bup-on(1)

💅 bup-on — the manual, but make it make sense

okay bestie so this is bup-on(1) from the General Commands Manual, and it's literally the glow-up your backup routine has been waiting for. no cap. 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

bup-on — run a bup on a remote host, communicating with a local server 🌈

like... you stay comfy on your machine, the remote machine does the work, and they hold hands over ssh. it's giving long-distance relationship but functional. 💖

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

bup on [user@]host[:port] index ...
bup on [user@]host[:port] save ...
bup on [user@]host[:port] restore ...
bup on [user@]host[:port] split ...
bup on [user@]host[:port] version ...
bup on [user@]host[:port] features ...
bup on [user@]host[:port] help ...

bup on [user@]host[:port] get ...
(Prefer bup get --source-url ssh://<hostname>...)

so the shape is always bup on [user@]host[:port] and then whatever subcommand you're feeling that day. put it in the group chat. 📱

ngl, note that last pair — get works, but the page itself says Prefer bup get --source-url ssh://<hostname>.... it literally put the preferred thing in parentheses right there. read the parentheses. 🙈

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

bup on runs the command on the remote host via ssh, connected to a bup server running on the local machine, so that remote commands like bup save can back up to the local repository. it's an icon, it's a legend, and it's the moment. 🔥

want the deets on any individual command? see bup-index(1), bup-save(1), and so on for the command details. iykyk, the per-command pages have you covered. 📚

okay important, bestie, listen: you do not need to provide a --remote option. and you shouldn't. putting it there is not it. 💀

this "reverse mode" is useful when the machine being backed up isn't supposed to be able to ssh into the backup server. like, it's not allowed. door's locked. no keys. 🚪🔒

instead, the backup server — even if it's hidden behind a one-way firewall on a private or dynamic IP address — can connect to each of your important machines using an ssh key, and initiate a backup that saves the remote data to the local repository. so the server reaches out. the server makes the first move. main character energy, honestly. 👑

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🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

first up, go index the files on the remote server. gentle little warm-up. ✨

# First index the files on the remote server

$ bup on myserver index -vux /etc
bup server: reading from stdin.
Indexing: 2465, done.
bup: merging indexes (186668/186668), done.
bup server: done

then we save the files from the remote server over to the local $BUP_DIR. this is the part where it all comes together. 💖

# Now save the files from the remote server to the
# local $BUP_DIR

$ bup on myserver save -n myserver-backup /etc
bup server: reading from stdin.
bup server: command: 'list-indexes'
PackIdxList: using 7 indexes.
Saving: 100.00% (241/241k, 648/648 files), done.
bup server: received 55 objects.
Indexing objects: 100% (55/55), done.
bup server: command: 'quit'
bup server: done

and now the payoff — we can look at the resulting repo on the local machine. the way that bup ftp just shows you the goods directly?? obsessed. 😭

# Now we can look at the resulting repo on the local
# machine

$ bup ftp 'cat /myserver-backup/latest/etc/passwd'
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
...

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• bup-index(1)
• bup-save(1)
• bup-split(1)
• bup-get(1)

go read those too, they're all part of the same friend group. 🫶

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👑 BUP 👑

Part of the bup(1) suite. one big happy family. 🌈

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💜 AUTHORS 💜

Avery Pennarun apenwarr@gmail.com — thank you for your service, legend. 🌟

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that's the whole page, bestie. go back something up. slay. 💅✨

Bup 0.34 · 2026-09-01 · mwah, love you, bye 🎀🦋