borg/docs/foreword.rst

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.. include:: global.rst.inc
.. _foreword:
Foreword
========
|project_name| is a secure backup program for Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X.
|project_name| is designed for efficient data storage where only new or
modified data is stored.
Features
--------
Space efficient storage
Variable block size `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 repository (and optionally compressed).
Optional data encryption
All data can be protected using 256-bit AES_ encryption and data integrity
and authenticity is verified using `HMAC-SHA256`_.
Off-site backups
|project_name| can store data on any remote host accessible over SSH as
long as |project_name| is installed. If you don't have |project_name|
installed there, you can use some network filesytem (sshfs, nfs, ...)
to mount a filesystem located on your remote host and use it like it was
local (but that will be slower).
Backups mountable as filesystems
Backup archives are :ref:`mountable <borg_mount>` as
`userspace filesystems`_ for easy backup verification and restores.
Glossary
--------
.. _deduplication_def:
Deduplication
Deduplication is a technique for improving storage utilization by
eliminating redundant data.
.. _archive_def:
Archive
An archive is a collection of files along with metadata that include file
permissions, directory structure and various file attributes.
Since each archive in a repository must have a unique name a good naming
convention is ``hostname-YYYY-MM-DD``.
.. _repository_def:
Repository
A repository is a filesystem directory storing data from zero or more
archives. The data in a repository is both deduplicated and
optionally encrypted making it both efficient and safe. Repositories are
created using :ref:`borg_init` and the contents can be listed using
:ref:`borg_list`.
Key file
When a repository is initialized a key file containing a password
protected encryption key is created. It is vital to keep this file safe
since the repository data is totally inaccessible without it.