duplicati(1)
Duplicati is a backup client for encrypted, incremental backups to cloud storage and other destinations.
Synopsis
duplicati [COMMAND] [OPTIONS]Description
Duplicati performs encrypted, incremental backups of files and folders to various storage backends including cloud services (Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox), FTP, SSH, and local paths. It uses AES encryption and GPG for data protection, with deduplication to minimize storage usage.
The command supports both command-line operations and a web-based GUI interface (default). Backups can be scheduled, tested, and restored with fine-grained control over what data is included or excluded.
Duplicati is particularly useful for automated offsite backups with strong encryption and bandwidth-efficient incremental transfers, though restoration can be slower than traditional backup tools due to encryption overhead.
Common options
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
backup | Create or update a backup (requires backup name and destination URL) |
restore | Restore files from a backup to a specified path |
delete | Delete a backup set and all its data |
list | List files in a backup or show all backup jobs |
test | Test backup integrity without restoring |
--log-file | Write log output to specified file |
--log-level | Set verbosity level (Verbose, Debug, Information, Warning, Error) |
--encryption | Encryption scheme to use (aes-256-cbc, aes-192-cbc, gpg, etc.) |
--passphrase | Encryption passphrase for backup data |
--exclude | Exclude files matching specified pattern from backup |
--retention-policy | Define which backup versions to keep (e.g., '1W:1D, 4W:1W') |
--progress | Display progress information during operations |
Examples
Launch the web-based GUI interface (default behavior, runs on http://localhost:8200)
duplicatiCreate an encrypted backup of /home/user to local directory /mnt/backup, excluding temporary files
duplicati backup 'mybackup' 'file:///mnt/backup' /home/user --exclude '*.tmp'Backup to Amazon S3 bucket with AES-256 encryption and custom passphrase
duplicati backup 's3backup' 's3://mybucket/backups' /home/user --encryption aes-256-cbc --passphrase 'mypassword'List all files stored in the 'mybackup' backup set
duplicati list 'mybackup' 'file:///mnt/backup'Restore entire backup to /restore/path with encryption passphrase
duplicati restore 'mybackup' 'file:///mnt/backup' /restore/path --passphrase 'mypassword'Verify backup integrity and test decryption without restoring files
duplicati test 'mybackup' 's3://mybucket/backups' --passphrase 'mypassword'Create SFTP backup with retention policy keeping daily backups for 7 days, then weekly for 4 weeks
duplicati backup 'daily' 'sftp://[email protected]/backups' /home/user --retention-policy '7D:1D,4W:1W'Permanently delete the 'oldbackup' backup set and all associated data
duplicati delete 'oldbackup' 'file:///mnt/backup'