Dest

Manipulates dest.conf and files stored on remote destinations.

$ hb dest [-c backupdir] subcommand args

The dest command requires a subcommand, and each subcommand may need arguments. Here are some examples:

Subcommands

clear - requires a list of destinations to be cleared. This command is typically used when a destination is about to be deleted from dest.conf and you want all the files removed first. The clear command requires confirmation before files are deleted unless --force is used. If any of the destinations to be cleared have the only copy of any file, an error occurs and no destinations are cleared.

For example, if you have cache-size-limit set to 0, all of your files are stored on remote destinations and none are local. If you only have one destination setup, the clear command will not do anything because this remote copy is your only copy. But if you have 2 destinations setup, clear will be able to clear one of them.

If you have cache-size-limit set to -1 (the default), then you have a local copy of all backup files in your backup directory. If you have one destination configured, the clear command will delete files from this destination because you still have your local copy. You could then setup a new destination later and the backup command would transfer all files from the local backup directory to the new destination.

After a destination is cleared, remove it from dest.conf or the next backup command will resync all files to the cleared destination.

edit - edits the dest.conf stored in the database using the EDITOR environment variable to choose an editor, or using vi if EDITOR is not set. If there is no dest.conf loaded into the database, a new one can be created with the editor. Changes must be saved before quitting the editor.

load - loads dest.conf from the file specified into the (encrypted) database to hide remote access credentials. If no file is specified, loads dest.conf from the backup directory. After dest.conf has been loaded into the database, the dest.conf text file is not used by HB; it can be stored with your backup key to a safe place and, for security purposes, deleted from disk. Keep in mind that since the key.conf file is stored alongside the database on the local system, it is theoretically possible to obtain the remote credentials from the database unless the key has a passphrase. There is nothing to be done about this because the remote credentials are needed to access the remote systems. For the best security keep an admin-passphrase set on the database (see the config command) and use a key passphrase. Unfortunately, using a key passphrase makes automated backups difficult so there is a trade-off.

ls - display a listing of all files stored at each destination.

Add -v for more details:

rename - renames a destination in the dest.db tracking file. The corresponding destname keyword in dest.conf must be updated manually to match.

show - display the dest.conf loaded into the database

setid - forces a destination to be tied to a backup. This is normally not necessary unless the DESTID file was manually removed from a remote destination, or a backup directory was deleted manually without clearing the remote backup area.

sync - synchronize destinations if necessary. This happens automatically during every backup. When adding a new destination to an already large backup, syncing the new destination may take quite a bit of time. See "Syncing a New Destination" on the Backup page for a tip on how to handle a large sync so that it doesn’t interfere with regular daily backups.

test - tests a single destination or all currently configured destinations. Without options It performs 3 rounds of upload, download, and delete tests for many file sizes, displaying the performance of each and an average performance for each file size. Options allow finer control of the test:

Example:

unload - write the dest.conf stored in the database to the file specified, or to dest.conf in the backup directory if no file is specified, and erase it from the database.

verify - does a quick check of all remote backup files, without downloading any data. This check might be a file existence test, a file size check, or a checksum verification, depending on the capabilities of the remote destination. S3 and B2 implement all 3 checks, most destinations implement the exist and size checks, and some only implement the exist check. If a file does not verify on a destination and there is a copy available on another destination, the verify command will mark the file to be transferred with either the next backup or dest sync. Verify is designed to be quick, does not read any file data, and so may not detect subtle changes in files. For an exhaustive check of all remote backup data, use selftest -v4 to download and checks every file (and see --sample and --inc options).