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I have started making bash scripts for converting various backup snapshots from one tool to another. So far I've covered: - Borg to Restic - Borg to Kopia The

I have started making bash scripts for converting various backup snapshots from one tool to another. So far I've covered: - Borg to Restic - Borg to Kopia They work quite fine, though Restic and Kopia lack the ability to change the root directory of the backup so if your script extracts to a unique temporary directory for each snapshot then you got some confusing output about no files being cached (Kopia) even though it technically deduplicates them quite well. (I suspect Borg doesn't have that ability as well.) Haven't published them yet but I think I will sometime this year. If somebody pings me I'm very likely to work on them a bit more and publish them though.

aborsy 4y ago
Since you have used several backup tools, I wonder which one you recommend.
- pdimitar 4y ago
  Definitely Kopia. I was skeptical at first, it's a relatively new tool and not much is known about it (at least on HN) but it's uber-fast and compresses extremely well. Detection of duplicate blocks seems both more aggressive and faster compared to Borg and Restic. It's honestly a win on all fronts. It can sync to remote places -- which I don't care about as I have a local directory where it does its stuff and I then distribute that with `rclone` to several encrypted cloud accounts -- BUT many people do care so to them it's an even bigger win. So yeah, I tried Borg and Restic and Kopia and Kopia wins by all accounts: size of backup directory and speed of operation at least. (One thing I should mention is that Kopia is also very aggressive at eliminating duplicate snapshots and sometimes you might find yourself lacking snapshots for e.g. five days as it happened with me; however, upon very close inspection -- think unpacking the two snapshots before and after that period, and checking diffs, it turned out that I lost nothing, everything I wanted was still there. But, it's a disclaimer one way or another. Plus, its policy for retaining stuff is not like that of e.g. Borg. Make sure to read up a bit on it before using. Again, it never loses data but it has a different opinion on what is "the last 10 hourly snapshots" compared to Borg.)
  - aborsy 4y ago
    Thanks a lot for sharing. I have been very happy with restic. It has worked flawlessly. The only thing missing from what I rather to have is error correction and asymmetric encryption. I might look into Kopia when I have time. I was a bit worried that it’s newer and might be less reliable.
  - ptman 4y ago
    What's your opinion on bupstash?
    - pdimitar 4y ago
      Tried it again about two months ago. Even though it definitely progressed feature-wise since my last try (>1 year ago), it compresses poorly and is fairly slow. I'd definitely rank it last if you put it next to Borg, Restic and Kopia.

aborsy 4y ago

Since you have used several backup tools, I wonder which one you recommend.

pdimitar 4y ago
Definitely Kopia. I was skeptical at first, it's a relatively new tool and not much is known about it (at least on HN) but it's uber-fast and compresses extremely well. Detection of duplicate blocks seems both more aggressive and faster compared to Borg and Restic. It's honestly a win on all fronts. It can sync to remote places -- which I don't care about as I have a local directory where it does its stuff and I then distribute that with `rclone` to several encrypted cloud accounts -- BUT many people do care so to them it's an even bigger win. So yeah, I tried Borg and Restic and Kopia and Kopia wins by all accounts: size of backup directory and speed of operation at least. (One thing I should mention is that Kopia is also very aggressive at eliminating duplicate snapshots and sometimes you might find yourself lacking snapshots for e.g. five days as it happened with me; however, upon very close inspection -- think unpacking the two snapshots before and after that period, and checking diffs, it turned out that I lost nothing, everything I wanted was still there. But, it's a disclaimer one way or another. Plus, its policy for retaining stuff is not like that of e.g. Borg. Make sure to read up a bit on it before using. Again, it never loses data but it has a different opinion on what is "the last 10 hourly snapshots" compared to Borg.)
- aborsy 4y ago
  Thanks a lot for sharing. I have been very happy with restic. It has worked flawlessly. The only thing missing from what I rather to have is error correction and asymmetric encryption. I might look into Kopia when I have time. I was a bit worried that it’s newer and might be less reliable.
- ptman 4y ago
  What's your opinion on bupstash?
  - pdimitar 4y ago
    Tried it again about two months ago. Even though it definitely progressed feature-wise since my last try (>1 year ago), it compresses poorly and is fairly slow. I'd definitely rank it last if you put it next to Borg, Restic and Kopia.