CLI Reference¶

backupd [--config <path>] <command>

Global flag: --config / -c - path to config file (default ~/.backupd.yaml).

Commands¶

Command	Description
`list`	List configured plans
`status [plan]`	Show the last backup status for each plan (or one plan)
`history [plan]`	Show all snapshots for a plan (or all plans)
`run [plan]`	Execute a backup now (or all plans)
`run [plan] --dry-run`	Report what would be uploaded without writing anything
`check`	Validate the configuration and print a plan summary
`restore <plan> <id>`	Restore a snapshot to the current directory
`restore <plan> <id> --dry-run`	Report what would be restored without writing anything
`prune [plan]`	Apply the plan's retention policy now, then garbage-collect orphaned blocks
`prune [plan] --dry-run`	Report what would be deleted without deleting anything
`daemon`	Run the scheduler daemon
`verify [plan] [id]`	Verify snapshot integrity (all snapshots, or one)
`export-systemd [plan]`	Generate systemd timer + service units
`completion <shell>`	Generate shell completion (`bash`, `zsh`, `fish`)
`help`	Show help

check¶

backupd check

Validates the whole configuration and prints a summary per plan: sources, destination, schedule, encryption, and retention. Problems are reported as warnings and make check exit non-zero:

file source paths that are not accessible
cron schedules that do not parse
encryption enabled without a passphrase

run¶

backupd run server               # execute the plan
backupd run                      # execute every configured plan, in order
backupd run server --dry-run     # show what would be uploaded

With --dry-run no data is written: storage uploads, hooks, snapshot state, and retention pruning are all skipped. The reported size is what a real run would upload.

A run that finds nothing changed - same files and dumps as the previous snapshot - records no new snapshot and reports nothing changed instead of a snapshot id.

export-systemd¶

backupd export-systemd server -o /etc/systemd/system

Flag	Shorthand	Description
`--output`	`-o`	Output directory for the generated unit files (default: current directory)
`--binary`		Path to the backupd binary used in the service unit (default: resolved from `os.Executable()`)
`--config`		Path to config file (overrides the global flag for unit generation)

restore¶

backupd restore server <snapshot-id> --target /tmp/restore
backupd restore server <snapshot-id> --dry-run   # report without writing

--target / -t - directory to restore into (defaults to the current directory)
--dry-run - read the manifest and report each source (file count, bytes, blocks) and whether archive objects are present, without writing anything
File sources are reconstructed block-by-block from the manifest; other sources are written as their stored archive (.sql, .tar).

prune¶

backupd prune server               # apply retention now
backupd prune                      # apply retention for every plan
backupd prune server --dry-run     # report what would be deleted

Pruning normally happens automatically after every successful backup run; prune applies the plan's retention policy on demand, deleting the snapshots the policy no longer keeps and then garbage-collecting orphaned blocks. With --dry-run nothing is deleted - the snapshots and orphaned blocks that would be removed are reported. Plans without a retention policy are skipped when pruning all plans, and an error when named explicitly.

verify¶

backupd verify                # verify all snapshots of every plan
backupd verify server         # verify all snapshots of one plan
backupd verify server <id>    # verify one snapshot

Checks that every object referenced by a snapshot's manifest exists, decrypts successfully, and matches the content hash recorded in the manifest - for encrypted and unencrypted backups alike.

exit codes¶

0 - success
non-zero - error (missing args, config errors, backup/restore failures)