README.rst
1|screencast_basic|
2
3More screencasts: `installation`_, `advanced usage`_
4
5What is BorgBackup?
6-------------------
7
8BorgBackup (short: Borg) is a deduplicating backup program.
9Optionally, it supports compression and authenticated encryption.
10
11The main goal of Borg is to provide an efficient and secure way to backup data.
12The data deduplication technique used makes Borg suitable for daily backups
13since only changes are stored.
14The authenticated encryption technique makes it suitable for backups to not
15fully trusted targets.
16
17See the `installation manual`_ or, if you have already
18downloaded Borg, ``docs/installation.rst`` to get started with Borg.
19There is also an `offline documentation`_ available, in multiple formats.
20
21.. _installation manual: https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/en/stable/installation.html
22.. _offline documentation: https://readthedocs.org/projects/borgbackup/downloads
23
24Main features
25~~~~~~~~~~~~~
26
27**Space efficient storage**
28 Deduplication based on content-defined chunking is used to reduce the number
29 of bytes stored: each file is split into a number of variable length chunks
30 and only chunks that have never been seen before are added to the repository.
31
32 A chunk is considered duplicate if its id_hash value is identical.
33 A cryptographically strong hash or MAC function is used as id_hash, e.g.
34 (hmac-)sha256.
35
36 To deduplicate, all the chunks in the same repository are considered, no
37 matter whether they come from different machines, from previous backups,
38 from the same backup or even from the same single file.
39
40 Compared to other deduplication approaches, this method does NOT depend on:
41
42 * file/directory names staying the same: So you can move your stuff around
43 without killing the deduplication, even between machines sharing a repo.
44
45 * complete files or time stamps staying the same: If a big file changes a
46 little, only a few new chunks need to be stored - this is great for VMs or
47 raw disks.
48
49 * The absolute position of a data chunk inside a file: Stuff may get shifted
50 and will still be found by the deduplication algorithm.
51
52**Speed**
53 * performance-critical code (chunking, compression, encryption) is
54 implemented in C/Cython
55 * local caching of files/chunks index data
56 * quick detection of unmodified files
57
58**Data encryption**
59 All data can be protected using 256-bit AES encryption, data integrity and
60 authenticity is verified using HMAC-SHA256. Data is encrypted clientside.
61
62**Compression**
63 All data can be optionally compressed:
64
65 * lz4 (super fast, low compression)
66 * zstd (wide range from high speed and low compression to high compression
67 and lower speed)
68 * zlib (medium speed and compression)
69 * lzma (low speed, high compression)
70
71**Off-site backups**
72 Borg can store data on any remote host accessible over SSH. If Borg is
73 installed on the remote host, big performance gains can be achieved
74 compared to using a network filesystem (sshfs, nfs, ...).
75
76**Backups mountable as filesystems**
77 Backup archives are mountable as userspace filesystems for easy interactive
78 backup examination and restores (e.g. by using a regular file manager).
79
80**Easy installation on multiple platforms**
81 We offer single-file binaries that do not require installing anything -
82 you can just run them on these platforms:
83
84 * Linux
85 * Mac OS X
86 * FreeBSD
87 * OpenBSD and NetBSD (no xattrs/ACLs support or binaries yet)
88 * Cygwin (experimental, no binaries yet)
89 * Linux Subsystem of Windows 10 (experimental)
90
91**Free and Open Source Software**
92 * security and functionality can be audited independently
93 * licensed under the BSD (3-clause) license, see `License`_ for the
94 complete license
95
96Easy to use
97~~~~~~~~~~~
98
99Initialize a new backup repository (see ``borg init --help`` for encryption options)::
100
101 $ borg init -e repokey /path/to/repo
102
103Create a backup archive::
104
105 $ borg create /path/to/repo::Saturday1 ~/Documents
106
107Now doing another backup, just to show off the great deduplication::
108
109 $ borg create -v --stats /path/to/repo::Saturday2 ~/Documents
110 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
111 Archive name: Saturday2
112 Archive fingerprint: 622b7c53c...
113 Time (start): Sat, 2016-02-27 14:48:13
114 Time (end): Sat, 2016-02-27 14:48:14
115 Duration: 0.88 seconds
116 Number of files: 163
117 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
118 Original size Compressed size Deduplicated size
119 This archive: 6.85 MB 6.85 MB 30.79 kB <-- !
120 All archives: 13.69 MB 13.71 MB 6.88 MB
121
122 Unique chunks Total chunks
123 Chunk index: 167 330
124 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
125
126
127For a graphical frontend refer to our complementary project `BorgWeb <https://borgweb.readthedocs.io/>`_.
128
129Helping, Donations and Bounties, becoming a Patron
130--------------------------------------------------
131
132Your help is always welcome!
133
134Spread the word, give feedback, help with documentation, testing or development.
135
136You can also give monetary support to the project, see there for details:
137
138https://www.borgbackup.org/support/fund.html
139
140Links
141-----
142
143* `Main Web Site <https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/>`_
144* `Releases <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/releases>`_,
145 `PyPI packages <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/borgbackup>`_ and
146 `ChangeLog <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/blob/master/docs/changes.rst>`_
147* `Offline Documentation <https://readthedocs.org/projects/borgbackup/downloads>`_
148* `GitHub <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg>`_ and
149 `Issue Tracker <https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/issues>`_.
150* `Web-Chat (IRC) <https://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=%23borgbackup&uio=MTY9dHJ1ZSY5PXRydWUa8>`_ and
151 `Mailing List <https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/borgbackup>`_
152* `License <https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/en/stable/authors.html#license>`_
153* `Security contact <https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/latest/support.html#security-contact>`_
154
155Compatibility notes
156-------------------
157
158EXPECT THAT WE WILL BREAK COMPATIBILITY REPEATEDLY WHEN MAJOR RELEASE NUMBER
159CHANGES (like when going from 0.x.y to 1.0.0 or from 1.x.y to 2.0.0).
160
161NOT RELEASED DEVELOPMENT VERSIONS HAVE UNKNOWN COMPATIBILITY PROPERTIES.
162
163THIS IS SOFTWARE IN DEVELOPMENT, DECIDE YOURSELF WHETHER IT FITS YOUR NEEDS.
164
165Security issues should be reported to the `Security contact`_ (or
166see ``docs/support.rst`` in the source distribution).
167
168.. start-badges
169
170|doc| |build| |coverage| |bestpractices| |bounties|
171
172.. |bounties| image:: https://api.bountysource.com/badge/team?team_id=78284&style=bounties_posted
173 :alt: Bounty Source
174 :target: https://www.bountysource.com/teams/borgbackup
175
176.. |doc| image:: https://readthedocs.org/projects/borgbackup/badge/?version=stable
177 :alt: Documentation
178 :target: https://borgbackup.readthedocs.org/en/stable/
179
180.. |build| image:: https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/workflows/CI/badge.svg?branch=1.1-maint
181 :alt: Build Status (1.1-maint)
182 :target: https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/actions
183
184.. |coverage| image:: https://codecov.io/github/borgbackup/borg/coverage.svg?branch=1.1-maint
185 :alt: Test Coverage (1.1-maint)
186 :target: https://codecov.io/github/borgbackup/borg?branch=1.1-maint
187
188.. |screencast_basic| image:: https://asciinema.org/a/133292.png
189 :alt: BorgBackup Basic Usage
190 :target: https://asciinema.org/a/133292?autoplay=1&speed=1
191
192.. _installation: https://asciinema.org/a/133291?autoplay=1&speed=1
193
194.. _advanced usage: https://asciinema.org/a/133293?autoplay=1&speed=1
195
196.. |bestpractices| image:: https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/271/badge
197 :alt: Best Practices Score
198 :target: https://bestpractices.coreinfrastructure.org/projects/271
199
200.. end-badges
201
