Introduction

BashBackup is a reliable backup system for Linux. With BashBackup you can automate database and folder backups and upload them to another FTP, Dropbox, or any rclone remote (pCloud, S3, Google Drive, etc.). By combining BashBackup with Linux Cron, you can setup backup schedules and fully automate this process.

Features

• Automatic backup of mySQL database(s)
• Automatic backup of folder(s) with exclusions
• Automatic upload of all backups to another FTP
• Automatic upload of all backups to Dropbox using Dropbox access token
• Automatic upload of all backups to any rclone remote
• Password protected zip (optional)
• Keeping last x number of backups
• Custom compression ratio

Authors

• Amin Babaeipanah

Changelog

• 3.1.0 2026-04-03: Added rclone support for uploading backups to any rclone remote.
• 3.0.0 2023-04-15: Rewrite of bashbackup.

Arguments

-n|--name           File name of the zipped backup.
                    Timestamp will be appended to the name.
-b|--backup         Path to backup.
--database-type     Define database type to backup. Default = mysql
--database-host     Define database host to backup. Default = localhost
--database-name     Define database name to backup.
--database-user     Define database user to backup.
--database-pass     Define database password to backup.
-e|--exclude        Backup exclude. Supports wildcards.
-t|--to-path        Backup destination path. Default = /var/backup
-k|--to-keep        Number of backups to keep. Default = 7
-d|--dropbox-key    Dropbox access token.
--ftp-host          FTP IP/URL.
--ftp-user          FTP user.
--ftp-pass          FTP password.
--rclone-remote     Rclone remote and path. e.g. rclone_drive:/backups
--rclone-path       Rclone binary path. Default = /usr/bin/rclone
--rclone-config     Rclone config file path. Default = ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
-p|--zip-password   Password to encrypt backup archive.
-c|--compression    Compression level 0-9. Default is 5.
-q|--quiet          Quiet operation.

Script Setup

• Download the script to your desired location.

• Make a Dropbox app and get a Dropbox access token if you also want to upload backups to Dropbox.

• Create .env file where bashbackup is saved to store zip password, dropbox key, database password, etc.

  Email alerts on failed backups is also supported but postfix must be configured on the server. Remove bb_email_alert_from and bb_email_alert_to if you don't want email alerts.

  bb_email_alert_from='from@domain.com'
  bb_email_alert_to='to@domain.com'
  bb_dropbox_key='<dropbox_key>'
  bb_zip_password='<zip_password>'
  bb_db_wordpress='<wordpress_db_password>'
  bb_rclone_remote='rclone_drive:/backups'
  bb_rclone_path='/home/user/bin/rclone'
  bb_rclone_config='~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf'
  

Rclone Setup

To upload backups to a remote storage provider (e.g. pCloud, S3, Google Drive, etc.) via rclone:

1. Install rclone: https://rclone.org/install/

2. Configure your rclone remote:

   rclone config

   This will create a config file at ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf by default.

3. Secure the config file (contains tokens/secrets):

   chmod 700 ~/.config/rclone
   chmod 600 ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

4. Test your remote:

   rclone lsd rclone_drive:/ --config ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

Cron Examples

In these examples, bashbackup is stored at /bashbackup/bb and the env file is stored at /bashbackup/.env.

Backup "$HOME/folder", exluding zip files and bin folder to Dropbox with zip password (don't miss the dot in the beginning):

. /bashbackup/.env && /bashbackup/bb -n "backup-name" -b "$HOME/folder" -e "*.zip" -e "*/bin/* -d $bb_dropbox_key -p $bb_zip_password

Backup mysql database to Dropbox with zip password (don't miss the dot in the beginning):

. /bashbackup/.env && /bashbackup/bb -n "backup-name" --database-name "wordpress" --database-user "user" --database-pass $bb_db_wordpress -d $bb_dropbox_key -p $bb_zip_password

Backup folder to rclone remote with zip password (don't miss the dot in the beginning):

. /bashbackup/.env && /bashbackup/bb -n "backup-name" -b "$HOME/folder" --rclone-remote $bb_rclone_remote --rclone-config $bb_rclone_config -p $bb_zip_password

Compatibility

Tested on cPanel 66.0.24, Ubuntu 22.04