BUPSTASH-SYNC(1)

📦
version 0.12.0 · 3 versions
, in alpine 3.24

✨ bupstash-sync — the manual page, but make it a group chat ✨

okay so bestie, you're reading the bupstash-sync(1) page from the General Commands Manual and honestly? it's a good one. let's get into it 💅

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

Sync items and data from one bupstash repository to another. like, moving your little treasures from one vault to another vault, no cap.

bupstash sync [OPTIONS] --to $REMOTE [QUERY...]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

bupstash sync copies items and data from one repository to another, and it lowkey tries so hard to minimize unnecessary bandwidth usage while doing it. it's giving considerate queen behavior 👑

the classic use case: you back up your files to a local repository (say, an external drive), and also efficiently upload them to an offsite location for safe storage. best of both worlds, fr fr 🫶

⚠️ okay important: when no query is specified, all items are synced — even those that do not match the current bupstash key. so like, it doesn't filter by your key, it just takes everything. don't say i didn't warn you 😭

🦋 QUERY LANGUAGE 🦋

for the full documentation on the query language, go look at bupstash-query-language(7). it's a whole thing, go read it, iykyk.

🎀 QUERY CACHING 🎀

the sync command uses the exact same query caching mechanisms as bupstash-list(1) — so check that page for more info on the query cache. same energy, same caching, slay ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -r, --repository REPO — the repository to sync from. it can be in the form ssh://$SERVER/$PATH for remote repositories if ssh access is configured. if you don't specify it, it's set to BUPSTASH_REPOSITORY.
  • --to REPO — the destination repository to sync items to. may be of the form ssh://$SERVER/$PATH for remote repositories if ssh access is configured. if not specified, it's set to BUPSTASH_TO_REPOSITORY.
  • -k, --key KEY — the key used to decrypt metadata when executing a query. if it's not set, it defaults to BUPSTASH_KEY.
  • --query-cache PATH — path to the query-cache file. it defaults to one of the following, in order, provided the appropriate environment variables are set: $BUPSTASH_QUERY_CACHE, $XDG_CACHE_HOME/.cache/bupstash/bupstash.qcache, or $HOME/.cache/bupstash/bupstash.qcache. order matters bestie, respect the order 🫡
  • --query-encrypted — the query will not decrypt any metadata, which lets you list items you don't even have a decryption key for. iconic. this option inserts the pseudo query tag decryption-key-id.
  • --ids-from-stdin — sync items with IDs read from stdin, one per line, instead of executing a query.
  • --utc-timestamps — display and search against timestamps in utc time instead of local time.
  • --no-progress — suppress progress indicators. (progress indicators are also suppressed when stderr is not an interactive terminal, so like, it knows.)
  • -q, --quiet — be quiet. implies --no-progress. shhh 🤫

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

  • BUPSTASH_REPOSITORY — the repository to pull items from. may be of the form ssh://$SERVER/$PATH for remote repositories if ssh access is configured.
  • BUPSTASH_REPOSITORY_COMMAND — a command to run to connect to an instance of bupstash-serve(1). this allows more complex connections to the repository for less common use cases.
  • BUPSTASH_TO_REPOSITORY — the repository to sync items to. may be of the form ssh://$SERVER/$PATH for remote repositories if ssh access is configured.
  • BUPSTASH_TO_REPOSITORY_COMMAND — a command to run to connect to an instance of bupstash-serve(1). this allows more complex connections to the repository for less common use cases. (yes it's the _TO_ twin of the one above, they're siblings 💜)
  • BUPSTASH_KEY — path to a primary key that will be used for decrypting data and metadata.
  • BUPSTASH_KEY_COMMAND — a command to run that must print the key data. can be used instead of BUPSTASH_KEY to fetch the key from arbitrary locations such as the network or other secret storage. spy behavior, love it 🕵️‍♀️
  • BUPSTASH_QUERY_CACHE — path to the query cache file to use.

⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

🍓 Push all items from a local repository to a remote repository

$ bupstash sync --repository ./local-repository --to ssh://$REMOTE

🧚 Perform a backup locally then sync a copy to a remote repository

$ export BUPSTASH_REPOSITORY=./local-repository
$ id="$(bupstash put ./some-files)"
$ bupstash sync --to ssh://$REMOTE id="$id"

see how the $id gets reused? main character energy tbh 👑

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

okay that's the whole page!! this one's from May 2025, part of the General Commands Manual (bupstash-sync(1)) — go forth and sync your little heart out bestie 💖✨🎀🦋🌸🫶

📦 where this page comes from