Using the CLI¶

The ezbak command runs backups from a shell. It shares its configuration with the library and the container. Anything you can do in a container, you can do at the terminal for a one-off backup, a local test, or a scripted job.

Command shape¶

The global options come before the subcommand. They include --name, --storage, the --s3-* options, -v/-vv, --log-file, and --log-prefix. The options of each subcommand come after the subcommand.

ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups <command> [options]

For the full list, run ezbak --help or ezbak <command> --help. The four commands are create, list, prune, and restore.

Create a backup¶

ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups create --source ~/Documents

To add more sources, repeat --source. To narrow the file selection, use --include-regex and --exclude-regex. See Including and excluding files.

List backups¶

ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups list

Each line prints the filename of the backup, which includes the full YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS timestamp. Copy that timestamp into restore --restore-date to restore that exact backup.

Prune old backups¶

Set one or more keep rules. If any rule marks a backup, that backup survives. Preview the result first with --dry-run.

# Keep the 10 most recent
ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups prune --keep-last 10

# See what a prune deletes, without deleting it
ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups prune --keep-last 10 --dry-run

A prune asks for confirmation before it deletes anything. In a script, or in any other non-interactive context, add --force to skip the prompt. --dry-run skips the prompt too, because it deletes nothing.

ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups prune --keep-last 10 --force

For how the rules combine, see Retention policies.

Restore a backup¶

# Latest backup
ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups restore --restore-path ~/restore

# Newest backup at or before a point in time
ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups \
  restore --restore-path ~/restore --restore-date 202412

# Exit cleanly if no backup exists yet
ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups \
  restore --restore-path ~/restore --skip-if-no-backup

For the point-in-time matching rule and --skip-if-no-backup, see Restore backups.

Back up to S3¶

Pass --s3-bucket. If the host has no credentials of its own, provide them through the environment. The CLI has no credential flags, so secrets never land in your shell history.

export EZBAK_AWS_ACCESS_KEY="your-access-key"
export EZBAK_AWS_SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key"

ezbak --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups --s3-bucket my-bucket \
  create --source ~/Documents

For bucket prefixes, and for writing to local storage and S3 at once, see Back up to S3.

Verbosity¶

Add -v for DEBUG output, or -vv for TRACE. Write logs to a file with --log-file. Add a prefix to every line with --log-prefix.

ezbak -vv --name my-documents --storage ~/Backups --log-file ezbak.log \
  create --source ~/Documents

For every flag, see the CLI reference.