backup

Backup and restore

Everything rCommander keeps - settings, the connection tree, trusted host keys, and the stored passwords and private keys - lives in one file, rcommander.db (see Database). One backup of that file is a full backup.

You can back it up at any time, also while rCommander runs and writes: the backup is a single, consistent file, made with SQLite's VACUUM INTO and checked (PRAGMA integrity_check) before it gets its name. A backup that fails or is cancelled leaves nothing behind, and an existing file is never replaced unless you ask for it.

Back up from the window

1. Choose Configuration > Database... in the menu bar (or Database backup and restore in the command palette). The dialog opens on the tab Back up.
2. The path field suggests Documents\rCommander Backups\rcommander-<date>-<time>.db; the folder is created when needed. Type another file name, or a folder - a folder gets a generated name, rcommander-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.db.
3. Tick Replace the file if it exists only if you mean to overwrite an older backup.
4. Click Back up. The status bar shows the path and the size when it is done.

Backups with a generated name are kept up to Settings, page Exchange, Automatic backups to keep (10 by default): after a new one the oldest generated ones are removed. A backup you named yourself is never removed, nor is the safety copy a restore makes.

Back up from the command line

rcommander backup D:\Backups\                      # a folder: generated name
rcommander backup D:\Backups\rcommander.db --overwrite

• The target is a file, or a folder for a generated name rcommander-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.db.
• An existing file stays unless you add --overwrite.
• It works while the rCommander window is open.
• It prints Database backed up: <path> (<size> bytes) and exits with 0 only for a backup that passed its check; an error goes to the error output with exit code 1.
• rCommander is a window program, so a Windows shell does not wait for it. In a script, wait for the exit code with start /wait rcommander backup <target> (cmd) or Start-Process rcommander -ArgumentList 'backup','<target>' -Wait -PassThru (PowerShell).
• On Linux the file is readable only by you (0600); on Windows it takes the permissions of the folder it is written to, so choose a folder only you can read.

Scheduled backups are not built in; the command line is meant for your own task or script.

What is inside, and why the master password matters

A backup holds the connections and host keys in plain text - names, hosts, users, ports, notes - and passwords, private keys and passphrases only encrypted. Without your master password the stored secrets in a backup cannot be used, by you or by anyone who finds the file. Keep the master password; there is no way to recover it.

Restore

Restoring replaces all settings, connections and stored secrets with those of the backup. It is done only in the window, never by a command line or an assistant.

1. Choose Configuration > Database... in the menu bar and open the tab Restore.
2. Enter the backup file, or pick it with Browse..., and click Restore.
3. rCommander checks the file: it must be intact, an rCommander database, and not from a newer rCommander version than the one you run. A file that fails is refused and nothing changes.
4. It backs up the current state first, as rcommander-<date>-<time>-before-restore.db in the backups folder next to the database, and tells you where.
5. Restart rCommander. The backup replaces the database when rCommander starts next, before anything opens it; then rCommander brings it up to date as usual. If another program still holds the file, the swap waits for the following start. Only a file this restore prepared is swapped in: one that appeared beside the database by other means, or changed since the check, is set aside as rcommander.db.restore-rejected, the database stays, and rCommander tells you.

After a restore, stored secrets need the master password that was in force when the backup was made.

Export and import settings and connections

A backup is the whole database, tied to its master password. To bring your setup to another computer - with another vault - or to take over only some of it, export it to an .rcexport file and import that file there.

Export

1. Choose Configuration > Export settings and connections... in the menu bar (or Export settings and connections in the command palette, or Export... on the settings' page Import/Export). The database dialog opens on the tab Export.
2. Tick what goes into the file:
   • Settings - every setting of the settings dialog, the protected ones too;
   • Connections, folders and login scripts - hosts, users, ports, key file paths, notes and the login scripts the connections run;
   • Trusted host keys and certificates - the SSH host keys and FTPS certificates you trusted;
   • Hotlist and tabs - the directory hotlist and the folder tabs of both panels.
3. Keep Encrypt with an export password (recommended) ticked and type an export password twice. It is the file's own password, not the master password (it may be the same). Without it the file cannot be imported, and it cannot be recovered.
4. Tick Include passwords, private keys and passphrases only if they are to go along. In an encrypted file they are protected by the export password. In an unencrypted file they are written in plain text; rCommander asks you to confirm that before it writes such a file. If the vault is locked, the dialog asks for the master password first.
5. Click Export. The status bar shows the file and its size.

Never exported: the MCP token and the vault itself, window positions, and hotlist entries or tabs on a server or inside an archive (they name this computer's connections). The dialog remembers the parts and the encryption you chose last; they are also settings on the Import/Export page.

Import

1. Choose Configuration > Import settings and connections... (or Import... on the settings' page Import/Export).
2. Enter the file, or pick it with Browse..., type its export password if it is encrypted, and click Read (or press Enter). Nothing is imported yet.
3. The table shows every entry of the file with its status: New, Already there, Changed (with the value here and the value in the file) or Not imported (with the reason - an unknown setting, a host key that does not parse, a place on a server, ...). New and changed entries are ticked; tick or untick each, or use Select all and Select none.
4. Click Import. The status bar says how many entries were written. Passwords and keys go straight into the vault; if it is locked, or there is none yet, the dialog asks for the master password (a new one twice) first.

Importing the same file again adds nothing twice: connections are recognised by a mark the export gives them, also after they travelled to another computer and back, and are updated instead.

What is never taken without your tick

Some entries are shown unticked with a warning and are imported only if you tick them:

• a host key or certificate that differs from the one trusted here - tick it only if you know the server's key really changed; it is never replaced silently;
• a protected setting (the MCP server, the vault's locks, the programs F3 and F4 start, the export's encryption);
• a connection whose server changes while it has stored passwords or keys here - they would otherwise go to another server;
• a network share or device path - in the hotlist, the tabs, a start folder or a connection's key file: opening it sends your Windows sign-in to that server.

A wrong export password, a damaged or changed file, a file from a newer rCommander or one larger than 8 MiB is refused as a whole, and nothing changes.

Security notes

• Prefer an encrypted export, and keep the export password apart from the file.
• An unencrypted export without passwords and keys still holds your hosts, users and folders in plain text, like a backup does.
• Delete an export you no longer need, above all an unencrypted one with passwords.

Assistants and backups

An AI assistant can make a backup over MCP (db_backup), but only into the backups folder next to the database and only under a generated name - it cannot choose a path. It cannot restore, and it can never read a backup: backups are protected files, recognised by their folder, their name and their contents. See MCP server.

Exports and imports are the window's alone: an assistant can neither export (an export can hold your passwords) nor import (an import changes trusted keys and settings).