BetterBackups

Production-ready backup plugin for Paper / Spigot targeting Minecraft 1.21 through 1.21.11.

Features

• Fully asynchronous backup pipeline (no blocking file I/O/compression on main thread)
• Modular service architecture:
  • BackupManager
  • CompressionService (strategy pattern)
  • StorageService
  • RetentionService
  • SchedulerService
• Scheduling modes:
  • fixed interval
  • cron
  • idle/no-player windows
  • scheduled restart with backup
  • startup/shutdown trigger flags
• Player controls:
  • kick players at backup start
  • block joins while backup runs
  • require empty server
  • wait-for-empty timeout
• Full snapshot backups by default (incremental disabled by default)
• Restore command with confirmation + partial scopes (worlds, plugins, config, all)
• Retention enforcement:
  • max count
  • max age
  • max total size
• Integrity options:
  • SHA-256 checksum
  • post-backup verification
• Safety checks:
  • disk space threshold
  • partial backup cleanup
  • overlap prevention
• Config auto-updater for missing keys (with backup on large migrations)
• Modrinth update checker
• Optional FastStats integration toggle
• Audit logging to plugins/BetterBackups/backup.log

Commands

• /backup now - run a backup now
• /backup list - list backups
• /backup delete <id> - delete backup
• /backup restore <id> [all|worlds|plugins|config] [confirm] - restore backup
• /backup reload - reload config and scheduler

Permissions

• backup.run
• backup.restore
• backup.list
• backup.admin

Backup Flow

1. Run pre-backup commands and save-all on main thread.
2. Optionally run save-off.
3. Stage files to temporary folder.
4. Compress staged data.
5. Atomically move archive to final storage.
6. Write metadata/manifest, run retention, post commands, optional save-on.

Compression

• Native ZIP support is always available.
• Compression type is now selected automatically from backup.compression.level:
  • 0-2 -> tar
  • 3-6 -> zip
  • 7-9 -> 7z
• Optional external binary for tar/7z:
  • Preferred: set per-format paths:
    • backup.compression.tar_binary_path
    • backup.compression.seven_zip_binary_path
  • Legacy fallback path: backup.compression.binary_path, or
  • Enable startup download with backup.compression.auto_download_binary_on_startup: true
  • Provide download URLs:
    • backup.compression.tar_download_url
    • backup.compression.seven_zip_download_url
• Automatic fallback to ZIP when external compression is unavailable.

Setup

1. Build:

./gradlew build

2. Copy build/libs/BetterBackups.jar into plugins/.
3. Start server once to generate config (or use bundled config).
4. Configure src/main/resources/config.yml values for your server workload.

Notes

• Restore is destructive by nature; always use explicit confirmation and test restores on a staging server first.
• Incremental restore applies the backup chain from the last full backup to the selected backup.