-
How-to guides
- 📥 Set up backups
- 🔀 Make per-application backups
- 🔒 Provide your passwords
- ☁️ Make backups redundant
- 📏 Deal with very large backups
- 🔎 Inspect your backups
- 🚨 Monitor your backups
- 📤 Extract a backup
- 🗄️ Backup your databases
- 🧹 Add preparation and cleanup steps
- 💾 Backup to a removable drive/server
- 🔧 Run arbitrary Borg commands
- 📦 Upgrade borgmatic/Borg
- 🏗️ Develop on borgmatic
- Reference guides
Configuration file
Here is a full sample borgmatic configuration file including all available options:
# Where to look for files to backup, and where to store those backups.
# See https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/quickstart.html and
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/create.html
# for details.
location:
# List of source directories to backup. Globs and tildes are
# expanded. Do not backslash spaces in path names.
source_directories:
- /home
- /etc
- /var/log/syslog*
- /home/user/path with spaces
# Paths to local or remote repositories (required). Tildes are
# expanded. Multiple repositories are backed up to in
# sequence. Borg placeholders can be used. See the output of
# "borg help placeholders" for details. See ssh_command for
# SSH options like identity file or port. If systemd service
# is used, then add local repository paths in the systemd
# service file to the ReadWritePaths list.
repositories:
- ssh://user@backupserver/./sourcehostname.borg
- ssh://user@backupserver/./{fqdn}
- /var/local/backups/local.borg
# Working directory for the "borg create" command. Tildes are
# expanded. Useful for backing up using relative paths. See
# http://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/create.html
# for details. Defaults to not set.
# working_directory: /path/to/working/directory
# Stay in same file system: do not cross mount points beyond
# the given source directories. Defaults to false. But when a
# database hook is used, the setting here is ignored and
# one_file_system is considered true.
# one_file_system: true
# Only store/extract numeric user and group identifiers.
# Defaults to false.
# numeric_ids: true
# Store atime into archive. Defaults to true in Borg < 1.2,
# false in Borg 1.2+.
# atime: false
# Store ctime into archive. Defaults to true.
# ctime: false
# Store birthtime (creation date) into archive. Defaults to
# true.
# birthtime: false
# Use Borg's --read-special flag to allow backup of block and
# other special devices. Use with caution, as it will lead to
# problems if used when backing up special devices such as
# /dev/zero. Defaults to false. But when a database hook is
# used, the setting here is ignored and read_special is
# considered true.
# read_special: false
# Record filesystem flags (e.g. NODUMP, IMMUTABLE) in archive.
# Defaults to true.
# flags: true
# Mode in which to operate the files cache. See
# http://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/create.html
# for details. Defaults to "ctime,size,inode".
# files_cache: ctime,size,inode
# Alternate Borg local executable. Defaults to "borg".
# local_path: borg1
# Alternate Borg remote executable. Defaults to "borg".
# remote_path: borg1
# Any paths matching these patterns are included/excluded from
# backups. Globs are expanded. (Tildes are not.) See the
# output of "borg help patterns" for more details. Quote any
# value if it contains leading punctuation, so it parses
# correctly. Note that only one of "patterns" and
# "source_directories" may be used.
# patterns:
# - R /
# - '- /home/*/.cache'
# - + /home/susan
# - '- /home/*'
# Read include/exclude patterns from one or more separate
# named files, one pattern per line. Note that Borg considers
# this option experimental. See the output of "borg help
# patterns" for more details.
# patterns_from:
# - /etc/borgmatic/patterns
# Any paths matching these patterns are excluded from backups.
# Globs and tildes are expanded. Note that a glob pattern must
# either start with a glob or be an absolute path. Do not
# backslash spaces in path names. See the output of "borg help
# patterns" for more details.
# exclude_patterns:
# - '*.pyc'
# - /home/*/.cache
# - '*/.vim*.tmp'
# - /etc/ssl
# - /home/user/path with spaces
# Read exclude patterns from one or more separate named files,
# one pattern per line. See the output of "borg help patterns"
# for more details.
# exclude_from:
# - /etc/borgmatic/excludes
# Exclude directories that contain a CACHEDIR.TAG file. See
# http://www.brynosaurus.com/cachedir/spec.html for details.
# Defaults to false.
# exclude_caches: true
# Exclude directories that contain a file with the given
# filenames. Defaults to not set.
# exclude_if_present:
# - .nobackup
# If true, the exclude_if_present filename is included in
# backups. Defaults to false, meaning that the
# exclude_if_present filename is omitted from backups.
# keep_exclude_tags: true
# Exclude files with the NODUMP flag. Defaults to false.
# exclude_nodump: true
# Path for additional source files used for temporary internal
# state like borgmatic database dumps. Note that changing this
# path prevents "borgmatic restore" from finding any database
# dumps created before the change. Defaults to ~/.borgmatic
# borgmatic_source_directory: /tmp/borgmatic
# Repository storage options. See
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/create.html and
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/general.html for
# details.
# storage:
# The standard output of this command is used to unlock the
# encryption key. Only use on repositories that were
# initialized with passcommand/repokey/keyfile encryption.
# Note that if both encryption_passcommand and
# encryption_passphrase are set, then encryption_passphrase
# takes precedence. Defaults to not set.
# encryption_passcommand: secret-tool lookup borg-repository repo-name
# Passphrase to unlock the encryption key with. Only use on
# repositories that were initialized with
# passphrase/repokey/keyfile encryption. Quote the value if it
# contains punctuation, so it parses correctly. And backslash
# any quote or backslash literals as well. Defaults to not
# set.
# encryption_passphrase: "!\"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~"
# Number of seconds between each checkpoint during a
# long-running backup. See
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/faq.html
# for details. Defaults to checkpoints every 1800 seconds (30
# minutes).
# checkpoint_interval: 1800
# Specify the parameters passed to then chunker
# (CHUNK_MIN_EXP, CHUNK_MAX_EXP, HASH_MASK_BITS,
# HASH_WINDOW_SIZE). See
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/internals.html
# for details. Defaults to "19,23,21,4095".
# chunker_params: 19,23,21,4095
# Type of compression to use when creating archives. See
# http://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/create.html
# for details. Defaults to "lz4".
# compression: lz4
# Remote network upload rate limit in kiBytes/second. Defaults
# to unlimited.
# upload_rate_limit: 100
# Number of times to retry a failing backup before giving up.
# Defaults to 0 (i.e., does not attempt retry).
# retries: 3
# Wait time between retries (in seconds) to allow transient
# issues to pass. Increases after each retry as a form of
# backoff. Defaults to 0 (no wait).
# retry_wait: 10
# Directory where temporary files are stored. Defaults to
# $TMPDIR
# temporary_directory: /path/to/tmpdir
# Command to use instead of "ssh". This can be used to specify
# ssh options. Defaults to not set.
# ssh_command: ssh -i /path/to/private/key
# Base path used for various Borg directories. Defaults to
# $HOME, ~$USER, or ~.
# borg_base_directory: /path/to/base
# Path for Borg configuration files. Defaults to
# $borg_base_directory/.config/borg
# borg_config_directory: /path/to/base/config
# Path for Borg cache files. Defaults to
# $borg_base_directory/.cache/borg
# borg_cache_directory: /path/to/base/cache
# Path for Borg security and encryption nonce files. Defaults
# to $borg_base_directory/.config/borg/security
# borg_security_directory: /path/to/base/config/security
# Path for Borg encryption key files. Defaults to
# $borg_base_directory/.config/borg/keys
# borg_keys_directory: /path/to/base/config/keys
# Umask to be used for borg create. Defaults to 0077.
# umask: 0077
# Maximum seconds to wait for acquiring a repository/cache
# lock. Defaults to 1.
# lock_wait: 5
# Name of the archive. Borg placeholders can be used. See the
# output of "borg help placeholders" for details. Defaults to
# "{hostname}-{now:%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f}". If you specify this
# option, consider also specifying a prefix in the retention
# and consistency sections to avoid accidental
# pruning/checking of archives with different archive name
# formats.
# archive_name_format: '{hostname}-documents-{now}'
# Bypass Borg error about a repository that has been moved.
# Defaults to false.
# relocated_repo_access_is_ok: true
# Bypass Borg error about a previously unknown unencrypted
# repository. Defaults to false.
# unknown_unencrypted_repo_access_is_ok: true
# Additional options to pass directly to particular Borg
# commands, handy for Borg options that borgmatic does not yet
# support natively. Note that borgmatic does not perform any
# validation on these options. Running borgmatic with
# "--verbosity 2" shows the exact Borg command-line
# invocation.
# extra_borg_options:
# Extra command-line options to pass to "borg init".
# init: --extra-option
# Extra command-line options to pass to "borg prune".
# prune: --extra-option
# Extra command-line options to pass to "borg compact".
# compact: --extra-option
# Extra command-line options to pass to "borg create".
# create: --extra-option
# Extra command-line options to pass to "borg check".
# check: --extra-option
# Retention policy for how many backups to keep in each category. See
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/prune.html for
# details. At least one of the "keep" options is required for pruning
# to work. To skip pruning entirely, run "borgmatic create" or "check"
# without the "prune" action. See borgmatic documentation for details.
retention:
# Keep all archives within this time interval.
# keep_within: 3H
# Number of secondly archives to keep.
# keep_secondly: 60
# Number of minutely archives to keep.
# keep_minutely: 60
# Number of hourly archives to keep.
# keep_hourly: 24
# Number of daily archives to keep.
keep_daily: 7
# Number of weekly archives to keep.
# keep_weekly: 4
# Number of monthly archives to keep.
# keep_monthly: 6
# Number of yearly archives to keep.
# keep_yearly: 1
# When pruning, only consider archive names starting with this
# prefix. Borg placeholders can be used. See the output of
# "borg help placeholders" for details. Defaults to
# "{hostname}-". Use an empty value to disable the default.
# prefix: sourcehostname
# Consistency checks to run after backups. See
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/check.html and
# https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/extract.html for
# details.
# consistency:
# List of one or more consistency checks to run on a periodic
# basis (if "frequency" is set) or every time borgmatic runs
# checks (if "frequency" is omitted).
# checks:
# Name of consistency check to run: "repository",
# "archives", "data", and/or "extract". Set to
# "disabled" to disable all consistency checks.
# "repository" checks the consistency of the
# repository, "archives" checks all of the
# archives, "data" verifies the integrity of the
# data within the archives, and "extract" does an
# extraction dry-run of the most recent archive.
# Note that "data" implies "archives".
# - name: repository
# How frequently to run this type of consistency
# check (as a best effort). The value is a number
# followed by a unit of time. E.g., "2 weeks" to
# run this consistency check no more than every
# two weeks for a given repository or "1 month" to
# run it no more than monthly. Defaults to
# "always": running this check every time checks
# are run.
# frequency: 2 weeks
# Paths to a subset of the repositories in the location
# section on which to run consistency checks. Handy in case
# some of your repositories are very large, and so running
# consistency checks on them would take too long. Defaults to
# running consistency checks on all repositories configured in
# the location section.
# check_repositories:
# - user@backupserver:sourcehostname.borg
# Restrict the number of checked archives to the last n.
# Applies only to the "archives" check. Defaults to checking
# all archives.
# check_last: 3
# When performing the "archives" check, only consider archive
# names starting with this prefix. Borg placeholders can be
# used. See the output of "borg help placeholders" for
# details. Defaults to "{hostname}-". Use an empty value to
# disable the default.
# prefix: sourcehostname
# Options for customizing borgmatic's own output and logging.
# output:
# Apply color to console output. Can be overridden with
# --no-color command-line flag. Defaults to true.
# color: false
# Shell commands, scripts, or integrations to execute at various
# points during a borgmatic run. IMPORTANT: All provided commands and
# scripts are executed with user permissions of borgmatic. Do not
# forget to set secure permissions on this configuration file (chmod
# 0600) as well as on any script called from a hook (chmod 0700) to
# prevent potential shell injection or privilege escalation.
# hooks:
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# before all the actions for each repository.
# before_actions:
# - echo "Starting actions."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# before creating a backup, run once per repository.
# before_backup:
# - echo "Starting a backup."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# before pruning, run once per repository.
# before_prune:
# - echo "Starting pruning."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# before compaction, run once per repository.
# before_compact:
# - echo "Starting compaction."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# before consistency checks, run once per repository.
# before_check:
# - echo "Starting checks."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# before extracting a backup, run once per repository.
# before_extract:
# - echo "Starting extracting."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# after creating a backup, run once per repository.
# after_backup:
# - echo "Finished a backup."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# after compaction, run once per repository.
# after_compact:
# - echo "Finished compaction."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# after pruning, run once per repository.
# after_prune:
# - echo "Finished pruning."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# after consistency checks, run once per repository.
# after_check:
# - echo "Finished checks."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# after extracting a backup, run once per repository.
# after_extract:
# - echo "Finished extracting."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# after all actions for each repository.
# after_actions:
# - echo "Finished actions."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# when an exception occurs during a "prune", "compact",
# "create", or "check" action or an associated before/after
# hook.
# on_error:
# - echo "Error during prune/compact/create/check."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# before running all actions (if one of them is "create").
# These are collected from all configuration files and then
# run once before all of them (prior to all actions).
# before_everything:
# - echo "Starting actions."
# List of one or more shell commands or scripts to execute
# after running all actions (if one of them is "create").
# These are collected from all configuration files and then
# run once after all of them (after any action).
# after_everything:
# - echo "Completed actions."
# List of one or more PostgreSQL databases to dump before
# creating a backup, run once per configuration file. The
# database dumps are added to your source directories at
# runtime, backed up, and removed afterwards. Requires
# pg_dump/pg_dumpall/pg_restore commands. See
# https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/app-pgdump.html and
# https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/libpq-ssl.html for
# details.
# postgresql_databases:
# Database name (required if using this hook). Or
# "all" to dump all databases on the host. Note
# that using this database hook implicitly enables
# both read_special and one_file_system (see
# above) to support dump and restore streaming.
# - name: users
# Database hostname to connect to. Defaults to
# connecting via local Unix socket.
# hostname: database.example.org
# Port to connect to. Defaults to 5432.
# port: 5433
# Username with which to connect to the database.
# Defaults to the username of the current user.
# You probably want to specify the "postgres"
# superuser here when the database name is "all".
# username: dbuser
# Password with which to connect to the database.
# Omitting a password will only work if PostgreSQL
# is configured to trust the configured username
# without a password or you create a ~/.pgpass
# file.
# password: trustsome1
# Database dump output format. One of "plain",
# "custom", "directory", or "tar". Defaults to
# "custom" (unlike raw pg_dump). See pg_dump
# documentation for details. Note that format is
# ignored when the database name is "all".
# format: directory
# SSL mode to use to connect to the database
# server. One of "disable", "allow", "prefer",
# "require", "verify-ca" or "verify-full".
# Defaults to "disable".
# ssl_mode: require
# Path to a client certificate.
# ssl_cert: /root/.postgresql/postgresql.crt
# Path to a private client key.
# ssl_key: /root/.postgresql/postgresql.key
# Path to a root certificate containing a list of
# trusted certificate authorities.
# ssl_root_cert: /root/.postgresql/root.crt
# Path to a certificate revocation list.
# ssl_crl: /root/.postgresql/root.crl
# Additional pg_dump/pg_dumpall options to pass
# directly to the dump command, without performing
# any validation on them. See pg_dump
# documentation for details.
# options: --role=someone
# List of one or more MySQL/MariaDB databases to dump before
# creating a backup, run once per configuration file. The
# database dumps are added to your source directories at
# runtime, backed up, and removed afterwards. Requires
# mysqldump/mysql commands (from either MySQL or MariaDB). See
# https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysqldump.html or
# https://mariadb.com/kb/en/library/mysqldump/ for details.
# mysql_databases:
# Database name (required if using this hook). Or
# "all" to dump all databases on the host. Note
# that using this database hook implicitly enables
# both read_special and one_file_system (see
# above) to support dump and restore streaming.
# - name: users
# Database hostname to connect to. Defaults to
# connecting via local Unix socket.
# hostname: database.example.org
# Port to connect to. Defaults to 3306.
# port: 3307
# Username with which to connect to the database.
# Defaults to the username of the current user.
# username: dbuser
# Password with which to connect to the database.
# Omitting a password will only work if MySQL is
# configured to trust the configured username
# without a password.
# password: trustsome1
# Additional mysql options to pass directly to
# the mysql command that lists available
# databases, without performing any validation on
# them. See mysql documentation for details.
# list_options: --defaults-extra-file=my.cnf
# Additional mysqldump options to pass directly to
# the dump command, without performing any
# validation on them. See mysqldump documentation
# for details.
# options: --skip-comments
# List of one or more MongoDB databases to dump before
# creating a backup, run once per configuration file. The
# database dumps are added to your source directories at
# runtime, backed up, and removed afterwards. Requires
# mongodump/mongorestore commands. See
# https://docs.mongodb.com/database-tools/mongodump/ and
# https://docs.mongodb.com/database-tools/mongorestore/ for
# details.
# mongodb_databases:
# Database name (required if using this hook). Or
# "all" to dump all databases on the host. Note
# that using this database hook implicitly enables
# both read_special and one_file_system (see
# above) to support dump and restore streaming.
# - name: users
# Database hostname to connect to. Defaults to
# connecting to localhost.
# hostname: database.example.org
# Port to connect to. Defaults to 27017.
# port: 27018
# Username with which to connect to the database.
# Skip it if no authentication is needed.
# username: dbuser
# Password with which to connect to the database.
# Skip it if no authentication is needed.
# password: trustsome1
# Authentication database where the specified
# username exists. If no authentication database
# is specified, the database provided in "name"
# is used. If "name" is "all", the "admin"
# database is used.
# authentication_database: admin
# Database dump output format. One of "archive",
# or "directory". Defaults to "archive". See
# mongodump documentation for details. Note that
# format is ignored when the database name is
# "all".
# format: directory
# Additional mongodump options to pass
# directly to the dump command, without performing
# any validation on them. See mongodump
# documentation for details.
# options: --role=someone
# ntfy:
# The topic to publish to.
# (https://ntfy.sh/docs/publish/)
# topic: topic
# The address of your self-hosted ntfy.sh instance.
# server: https://ntfy.your-domain.com
# start:
# The title of the message
# title: Ping!
# The message body to publish.
# message: Your backups have failed.
# The priority to set.
# priority: urgent
# Tags to attach to the message.
# tags: incoming_envelope
# finish:
# The title of the message.
# title: Ping!
# The message body to publish.
# message: Your backups have failed.
# The priority to set.
# priority: urgent
# Tags to attach to the message.
# tags: incoming_envelope
# fail:
# The title of the message.
# title: Ping!
# The message body to publish.
# message: Your backups have failed.
# The priority to set.
# priority: urgent
# Tags to attach to the message.
# tags: incoming_envelope
# List of one or more monitoring states to ping for:
# "start", "finish", and/or "fail". Defaults to
# pinging for failure only.
# states:
# - start
# - finish
# Configuration for a monitoring integration with
# Healthchecks. Create an account at https://healthchecks.io
# (or self-host Healthchecks) if you'd like to use this
# service. See borgmatic monitoring documentation for details.
# healthchecks:
# Healthchecks ping URL or UUID to notify when a
# backup begins, ends, or errors.
# ping_url: https://hc-ping.com/your-uuid-here
# Verify the TLS certificate of the ping URL host.
# Defaults to true.
# verify_tls: false
# Send borgmatic logs to Healthchecks as part the
# "finish" state. Defaults to true.
# send_logs: false
# Number of bytes of borgmatic logs to send to
# Healthchecks, ideally the same as PING_BODY_LIMIT
# configured on the Healthchecks server. Set to 0 to
# send all logs and disable this truncation. Defaults
# to 100000.
# ping_body_limit: 200000
# List of one or more monitoring states to ping for:
# "start", "finish", and/or "fail". Defaults to
# pinging for all states.
# states:
# - finish
# Configuration for a monitoring integration with Cronitor.
# Create an account at https://cronitor.io if you'd
# like to use this service. See borgmatic monitoring
# documentation for details.
# cronitor:
# Cronitor ping URL to notify when a backup begins,
# ends, or errors.
# ping_url: https://cronitor.link/d3x0c1
# Configuration for a monitoring integration with PagerDuty.
# Create an account at https://www.pagerduty.com/ if you'd
# like to use this service. See borgmatic monitoring
# documentation for details.
# pagerduty:
# PagerDuty integration key used to notify PagerDuty
# when a backup errors.
# integration_key: a177cad45bd374409f78906a810a3074
# Configuration for a monitoring integration with Crunhub.
# Create an account at https://cronhub.io if you'd like to
# use this service. See borgmatic monitoring documentation
# for details.
# cronhub:
# Cronhub ping URL to notify when a backup begins,
# ends, or errors.
# ping_url: https://cronhub.io/ping/1f5e3410-254c-5587
# Umask used when executing hooks. Defaults to the umask that
# borgmatic is run with.
# umask: 0077
Note that you can also download this configuration file for use locally.
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