Borg (backup software)

{{Short description|Deduplicating backup program}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}

{{Infobox software

| name = Borg

| title = Borg

| logo = File:Borg_logo,_2017.svg

| developer = The Borg Collective

| released = {{Start date and age|2015|06|11}}

| ver layout = stacked

| repo = {{URL|https://github.com/borgbackup/borg}}

| programming language = Python, Cython, C

| operating system = Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
Experimental: Cygwin, Windows via WSL

| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit@end|P348|P548=Q2804309}}

| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}}}

| latest preview version = {{wikidata|property|preferred|references|edit@end|P348|P548=Q51930650}}

| latest preview date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|preferred|P348|P548=Q51930650|P577}}}}

| genre = Backup

| license = BSD{{cite web

| url = https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/blob/master/LICENSE

| title = LICENSE published in source repository

| date = 2013-06-24

| via = GitHub

| accessdate = 2023-01-29

}}

| website = {{URL|https://borgbackup.org/}}

}}

Borg (previously called Attic) is deduplicating backup software for various Unix-like operating systems. Borg is notably included in the Debian, Fedora, and Arch repositories.

History

{{Infobox software

| name = Attic

| author = Jonas Borgström

| released = {{Start date and age|2010|03|14}}

| programming language = Python, C

| ver layout = stacked

| latest release version = 0.16

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2015|05|16}}

| operating system = Linux, FreeBSD, OS X

| size = 86 KB

| discontinued = yes

| genre = Backup

| license = BSD{{cite web

| url = https://github.com/jborg/attic/blob/master/LICENSE

| title = LICENSE published in source repository

| date = 2013-06-24

| accessdate = 2023-01-29

| via = GitHub

}}

| website = {{URL|https://attic-backup.org/}} {{dead link|date=November 2021}}

}}

Attic development began in 2010 and was accepted to Debian in August 2013. Attic was available from pip and notably part of Debian, Ubuntu, Arch and Slackware.

In 2015, Attic was forked as "Borg" to support a "more open, faster paced development", according to its developers.{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/borgbackup/borg/issues/1|title = Discuss Goals · Issue #1 · borgbackup/Borg|website = GitHub}} Many issues in Attic have been fixed in this fork, but backward compatibility with the original program has been lost (a non-reversible upgrade process exists). Borg 1.0.0 was finally released on 5 March 2016.

As of April 2021, the attic website was removed.{{Cite web|url=http://attic-backup.org/|title=Archive of attic-backup.org as of 2021-04-15|date=2021-04-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415111432/http://attic-backup.org/|access-date=2021-11-19|archive-date=2021-04-15}}

The next major Borg version, 2.0, in beta since 2022, will break backward compatibility again, requiring a non-reversible upgrade process.{{Cite web |title=Important notes 2.x — Borg - Deduplicating Archiver 2.0.0b9.dev56 documentation |url=https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/latest/changes.html#borg-1-2-x-to-borg-2-0 |access-date=2024-05-22 |website=borgbackup.readthedocs.io}}

As of 2024, Borg is actively developed by many contributors,{{cite web |url=https://www.openhub.net/p/borgbackup |title=The BorgBackup Open Source Project on Open Hub |date=20 July 2024 |accessdate=20 July 2024}} while Attic is no longer available. Stable releases can be found in various Linux distributions such as Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, as well as in the ports collection of various BSD derivatives and through Homebrew for macOS. The project also offers pre-built binaries for Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS.

Design

Borg offers efficient, deduplicated, compressed and (optionally) encrypted and authenticated backups.

A backup includes metadata like owner/group, permissions, POSIX ACLs and Extended file attributes.

It handles special files also - like hardlinks, symlinks, devices files, etc. Internally it represents the files in an archive as a stream of metadata, similar to tar and unlike tools such as git. The Borg project has created extensive documentation of the internal workings.

It uses a rolling hash to implement data deduplication for all data in single repository.

Compression defaults to lz4, encryption is AES (via OpenSSL) authenticated by a HMAC.

Frontends

Since Borg is essentially a command line program, several GUI frontends for Borg exist. A few desktop app, Pika and Vorta for example and many web interfaces. See the community pages for an updated list.{{cite web|url=https://github.com/borgbackup/community|title=Resources from the Borg Community|accessdate=2024-06-04}}

See also

{{Portal bar|Free and open-source software|Linux|Internet}}

References

{{Reflist|30em}}