PyBackup

Auto Backup for Linux | Python | Opensource

Author: Bocaletto Luca

Interactive, single-file incremental backup tool with encryption, checksums, retention and restore—all in your terminal.

backup_main.py is an interactive, single-file CLI backup utility for Linux. It captures incremental snapshots, compresses changed files into tar.gz (or pigz), encrypts them with GPG, verifies integrity via SHA256, and auto-rotates old backups. A menu-driven interface simplifies configuration and restore.

Language: English, Italian.

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Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Features
3. Prerequisites
4. Installation
5. Configuration
6. Usage
   • Run Backup
   • Restore Archive
7. Exclude Patterns
8. Logging
9. Email Notifications
10. .backupignore Support
11. Contributing
12. License
13. Author

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Overview

backup_main.py is an all-in-one, interactive CLI utility for Linux (Debian/Ubuntu). It provides:

• Incremental backups based on file modification times
• Compressed archives (.tar.gz) or parallel compression with pigz
• GPG encryption of archives
• SHA256 checksums for integrity verification
• Automatic retention (rotation) of old backups
• Interactive restore of encrypted backups
• Persistent configuration stored in ~/.config/backup_main/config.json
• Exclude patterns and .backupignore support
• Console and rotating file logging
• Optional email notifications on success or failure

Everything runs from a simple menu—no separate modules, just one file!

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Features

• Interactive Menu: Configure, run backup and restore without memorizing flags
• Persistent Config: Your settings saved in ~/.config/backup_main/config.json
• Incremental Snapshots: Only changed or new files are archived
• Compression Options: Native tar.gz or faster pigz if installed
• GPG Encryption: Secure archives with your GPG key
• Checksums: SHA256 record saved alongside each .gpg file
• Retention: Automatically delete backups older than configured days
• Restore: List and decrypt any backup to a target folder
• Exclude Patterns: Filter out files or directories by glob pattern
• .backupignore: Place patterns in source dir for project-specific ignores
• Logging: Combines console output with daily rotating log files
• Email Alerts: SMTP notifications for success or failure

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• GPG (gnupg) command-line tool
• (Optional) pigz for parallel compression
• An existing GPG key pair (public key on the machine for encryption)
• SMTP server credentials if you want email notifications

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Installation

1. Clone the repo

   git clone https://github.com/bocaletto-luca/backup_main.py.git
   cd backup_main.py

2. Install the Python dependency

   pip install python-gnupg

3. Make the script executable

   chmod +x backup_main.py

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Configuration

1. Launch the script

   ./backup_main.py

2. Select 1) Configure settings

3. Enter:

   • Source directory (e.g. /home/user/projects)
   • Backup directory (e.g. ~/backups)
   • GPG key ID (the public key for encryption)
   • Retention days (how long to keep .gpg backups)
   • Exclude patterns (comma-separated globs)
   • Log level (DEBUG, INFO, WARN)
   • SMTP settings (server, port, username, password, from/to)

4. The tool saves all settings to ~/.config/backup_main/config.json.

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Usage

Run Backup

From the menu, choose 2) Run backup.
The script will:

1. Load your config and verify paths/GPG key
2. Scan source dir and load previous snapshot
3. Archive only changed files to bkp_<timestamp>.tar.gz
4. Encrypt archive to bkp_<timestamp>.tar.gz.gpg
5. Generate bkp_<timestamp>.tar.gz.gpg.sha256
6. Delete old backups beyond retention
7. Log actions and send optional email

Restore Archive

From the menu, choose 3) Restore archive.
You will see a numbered list of encrypted backups.
Select one, then specify a restore folder.
The script will:

1. Decrypt to a temporary .tar.gz
2. Extract contents into your target directory
3. Clean up temporary files

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Exclude Patterns

You can filter out files or directories by glob pattern. Examples:

• *.tmp
• cache/*
• **/*.log

Enter patterns in the configuration step (comma-separated).
Additionally, place a .backupignore file in your source directory to version-control ignore rules.

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Logging

• Console: real-time INFO/WARN/DEBUG messages
• File: backup.log in your backup directory, rotated daily
• Backup count: log files retained based on your retention setting

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Email Notifications

On each backup run (success or failure), you can send an email alert:

• SMTP server and credentials in config
• From and To addresses
• Subject indicates [OK] or [FAIL] plus timestamp

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.backupignore Support

Create a file named .backupignore in your source directory:

# ignore temp files
*.tmp
# ignore cache folder
cache/

These patterns are merged with your global exclude list.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Commit and push your changes
4. Open a Pull Request

For major changes, open an issue first to discuss.

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License

This project is licensed under the GPL License.

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Author

Luca Bocaletto (@bocaletto-luca)
Interactive backup enthusiast, Python developer.