backup-genie

Backup Genie is a simple Open Source command line tool which uses an sqlite datasource to check all files in a particular directory and see if there exists a file somewhere else on your system which is stored in the backup

Nomenclature

'target' is the place we're looking for to see new files or changes to files. 'backup' is the place which stores the config.yaml in the root

Commands

backup-genie init - initialises a backup location backup-genie check - check the backup location for changes to files. Prints duplicates, missing files from the datastore (new files) and deleted files (in datastore but missing from file system) - shows mismatches of hashes too. backup-genie search - search a target location against the backup for pre-existing files backup-genie sync - sync the target location with the the backup location. Copies all files already in the backup location automatically to a sanely named folder in the backup location.

Possible future commands

backup-genie clean - removes dups from file system... backup-genie pretty - sorts files for you in a consistent manner (possibly from the file name / type and/or metadata last modified by month).

User Flow

User will have a source they want to check against a targetted backup location. E.g. An SD card with a bunch of images (new and old) and they might have already done a backup of a few of them when they copied over some wedding photos.

Init flow

See the first scan section.

Scenario 1: User Checks Target

User is unsure if the target is 'clean' with no missing or unaccounted for files.

backup-genie check runs a sync check against the target. This will discover any new, missing or duplicated items at the target.

Scenario 2: User wants to copy files to target

backp-genie sync runs a scan of the source location and compares all files to the data source. Any new or missing files will be copied over into a date stamped directory and catalogued in the data store.

First Scan

Run the backup-genie init command to create a config file and initial datastore.

By default the config will be loaded to the current working directory.

Another option is to store the config in your $HOME directory. backup-genie will look for config in the current working directory and fall back to $HOME. Otherwise, it will prompt you to run the init command.

Config file

The config.yaml file stores the location of the backup (and also the sqlstore.db file). You can manage all your config files in one location (can be different from where the sqlstore.db file is kept). We'll always keep the sqlstore.db file with the targetted backup location though.

By design, we always drop config.yaml in the same location as where init is run

MVP Definition

I'd be happy versioning 1.0.0 if we have the 4 main functions defined above.

Future Features

Remote backup to cloud storage (paid). Could be useful (backblaze)[https://github.com/kothar/go-backblaze] Organise would be amazing if we could cleverly group or label photos in some way.