Sealback

This is a simple backup tool written in Python, using tar for archiving, zstandard for compression, and optionally rclone to upload backups to a cloud provider.

rclone must be installed and configured separately in order to be used. More information is available on the rclone official website.

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Features

• Backups using tar
• Compression using the Zstandard algorithm via the python-zstandard library
• Command Line Interface (CLI) built with Click
• Optional upload to cloud storage using rclone
• Load configuration from a JSON file
• checks integrity and security using cryptography

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Requirements

This project depends on the following external libraries:

• zstandard
• click
• cryptography

Virtual environment setup

It is recommended to run this project inside a virtual environment:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Safety Notes

At this point this is an unfinished tool, still in development and shouldn't be used as a safe tool for backups. But if you still consider using it, it's recommendable to test restoring any backups before relying on it. Always avoid running this tool as root, unless you know what you're doing.

CLI (Command Line Interface)

This tool provides a CLI for creating and restoring backups. create:

Usage: python -m src.cli create [OPTIONS] [SOURCES]...

Options:
  -o, --output PATH
  -l, --level INTEGER RANGE  Level to be used for the zstd algorithm
                             [default: (3); 0<=x<=22]
  --rclone TEXT              Rclone destination (ex: remote:backups)
  --force                    Overwrite output file if it already exists
  --file PATH                Load configuration from a JSON file
  --password TEXT            For encryption and integrity
  --help                     Show this message and exit.

restore:

Usage: python -m src.cli restore [OPTIONS] [BACKUP]

Options:
  -o, --output PATH
  -f, --force        Overwrite files in destination if they exist
  --file PATH        Load configuration from a JSON file
  --password TEXT    For decryption and integrity check
  --help             Show this message and exit.

JSON Config File

As of now, version 1 of the configuration file structure is used:

example-config-file.json:

{
    "version": 1,
    "create": {
        "sources": [
            "/home/user/projects-example"
        ],
        "ouput": "/home/user/backups/projects-example-backup.seal",
        "level": 5,
        "rclone": "gdrive:backups"
    },
    "restore": {
        "backup": "/home/user/backups/projects-example-backup.seal",
        "output": "/home/user/restore"
    }
}

Using the config file:

python -m src.cli create --file ./example-config-file.json

in this case, this is the same as:

python -m src.cli create /home/user/projects-example \
  -o /home/user/backups/projects-example-backup.seal \
  -l 5 --rclone gdrive:backups

and

python -m src.cli restore --file ./example-config-file.json

is the same as:

python -m src.cli restore /home/user/backups/projects-example-backup.seal \
  -o /home/user/restore

Notes

When creating a backup:

• At least one source path must be provided.
• When --rclone is provided, the backup file is uploaded using the rclone CLI.
• If the output path does not include a file extension .tar.zst will be appended automatically. Since the implementation of the header as a info container the project uses its own format (.seal).

In both cases:

• If the output file already exists and --force is not specified, the command will exit with an error.
• When using a config file (with --file), values explicitly passed via cli will override values defined in the JSON file. So if a json file has "level": 5 but -l 20 is passed to the cli, the algorithm will use a level 20

Examples

Create a backup of /home/user/projects and store it in /home/user/backups:

python -m src.cli create /home/user/projects \
  -o /home/user/backups/projects-backup.seal

Create a backup and upload it to a cloud remote:

python -m src.cli create /home/user/projects \
  -o /home/user/backups/projects-backup \
  --rclone gdrive:backups

Create a backup using a JSON file:

python -m src.cli create --file /home/user/projects/backup-projects-config.json

As of now the use of password is mandatory, the app will prompt you to enter a password, but you can pass it explicitly using the --password option. Example:

python -m src.cli create --file /home/user/projects/backup-projects-config.json --password "yourPasswordHere"