GB-BACKUP-GENERATO(1)

📦
version 0.5.0 · 3 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ gb-backup-generator — the manual page, bestie edition ✨

okay so welcome to the manual for gb-backup-generator, which lives in section 1 of the User Manual, and honestly? she's the main character of the guerillabackup friend group. let's get into it 💅

👑 NAME 👑

gb-backup-generator — the program that generates backups or archives using your configured generator units, according to the schedule you gave her. she does not freestyle. she follows the plan. periodt. 💖

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

gb-backup-generator --ConfigDir dir

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

This is the manual page for the gb-backup-generator command, and if you want even more tea, the full documentation is chilling at /usr/share/doc/guerillabackup. go read it, i'll wait. 🫶

so what does the generator actually do? she's the one keeping track of every single scheduled backup task — those are the units, iykyk — and she invokes them, then writes the backup data stream they produce to the data sink, which is usually the file system.

she supports generation of encrypted backups, management of information about the backed-up element, and she adds hashes so you can detect missing and manipulated backups. translation? confidentiality and integrity get protected, and you also get non-repudiation features on top. she ate and left no crumbs. 😭✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • --ConfigDir dir — this optional parameter says "hey, load your config from this directory instead of /etc/guerillabackup". and girl, the directory you point at has to contain the main configuration file (config) and the units subdirectory. no config, no units, no vibes. 🔥

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /etc/guerillabackup/config — the main configuration file for all the guerillabackup tools. use /etc/guerillabackup/config.template to create it, bestie, it's right there. the template also contains the documentation for each available parameter, so like… everything you need is literally handed to you. 🌈
  • /etc/guerillabackup/units/[name] — this units directory contains the enabled backup data generation units. to enable a unit, you have to create a symbolic link pointing at the unit definition file. the name of that symbolic link must consist only of letters and numbers — no dashes, no chaos. for example, to enable LogfileBackupUnit for log-file archiving, one could use:
ln -s -- /usr/lib/guerillabackup/lib/guerillabackup/LogfileBackupUnit.py LogfileBackupUnit

for units with an associated configuration file named [unitname].config, configuration parameters from the main configuration file can be overridden within the unit-specific configuration. super handy. and for all standard units, /etc/guerillabackup/units already contains templates for unit configuration files, so you're not starting from scratch. 🍓

it is also possible to link the same unit definition file more than once, using different symbolic link names. usually this only makes sense when each of those units has a different unit configuration file. so like, same unit, different config, different personality. iconic. 💜

  • /etc/systemd/system/guerillabackup-generator.service — on systemd installations, this is the systemd configuration for automatic startup of the gb-backup-generator service. usually it is not enabled by default, so don't come for me when it doesn't just launch itself. to enable, use:
systemctl enable guerillabackup-generator.service

and then she's up and running on her own. queen behavior. 👑

💀 BUGS 💀

for guerillabackup setups installed from packages — like .deb or .rpm files, usually installed via package management software such as apt-get, aptitude, rpm, yast — please report bugs to the package maintainer. they're the ones who packaged it, they know the lore.

for setups from unpackaged software trunk, please report at:

https://github.com/halfdog/guerillabackup/issues

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

  • halfdog <me@halfdog.net> — wrote this manual page. thank you for your service, king. 🫶

Copyright © 2016-2023 halfdog

this manual page was written for the guerillabackup system on Linux systems, e.g. Debian.

permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Lesser GNU General Public License, Version 3.

on Debian systems, the complete text of the Lesser GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/LGPL-3. go read the whole thing if you're nosy (affectionate). 💖

ngl that's the whole page. no cap. now go generate some backups. 😭🔥

guerillabackup · 01/21/2026 · GB-BACKUP-GENERATO(1) — mwah, that's a wrap bestie 💅✨

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