ssd. I want to use this server to backup files i have. I can remote into it and i own the server :slight_smile:

I have never used backup software since most the time i just did a copy paste once a week and let it run while i was sleeping or used an external drive.

with duplicacy, does it check the repo folder for new files/changes to files and only copy those? or is it like “copy and paste” ?

second question, i am unfamiliar with what the option flags in this program do IE pruning, etc etc. Is there a doc that explains what each flag does so i can get a better idea of whats going on?

EDIT: i just sw the BIG GIANT sticky above my post that shows some of the flags

and lastly, can i have multiple folders on my desktop point to a single folder named “backup” on the ssh server for everything to be copied to IE:

Desktop/pictures —> sftp://67.x.x.x/backup/pictures
Desktop/docs —> sftp://67.x.x.x/backup/docs
Desktop/downloads —> sftp://67.x.x.x/backup/downloads
Desktop/school —> sftp://67.x.x.x/backup/school

thanks for all the help and answers.

#2

Yes

No, only changes will be uploaded.

Sure: Duplicacy User Guide (Updated)

If you want to learn more about how it works: Duplicacy paper accepted by IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing

Duplicacy does not copy. It creates a versioned backup. On your sftp server you will see an opaque directory with some data blobs.

Can you backup separate directories into separate duplicacy datastores – yes. Is it advisable? No, you will not benefit from reduplication across sources.

Can you backup different directories to the same duplicacy datastore, but different “snapshot IDs” – yes. Is it advisable? Depends on your data.

I think at this point go through the documentation, and play in the command line with some test datasets to get some idea about what’s possible. Then think about how your data changes, whether you need atomic backups (read about -vss flag), what is data turnover.

There is no one size fits all here. For example, pictures – maybe those are best just copied with rsync, in backup mode, to protect against bit rot, but since you don’t expect those to ever change, they are immutable, it’s fine to just copy them plaintext. Your school stuff probably needs to be backed up every 5 or 10 minutes, to pick up changes often. Downloads probably does not need to backed up at all. Etc. In this context yes, having separete Snapshot IDs for differnt type of data is useful – for example, you could setup your docs to be backed up once an hour, school – once every 10 min, and downloads --once a week.

Then larger picture – are you sure backup to some server to an SSD is an optimal solution here? Since you have very little data—under 1 TB—commercial cloud storage would be very cheap (under $5) and provide much better durability, availability, and consistency. (and then if you can turn that server off completely—you can save way more on electricity).

What I am trying to say – don’t hyper focus on details just yet – design the big picture first.

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#3

yeah, im good not using cloud storage for this project. This is just for fun, learning and experimentation. I have so many external drives with my backups, probably about 7 in total. I use syncthing right now between my laptop and desktop for all my school stuff, but syncthing and windows xp do not work together. So i was told to mess around with duplicacy since i have an ssh server on the xp machine.

I have heard of Rsync but never used it and have no idea if it works with xp. I can look that up though.

i used to be a RHCT server admin, ccnp and cyber security guru back about 15 years ago for the DoD for some local accounts, but after about 8 years in the area, i went back to school for aerospace and medical engineering. But i want to keep review some skills plus, duplicacy looks great.

I was thinking of robocopy and just use a scheduler to run a batch file, but getting it to work over ssh was very very difficult.

#4

If all you want is just copy files – you can use rsync. There are binaries for windows. Or rclone.

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#5

robocopy doesnt really ahve the options im looking for, or i didnt see them. Im going to test out duplicacy and maybe even rsync.

thanks for the information.