189 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
189 lines
6.2 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: How to extract a backup
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eleventyNavigation:
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key: 📤 Extract a backup
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parent: How-to guides
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order: 7
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---
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## Extract
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When the worst happens—or you want to test your backups—the first step is
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to figure out which archive to extract. A good way to do that is to use the
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`rlist` action:
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```bash
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borgmatic rlist
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```
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(No borgmatic `rlist` action? Try `list` instead or upgrade borgmatic!)
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That should yield output looking something like:
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```text
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host-2023-01-01T04:05:06.070809 Tue, 2023-01-01 04:05:06 [...]
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host-2023-01-02T04:06:07.080910 Wed, 2023-01-02 04:06:07 [...]
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```
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Assuming that you want to extract the archive with the most up-to-date files
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and therefore the latest timestamp, run a command like:
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```bash
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borgmatic extract --archive host-2023-01-02T04:06:07.080910
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```
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(No borgmatic `extract` action? Upgrade borgmatic!)
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Or simplify this to:
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```bash
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borgmatic extract --archive latest
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```
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The `--archive` value is the name of the archive to extract. This extracts the
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entire contents of the archive to the current directory, so make sure you're
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in the right place before running the command—or see below about the
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`--destination` flag.
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## Repository selection
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If you have a single repository in your borgmatic configuration file(s), no
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problem: the `extract` action figures out which repository to use.
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But if you have multiple repositories configured, then you'll need to specify
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the repository to use via the `--repository` flag. This can be done either
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with the repository's path or its label as configured in your borgmatic configuration file.
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```bash
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borgmatic extract --repository repo.borg --archive host-2023-...
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```
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## Extract particular files
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Sometimes, you want to extract a single deleted file, rather than extracting
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everything from an archive. To do that, tack on one or more `--path` values.
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For instance:
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```bash
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borgmatic extract --archive latest --path path/1 --path path/2
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```
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Note that the specified restore paths should not have a leading slash. Like a
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whole-archive extract, this also extracts into the current directory by
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default. So for example, if you happen to be in the directory `/var` and you
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run the `extract` command above, borgmatic will extract `/var/path/1` and
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`/var/path/2`.
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### Searching for files
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If you're not sure which archive contains the files you're looking for, you
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can [search across
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archives](https://torsion.org/borgmatic/docs/how-to/inspect-your-backups/#searching-for-a-file).
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## Extract to a particular destination
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By default, borgmatic extracts files into the current directory. To instead
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extract files to a particular destination directory, use the `--destination`
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flag:
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```bash
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borgmatic extract --archive latest --destination /tmp
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```
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When using the `--destination` flag, be careful not to overwrite your system's
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files with extracted files unless that is your intent.
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## Database restoration
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The `borgmatic extract` command only extracts files. To restore a database,
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please see the [documentation on database backups and
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restores](https://torsion.org/borgmatic/docs/how-to/backup-your-databases/).
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borgmatic does not perform database restoration as part of `borgmatic extract`
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so that you can extract files from your archive without impacting your live
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databases.
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## Mount a filesystem
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If instead of extracting files, you'd like to explore the files from an
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archive as a [FUSE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_in_Userspace)
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filesystem, you can use the `borgmatic mount` action. Here's an example:
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```bash
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borgmatic mount --archive latest --mount-point /mnt
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```
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This mounts the entire archive on the given mount point `/mnt`, so that you
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can look in there for your files.
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Omit the `--archive` flag to mount all archives (lazy-loaded):
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```bash
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borgmatic mount --mount-point /mnt
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```
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Or use the "latest" value for the archive to mount the latest archive:
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```bash
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borgmatic mount --archive latest --mount-point /mnt
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```
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If you'd like to restrict the mounted filesystem to only particular paths from
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your archive, use the `--path` flag, similar to the `extract` action above.
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For instance:
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```bash
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borgmatic mount --archive latest --mount-point /mnt --path var/lib
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```
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When you're all done exploring your files, unmount your mount point. No
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`--archive` flag is needed:
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```bash
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borgmatic umount --mount-point /mnt
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```
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## Extract the configuration files used to create an archive
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<span class="minilink minilink-addedin">New in version 1.7.15</span> borgmatic
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automatically stores all the configuration files used to create an archive
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inside the archive itself. This is useful in cases where you've lost a
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configuration file or you want to see what configurations were used to create a
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particular archive.
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To extract the configuration files from an archive, use the `config bootstrap`
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action. For example:
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```bash
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borgmatic config bootstrap --repository repo.borg --destination /tmp
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```
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This extracts the configuration file from the latest archive in the repository
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`repo.borg` to `/tmp/etc/borgmatic/config.yaml`, assuming that the only
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configuration file used to create this archive was located at
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`/etc/borgmatic/config.yaml` when the archive was created.
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Note that to run the `config bootstrap` action, you don't need to have a
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borgmatic configuration file. You only need to specify the repository to use via
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the `--repository` flag; borgmatic will figure out the rest.
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If a destination directory is not specified, the configuration files will be
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extracted to their original locations, silently *overwriting* any configuration
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files that may already exist. For example, if a configuration file was located
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at `/etc/borgmatic/config.yaml` when the archive was created, it will be
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extracted to `/etc/borgmatic/config.yaml` too.
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If you want to extract the configuration file from a specific archive, use the
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`--archive` flag:
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```bash
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borgmatic config bootstrap --repository repo.borg --archive host-2023-01-02T04:06:07.080910 --destination /tmp
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```
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<span class="minilink minilink-addedin">New in version 1.8.1</span> Set the
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`store_config_files` option to `false` to disable the automatic backup of
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borgmatic configuration files, for instance if they contain sensitive
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information you don't want to store even inside your encrypted backups. If you
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do this though, the `config bootstrap` action will no longer work.
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