borg/docs/index.rst

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Welcome to Darc's documentation!
================================
Darc is a Deduplicating ARChiver written in Python.
The main goal of Darc is to provide an efficient and secure way to backup data.
Features
--------
Space efficient storage
Variable block size `deduplication <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_deduplication>`_
is used to reduce the number of bytes stored by detecting redundant data.
Each file is split into a number of variable length chunks and only chunks
that have never been seen before are added to the store.
Secure
All data is encrypted using `AES256 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard>`_
and the data integrity and authenticity is verified using
`HMAC-SHA256 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAC>`_.
Definitions
-----------
Deduplication
Deduplication is a technique for improving storage utilization by eliminating
redundant data.
Archive
A Darc archive is a collection of files along with metadata that include file
permissions, directory structure and various file attributes.
Store
A Darc store is a filesystem directory storing data from zero or more archives.
The data in a store is both deduplicated and encrypted making it both
efficient and safe.
Key file
When a Darc store is initialized a key file containing a password protected
encryption key is created. It is vital to keep this file safe since the store
data is totally inaccessible without it.
Requirements
------------
* Python >= 2.5
* pycrypto
* msgpack-python
* paramiko (for remote store support)
Installation
------------
Usage
-----
Before the first archive can be created a store needs to be initialized.
A store is directory containing
Initialize a new empty store::
$ darc init /data/my-backup.darc
Initializing store "/data/my-backup.darc"
Key file password (Leave blank for no password): *****
Key file password again: *****
Key file "/Users/jonas/.darc/keys/data_my_backup_darc" created.
Remember that this file (and password) is needed to access your data. Keep it safe!
Create an archive::
darc create -v /data/my-backup.darc::backup-2011-09-10 ~/Documents ~/src
Extract an archive::
darc extract -v /data/my-backup.darc::backup-2011-09-10
Delete an archive::
darc delete /data/my-backup.darc::backup-2011-09-10
List store contents::
darc list /data/my-backup.darc
List archive contents::
darc list /data/my-backup.darc::backup-2011-09-10
Indices and tables
==================
* :ref:`genindex`
* :ref:`search`