borgmatic/docs/how-to/run-arbitrary-borg-commands.md

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How to run arbitrary Borg commands	key parent order 🔧 Run arbitrary Borg commands How-to guides 11

Running Borg with borgmatic

Borg has several commands (and options) that borgmatic does not currently support. Sometimes though, as a borgmatic user, you may find yourself wanting to take advantage of these off-the-beaten-path Borg features. You could of course drop down to running Borg directly. But then you'd give up all the niceties of your borgmatic configuration. You could file a borgmatic ticket or even a pull request to add the feature. But what if you need it now?

That's where borgmatic's support for running "arbitrary" Borg commands comes in. Running Borg commands with borgmatic takes advantage of the following, all based on your borgmatic configuration files or command-line arguments:

• configured repositories (automatically runs your Borg command once for each one)
• local and remote Borg binary paths
• SSH settings and Borg environment variables
• lock wait settings
• verbosity

borg action

The way you run Borg with borgmatic is via the borg action. Here's a simple example:

borgmatic borg break-lock

(No borg action in borgmatic? Time to upgrade!)

This runs Borg's break-lock command once on each configured borgmatic repository. Notice how the repository isn't present in the specified Borg options, as that part is provided by borgmatic.

You can also specify Borg options for relevant commands:

borgmatic borg list --progress

This runs Borg's list command once on each configured borgmatic repository. However, the native borgmatic list action should be preferred for most use.

What if you only want to run Borg on a single configured borgmatic repository when you've got several configured? Not a problem.

borgmatic borg --repository repo.borg break-lock

And what about a single archive?

borgmatic borg --archive your-archive-name list

Limitations

borgmatic's borg action is not without limitations:

• The Borg command you want to run (create, list, etc.) must come first after the borg action. If you have any other Borg options to specify, provide them after. For instance, borgmatic borg list --progress will work, but borgmatic borg --progress list will not.
• borgmatic supplies the repository/archive name to Borg for you (based on your borgmatic configuration or the borgmatic borg --repository/--archive arguments), so do not specify the repository/archive otherwise.
• The borg action will not currently work for any Borg commands like borg serve that do not accept a repository/archive name.
• Do not specify any global borgmatic arguments to the right of the borg action. (They will be passed to Borg instead of borgmatic.) If you have global borgmatic arguments, specify them before the borg action.
• Unlike other borgmatic actions, you cannot combine the borg action with other borgmatic actions. This is to prevent ambiguity in commands like borgmatic borg list, in which list is both a valid Borg command and a borgmatic action. In this case, only the Borg command is run.
• Unlike normal borgmatic actions that support JSON, the borg action will not disable certain borgmatic logs to avoid interfering with JSON output.

In general, this borgmatic borg feature should be considered an escape valve—a feature of second resort. In the long run, it's preferable to wrap Borg commands with borgmatic actions that can support them fully.