BACKUPD(8)

✨ NAME ✨

backupd — Cyrus IMAP documentation, bestie 💖

the Cyrus Backups server process, aka the little guy that runs your whole backup era 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

backupd [ -C config-file ] [ -U uses ] [ -T timeout ] [ -D ]
    [ -s ] [ -N ] [ -p ssf ]

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

NOTE: Cyrus Backups are experimental, incomplete, and deprecated as of 3.10. 🫠 not me having to say that out loud, but fr fr, that's what the page says.

okay so backupd is the Cyrus Backups server. It takes Cyrus replication protocol commands in on its standard input and answers back on its standard output. And here's the thing: it MUST be launched by master(8), with those file descriptors hooked up to a replication client connection — typically sync_client(8). like it literally cannot do its little job any other way, no cap 💀

backupd pulls its configuration options from the imapd.conf(5) file, unless you go and tell it otherwise with -C.

backupd is usually set up to live on a dedicated backup server — one that has backup storage but no IMAP service and no mailbox storage. it's giving "backup-only queen, nothing else on the roster" 👑

You must configure at least one backuppartition. User backups get distributed across whichever partitions you configured. And a lil heads up: there is no relationship between mailbox partitions and backuppartitions. none. zero. they don't know each other 🦋

If the directory log/user exists underneath the directory named by the configdirectory configuration option, then backupd will create protocol telemetry logs for sessions authenticating as user. Those telemetry logs get stored in the log/user directory, with a filename of the backupd process-id. cute, organized, we love that for you 📁✨

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• -C config-file — use the configuration file config-file instead of the default imapd.conf(5). your config, your rules 💅
• -U uses — the max number of times the process should be used for new connections before it shuts down. default is 250.
• -T timeout — how many seconds the process waits for a new connection before shutting down. careful bestie: a value of 0 (zero) disables the timeout entirely. default is 60.
• -D — run the external debugger specified in debug_command. 🐛
• -p ssf — tells backupd that an external layer exists. an SSF (security strength factor) of 1 means an integrity protection layer exists. Any higher SSF implies some form of privacy protection. 🔐

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

backupd is commonly included in the SERVICES section of cyrus.conf(5), like so:

SERVICES {
    backupd        cmd="backupd" listen="csync" prefork=0
}

periodt ✨

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🎀 HISTORY 🎀

(this section is empty in the original — yes really, it's just vibing there with nothing in it 🙈)

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🦋 FILES 🦋

(also empty. the void. the silence. iconic honestly 💀)

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💖 SEE ALSO 💖

imapd.conf(5), master(8), sync_client(8)

go read those next, bestie, iykyk 🫶

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

The Cyrus Team 🌟

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⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

1993–2025, The Cyrus Team

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and that's the whole page, angel 💜 this was BACKUPD(8) from the Cyrus IMAP manual, version 3.10.2, dated Jun 27, 2025. slay, go forth and back things up (even though it's deprecated, we don't talk about that 🫠) 🎀✨