BackupRoutine

to help automate backups.

This script can be used to create (regularly) *.zip-compressed backups of pre-defined file collections (wildcards are supported).

A configuration file allows to declare "Backup Profiles" and "Backup Destinations". A Backup Profile defines a set of files. These files will be backed up as a single compressed (*.zip) file by the BackupRoutine and stored at the locations given by the Backup Destinations.

Getting started

After downloading the code

Setup the Configuration File

First copy or rename sample_config.json to get config.json. Then, the sections backup_profile and backup_destination need to be customised to your needs, see sections [[#Backup Profiles]] and [[#Backup Destinations]].

Running the script

python3 ./backup.py

BackupRoutine runs all active profiles and destinations. The file collections of all active profiles will be separately packed, compressed and backed up to all active destinations. Backups are created as zip files in the form {backup_profile.id}/archive{backup_datetime}.zip After each backup process destinations older backups are deleted as defined in [[#Clean-Up Mechanism]]. For Errors see: [[#Error alerts]].

Command Line Arguments

BackupRoutine supports the following command line arguments, examples see below.

Argument	Argument Effect
-p	specify a Backup Profile
-d	specify Backup Destination(s) (one or several)
-t	perform a dry run, i.e. run the process without actually creating any backups

The following example will run only backup_1 and create backups on all active destinations:

python3 ./backup.py -p backup_1

The following example will run all active profiles and create backups in my_backup_vault_1and my_backup_vault_2:

python3 ./backup.py -d my_backup_vault_1 my_backup_vault_2

Using the command line argument -t you can run the backup process without creating backups:

python3 ./backup.py -t

Error logs will be displayed in the terminal if anything in the configuration file is wrong. The number of files that will be backed up is displayed.

Backup Profiles

---

A Backup Profile defines the files of which a backup should be created. You can either put a list of all files into sourcesor select files using wildcards and ignore patterns.

"backup_profiles": [
    {
        "id": "my_backup",                   // This is the unique name of the backup profile
        
        "active": true,                      // Each profile can be set active or inactive
        
        "source": [                          // A collection of files is defined by a list of search patterns such as
            "*/sample/backup_this_dir/",
            "*/backup_all/*/test_folders/",
            "*/backup_all_textfiles/*.txt"
        ],
        "ignore": [                          // Additionally you can exlude files or directories, as for example
            ".*",                            // ignore all files starting with a dot, ...
            "*/not-this-dir/",
            "temp*"   
        ]
    } 
    // ...you can add as many backup profiles as you wish   

Backup Destinations

A Backup Destination defines where to store the backups and how long to keep them.

"backup_destinations": [
    {
        "id": "my_backup_vault",          // This is the unique name of the backup destination
        
        "active": true,                   // Each destination can be set active or inactive
        
        "days_to_keep": 28,               // For each destination you can define how long the backup should be stored
                                          // If backups should never be deleted: set `days_to_keep = -1
        "directory": "./destination/"     // directory where the backup should be stored
    }
    // ...you can add as many backup destinations as you wish  

Clean-Up Mechanism

Subsequently, after each backup run, a clean-up mechanism will be performed in all declared destinations. For each destination you can define how long the backup should be stored by setting the property days_to_keep. All backups older than this date will be deleted. If backups should never be deleted: set days_to_keep = -1.

Error alerts

The script has no real alert system implemented. In case of an error the user will be "notified" by the error log being opened in the standard editor and displayed to the user.