PLAKAR(1)

📦
version 1.1.7 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

✨ PLAKAR(1) ✨

okay so bestie, this is plakar — the General Commands Manual entry for it — and honestly? she's THAT girl. effortless backups. that's literally the whole pitch. 💅

🌸 NAME 🌸

plakar — effortless backups 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

plakar [-concurrency number] [-configdir dir] [-cachedir dir]
       [-datadir dir] [-cpu number] [-json] [-keyfile path] [-quiet]
       [-silent] [-stdio] [-time] [-trace subsystems] [at kloset]
       subcommand ...

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

plakar is a tool for creating distributed, versioned backups — with compression, encryption, and data deduplication. like she's out here doing the most and looking flawless while she does it. 🔥

By default, plakar operates on the Kloset store at ~/.plakar. You can change that by using the at option. simple as that, no cap.

Here are all the options, every single one, because we don't skip: 🫶

  • -concurrency number — sets the max number of parallel tasks so stuff processes faster. defaults to the CPU count. more hands, more work, periodt.
  • -configdir dir — points to an alternate configuration directory. defaults to ~/.config/plakar.
  • -cachedir dir — points to an alternate cache directory. defaults to ~/.cache/plakar.
  • -datadir dir — points to an alternate data directory. defaults to ~/.local/share/plakar.
  • -cpu number — limits how many parallel workers plakar uses to number. by default it's the number of online CPUs.
  • -json — uses newline-delimited JSON as the output format for some subcommands. for the data girlies. 📊
  • -keyfile path — reads the passphrase from the key file at path instead of prompting you. overrides the PLAKAR_PASSPHRASE environment variable.
  • -quiet — disables all output except for errors. she's being mysterious. 🤫
  • -silent — disables ALL output. fully ghosted. 👻
  • -stdio — uses text lines as the output format for some subcommands instead of the default ncurses frontend. enabled by default when standard output is not a terminal.
  • -time — reports the time the subcommand took to run. ⏱️
  • -trace subsystems — displays trace logs. subsystems is a comma-separated series of keywords to enable trace logs for different subsystems: all, trace, repository, snapshot and server.
  • at kloset — operates on the given kloset store. it could be a path, a URI, or a label in the form "@name" to reference a configuration created with plakar-store(1).

🎀 General Commands 🎀

  • help — shows this manpage and the ones for the subcommands. the "let me google that for you" of the group chat.
  • login — authenticates to Plakar services, refer to plakar-login(1).
  • logout — logs out from Plakar services, refer to plakar-logout(1).
  • service — manages additional Plakar services that require you to be logged in, refer to plakar-service(1).
  • token create — generates a token to interact with Plakar services, refer to plakar-token-create(1).
  • version — displays the current Plakar version, refer to plakar-version(1).

🦋 Configuration management 🦋

  • destination — manages configurations for the destination connectors, refer to plakar-destination(1).
  • source — manages configurations for the source connectors, refer to plakar-source(1).
  • store — manages configurations for storage connectors, refer to plakar-store(1).

🌈 Kloset management 🌈

🍓 Snapshot management 🍓

  • archive — creates an archive from a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-archive(1).
  • backup — creates a new Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-backup(1).
  • cat — displays file contents from a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-cat(1).
  • diff — shows differences between files in a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-diff(1).
  • digest — computes digests for files in a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-digest(1).
  • dup — duplicates an existing snapshot with a different ID, refer to plakar-dup(1).
  • locate — finds filenames in a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-locate(1).
  • ls — lists snapshots and their contents in a Kloset store, refer to plakar-ls(1).
  • mount — mounts Kloset snapshots as a read-only filesystem, refer to plakar-mount(1).
  • restore — restores files from a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-restore(1).
  • rm — removes snapshots from a Kloset store, refer to plakar-rm(1).

🧚 Plugin handling 🧚

💅 ENVIRONMENT 💅

  • PLAKAR_INSECURE_PLAINTEXT — must be set to work with a Kloset store that is not encrypted. without it, every command that would read from or write to an unencrypted store straight up refuses to run. like she's setting a boundary. 🚧
  • PLAKAR_PASSPHRASE — the passphrase to unlock the Kloset store; overrides the one from the configuration. if it's set, plakar won't prompt to unlock. the keyfile option overrides this environment variable. 🔑
  • PLAKAR_REPOSITORY — reference to the Kloset store.
  • PLAKAR_TOKEN — token to authenticate for Plakar services.

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • ~/.cache/plakar — Plakar cache directories.
  • ~/.config/plakar/destinations.yml — restore destinations configuration.
  • ~/.config/plakar/sources.yml — backup sources configuration.
  • ~/.config/plakar/stores.yml — Kloset stores configuration.
  • ~/.plakar — default Kloset store location.

⭐ EXIT STATUS ⭐

these exit codes are aligned with sysexits(3) where applicable, iykyk:

  • 0 — command completed successfully. slay. ✅
  • 1 — a general error occurred. 😭
  • 64 (EX_USAGE) — invalid command-line arguments or flags.
  • 65 (EX_DATAERR) — data integrity check failed (corrupted chunks, verification mismatch).
  • 66 (EX_NOINPUT) — the repository could not be opened or located.
  • 77 (EX_NOPERM) — authentication or decryption failure (wrong passphrase, missing keyfile), or an unencrypted store used without PLAKAR_INSECURE_PLAINTEXT.
  • 78 (EX_CONFIG) — incompatible repository version.

💖 EXAMPLES 💖

bestie these are copy-paste ready, go off 👑

Create an encrypted Kloset store at the default location:

$ plakar create

Create an encrypted Kloset store on AWS S3:

$ plakar store add mys3bucket \
    location=s3://s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/backups \
    access_key="access_key" \
    secret_access_key="secret_key"
$ plakar at @mys3bucket create

Create a snapshot of the current directory on the @mys3bucket Kloset store:

$ plakar at @mys3bucket backup

List the snapshots of the default Kloset store:

$ plakar ls

Restore the file "notes.md" in the current directory from the snapshot with id "abcd":

$ plakar restore -to . abcd:notes.md

Remove snapshots older than 30 days:

$ plakar rm -before 30d

and that's the whole page, no crumbs left. 💜

this little icon came from Debian, version dated May 5, 2026 — so like, she's been serving PLAKAR(1) energy since then and she has NOT slowed down. mwah. 💋🦋

📦 where this page comes from