Getting started

npm install -g backdot
backdot init

This creates ~/.backdot/config.json with sensible defaults and walks you through setup. Open the config file and set your repository URL and the files you want backed up:

{
  "repository": "[email protected]:USERNAME/backdot-backup.git",
  "machine": "my-work-laptop",
  "paths": ["~/.zshrc", "~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/*.zsh", "~/.ssh/config", "~/.npmrc"]
}

Run your first backup:

backdot backup

or configure the backport process to run automatically (daily at 2am)

backdot schedule

Configuration

| Key | Description | | ------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | paths | Glob patterns matching files. To back up a whole directory, use a trailing /** (e.g. ~/.config/nvim/**) — a bare directory path matches nothing. |

Prefix a pattern with ! to exclude matching files:

{
  "paths": ["~/.config/ghostty/**", "!~/.config/ghostty/crash-reports/**"]
}

Encryption

To encrypt files before they are pushed to the remote repo, add "encrypt": true to your config.

On first backup you'll be prompted for a password and offered to save it to ~/.backdot/encryption.key so that future backups do not prompt for a password.

For non-interactive backups (the scheduled job, CI, etc.) you can supply the password via the BACKDOT_PASSWORD environment variable instead of the key file.

Post-restore hook

Add a ~/.backdot/post-restore shell script which will be executed after backdot restoreto install packages, clone repos, etc. It's backed up automatically.

Commands

| Command | Description | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- | | init | Set up backdot for the first time | | backup | Run a backup now | | restore | Restore latest backup from the configured repo | | restore <url> | Restore from a specific repo URL | | restore [url] --commit <sha> | Restore from a specific backup commit | | restore [url] --machine <name> | Restore a specific machine non-interactively | | restore [url] --yes (-y) | Restore new files non-interactively (skips existing files) | | restore [url] --dry-run | Preview what restore would change, without writing any files | | history [url] | Browse and restore a previous backup | | schedule | Schedule automatic daily backup (Mac-only) | | unschedule | Unschedule the daily backup | | status | Show schedule and resolved file list |

Development

npm install
npm run build
npm start

License

MIT