BACKUPNINJA(1)

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay so, bestie, meet BACKUPNINJA — a lightweight, extensible meta-backup system, and its whole entire tagline is "a silent flower blossom death strike to lost data." 💅 iconic behavior honestly. this is backupninja(1), section 1 of the manual, and she is here to make your backups not a whole tragedy. 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

backupninja [ -h ] [ -v ] [ -d ] [ -n ] [ -t ] [ -f filename ] [ --run
filename ]

ngl the synopsis says -v and the options list below says -V and i'm literally just the messenger bestie, i copy what the page says, i don't editorialize 🔥

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

Backupninja lets you coordinate system backups by dropping a few simple configuration files into /etc/backup.d/. 🎀

Here's the tea: most programs you might use for making backups don't have their own configuration file format. Backupninja is your centralized girl — she configures and coordinates many different backup utilities, all from one place. no cap. 👑

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🦋 FEATURES 🦋

• easy to read ini style configuration files. ✨
• you can drop in scripts to handle new types of backups. 🫶
• backup actions can be scheduled. ⏰
• you can choose when status report emails are mailed to you: always, on warning, on error, or never. 📬
• the console-based wizard, ninjahelper, makes it easy to create backup action configuration files. 🧚
• passwords are never sent via the command line to helper programs. 🔒 (we love a security-conscious queen)
• in order to backup a db or sql database, you cannot simply copy database files. backupninja helps you safely export the data to a format which you can backup. 🍓

Backup types include:

• secure, remote, incremental filesystem backup (via rdiff-backup). incremental data is compressed. permissions are retained even with an unprivileged backup user. 💖
• basic system and hardware information. 🖥️
• encrypted remote backups (via duplicity). 🔐
• safe backup of MySQL, PostgreSQL, OpenLDAP, and subversion databases. 🗄️
• burn CD/DVDs or create ISOs. 💿

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -h, --help — Show summary of options. your little helper bestie. 🙈
• -V, --version — Show backupninja version number. so you know exactly which queen you're talking to. 👑
• -d, --debug — Run in debug mode, where all log messages are output to the current shell. everything is out loud now. 😭
• -f, --conffile CONF_FILE — Use CONF_FILE for the main configuration instead of /etc/backupninja.conf. choose your own adventure. 🌈
• -t, --test — Run in test mode, no actions are actually taken. a dress rehearsal, zero commitment. 💅
• -n, --now — Perform actions now, instead of when they might be scheduled. main character energy, no waiting. 🔥
• --run ACTION_FILE — Runs the action configuration ACTION_FILE and exits. one and done. ⭐

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🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

General settings are configured in /etc/backupninja.conf. In this file you can set the log level and change the default directory locations. See backupninja.conf(5). 🫶

To preform the actual backup actions, backupninja processes each action configuration file in /etc/backup.d according to the file's suffix. See backup.d(5). 🗂️

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🌈 EXAMPLE USAGE 🌈

Backupninja can be used to implement whatever backup strategy you choose. It is intended, however, to be used like so:

First, databases are safely copied or exported to /var/backups. Often, you cannot make a file backup of a database while it is in use, hence the need to use special tools to make a safe copy or export into /var/backups. 🗄️✨

Then, vital parts of the file system, including /var/backups, are nightly pushed to a remote, off-site, hard disk (using rdiff-backup). The local user is root, but the remote user is not privileged. Hopefully, the remote filesystem is encrypted. 🔐

In order for this to work (ie for diff-backup to run unattended), you must create ssh keys on the source server and copy the public key to the remote user's authorized keys file. For example:

root@srchost# ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
root@srchost# ssh-copy-id -i /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
backup@desthost

Now, you should be able to ssh from user root on srchost to user backup on desthost without specifying a password. When prompted for a password by ssh-keygen, just leave it blank by hitting return. The "wizard" ninjahelper(1) will walk you through these steps. 🧚♀️

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⭐ EXIT VALUES ⭐

• 0 — success 🎉
• 1 — errors or warnings emitted during backup 😬
• 2 — one or more backup actions failed 💀
• 3 — syntax or usage error 🙈

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💖 FILES 💖

• /usr/sbin/backupninja — main script 👑
• /etc/backupninja.conf — main configuration file; general options ⚙️
• /etc/cron.d/backupninja — runs main script hourly ⏰
• /etc/logrotate.d/backupninja — rotates backupninja.log 🌀
• /etc/backup.d — directory for configuration files 🗂️
• /usr/share/backupninja — directory for handler scripts 🛠️
• /usr/share/doc/backupninja/examples — example action configuration files. 📚

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

ninjahelper(1), backupninja.conf(5), backup.d(5), 🫶

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

BACKUPNINJA was written by the riseup.net collective. 🌹 absolute legends, periodt.

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 💖 this one came from the backupninja package, footer says riseup and the date is October 10, 2005 — so yeah, vintage icon behavior, still slaying. go make some backups, ily, bye!! 🎀🦋✨