bup-meta(1)

📦
version 0.34 · 10 versions
, in fedora 44, nixpkgs unstable

💖 bup-meta 💖

okay bestie, welcome to bup-meta from the General Commands Manual section — she's the metadata archivist of the bup(1) fam and she is so underrated. let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

bup-meta — create or extract a metadata archive. that's it, that's the job, and she eats every time 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

bup meta --create
       [-R] [-v] [-q] [--no-symlinks] [--no-paths] [-f file] <paths...>

bup meta --list
       [-v] [-q] [-f file]

bup meta --extract
       [-v] [-q] [--numeric-ids] [--no-symlinks] [-f file]

bup meta --start-extract
       [-v] [-q] [--numeric-ids] [--no-symlinks] [-f file]

bup meta --finish-extract
       [-v] [-q] [--numeric-ids] [-f file]

bup meta --edit
       [--set-uid uid | --set-gid gid | --set-user user | --set-group
       group | ...]  <paths...>

look at her. six whole modes. main character energy fr fr 👑

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so like, bup meta creates, extracts, or otherwise manipulates metadata archives. and a metadata archive? it's literally just the metadata info — timestamps, ownership, access permissions, etc. — for a set of filesystem paths. no file contents, just the ✨vibes✨ of the files. periodt.

ngl if you wanna know how ownership metadata gets put back where it belongs, go read bup-restore(1) — that's the whole description of it, bestie, I'm not gonna make stuff up 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -c, --create — make a metadata archive for the paths you named. writes it to standard output unless you pass --file. 🎀
  • -t, --list — show you what metadata is inside an archive. reads from standard input unless you pass --file. 🔍
  • -x, --extract — extract a metadata archive. conceptually it's --start-extract and then --finish-extract, one after the other. reads from standard input unless --file is specified. 💖
  • --start-extract — build a filesystem tree that matches the paths stored in the metadata archive. heads up: on its own this does not give you a full metadata restoration — for that you gotta follow it up with a --finish-extract call. once this command finishes, all the normal files described by the metadata will exist and be empty. then you restore the data in those files, then call --finish-extract, and boom, original tree is back. archive gets read from standard input unless --file is specified. 🌱
  • --finish-extract — finish applying the metadata from an archive onto the filesystem. normally this comes right after a --start-extract call. archive reads from standard input unless --file is specified. 🦋
  • --edit — edit metadata archives. result goes to standard output unless --file is specified. ✏️
  • -f, --file=filename — read the metadata archive from filename, or write it to filename, whichever is the appropriate direction. and if filename is -, then it reads from standard input or writes to standard output. 🍓
  • -R, --recurse — recursively descend into subdirectories during --create. 🌈
  • --xdev, --one-file-system — don't cross filesystem boundaries — though, same as with tar and rsync, the mount points themselves will still be handled. 🚧
  • --numeric-ids — apply numeric IDs (user, group, etc.) rather than names during --extract or --finish-extract. 🔢
  • --symlinks — record symbolic link targets when creating an archive, or restore symbolic links when extracting one (during --extract or --start-extract). this one is enabled by default. specify --no-symlinks to turn it off. 🔗
  • --paths — record pathnames when creating an archive. also enabled by default. specify --no-paths to turn it off. 📁
  • --set-uid=uid — set the metadata uid to the integer uid during --edit. 👤
  • --set-gid=gid — set the metadata gid to the integer gid during --edit. 👥
  • --set-user=user — set the metadata user to user during --edit. 💫
  • --unset-user — remove the metadata user during --edit. 🙈
  • --set-group=group — set the metadata user to group during --edit. (yes bestie, the original says "user", I'm just the messenger 💀) 🌟
  • --unset-group — remove the metadata group during --edit. 🧹
  • -v, --verbose — be more verbose (can be used more than once). 🗣️
  • -q, --quiet — be quiet. 🤫

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

# Create a metadata archive for /etc.
$ bup meta -cRf etc.meta /etc
bup: removing leading "/" from "/etc"

# Extract the etc.meta archive (files will be empty).
$ mkdir tmp && cd tmp
$ bup meta -xf ../etc.meta
$ ls
etc

# Restore /etc completely.
$ mkdir tmp && cd tmp
$ bup meta --start-extract -f ../etc.meta
...fill in all regular file contents using some other tool...
$ bup meta --finish-extract -f ../etc.meta

# Change user/uid to root.
$ bup meta --edit --set-uid 0 --set-user root \
    src.meta > dest.meta

go off, honestly. the last one is giving glow-up makeover for your metadata 💅✨

💀 BUGS 💀

hard links are not handled yet. we're waiting, bestie 😭

👑 BUP 👑

part of the bup(1) suite. iconic family, no notes. 🫶

🌟 AUTHORS 🌟

Rob Browning rlb@defaultvalue.org 💌

okay that's the whole page, bestie — and just so you know exactly which era of slay this is: it's from Bup 0.34, dated 2026-09-01, <rainbow>bup-meta(1)</rainbow> and all. now go archive something responsibly 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from