borg-version(1)

✨ NAME ✨

borg-version — bestie, this is the one that tells you what version of borg you're running 💅 and also what version the server on the other end is running, which is a whole different vibe check.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

borg [common options] version [options] [REPOSITORY]

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

okay so basically this command shows you the Borg client version and the Borg server version, side by side, like a little version duo 🫶

Here's the teaaaa:

• If you hand it a local repository, the client code just reaches in and touches the repo directly, no middleman, no drama. So what happens? We show the client version as the server version too. Same number twice. It's giving twins 👯
• If you hand it a remote repository (think something like ssh:), then we actually go query the remote Borg and display its version as the server version. Long distance relationship, still slaying 🔥

Examples, because visuals matter:

# local repo (client uses 1.4.0 alpha version)
$ borg version /mnt/backup
1.4.0a / 1.4.0a

# remote repo (client uses 1.4.0 alpha, server uses 1.2.7 release)
$ borg version ssh://borg@borgbackup:repo
1.4.0a / 1.2.7

Now, lowkey important detail: because of the version tuple format that Borg uses for client/server negotiation, only a simplified version gets displayed — that's the one provided by borg.version.format_version. So don't come for it if it looks a little trimmed, it's literally doing what the protocol allows 💀

Also!! There's borg --version which displays a potentially more precise client version. So if you want the full deets on the client only, go there. iykyk ✨

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

See borg-common(1) for common options of Borg commands. All the shared stuff lives over there, bestie, go check it 🦋

🌈 arguments 🌈

• REPOSITORY — the repository, used to determine the client/server situation 👑 (like, are we local? are we remote? this arg is how the command figures out which version story to tell you)

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

borg-common(1)

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👑 Author 👑

The Borg Collective

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and that's the whole page, no cap 🧚 from the borg-version(1) page of the borg backup tool — source date 2026-07-18, manual section borg-version(1). mwah, go check your versions bestie 🍓💖