RClone Backup

This is a script I used to take backups of my disk and google drive on Windows. It utilizes rclone to do so.

NOTE: I do not take any responsibility for this script potentially causing data loss or any unwanted consequences what so ever.

Setup

You will need to use Golang to use this script.

Sample config files also exist in the ./configs directory which you can update if needed or just point the script to custom files in other locations.

Refer to the Usage section on more info regarding how to pass in configurations to the script and more usage information.

Executable

You will be required to download the rclone executable you wish you use (for your OS) and point the script to it for the script to work.

rclone Configuration

You are expected to setup an rclone[.exe] config to access remote locations like Google Drive or otherwise, if applicable. Refer to rclone documentation to find how to set this up.

For the case of Google Drive, it is recommended to get your own custom client_id and client_secret to avoid being rate limited on the default ones. You can find more information on how to do this when going through the rclone config workflow which will link you to their documentation. A config like below will be created once you follow the process. You are recommended to look at official rclone documentation to see what other configs are needed for your usecases or in the case where this data is stale.

[<NAME_OF_THE_REMOTE>]
type = drive
client_id = <YOUR_CLIENT_ID>
client_secret = <YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET>
scope = drive.readonly
token = <SOME_TOKEN_INFO>
team_drive = 

Script Configuration

The script's config can be found in ./configs/config.json. Populate the file with array items representing backups you may wish to take. A sample of this is shown below where a disk directory is being backed up and the entire google-drive (this is the name of the remote you select during it's setup) remote location is being backed up.

{
    "Items": [
        {
            "Name": "my-disk-data",             // Any name for you to identify this config item
            "SourceDir": "C:/Windows",          // Source directory on disk
            "DestDir": "B:/My Windows Backup"   // Destination directory on disk
        },
        {
            "Name": "my-google-drive",
            "SourceDir": "google-drive:",   // Name of the remote you chose when configuring it
                                            // You can add absolute paths to access files on this remote
                                            // location as well after the colon ":" (the colon is important)
            "DestDir": "B:/My Google Drive Backup"
        }
    ]
}

Usage

Always run quick dry runs first to test things out.

For actual backups, run a comprehensive check first and then a quick-check for verification since comprehensive checks can be much slower.

Perhaps the best strategy is

• Use comprehensive checks for
  • first transfer
  • quarterly checks
• Use quick checks for
  • monthly checks
• Use dry runs to test things

Flags can be used in conjunction with one another.

Help

To get more usage information and details about the flags (highly recommended)

go run ./cmd/backup.go --help

Quick Check

Files are checked without computing checksums

go run ./cmd/backup.go --rclone-binary ./rclone.exe --rclone-config ./configs/rclone.conf --config ./configs/config.json --log-bundle-base-dir B:/backup-logs

Comprehensive Check

Files are checked with also computing checksums, this obviously takes longer because every file will have its checksum computed (on source and destination). It can be 100 times slower than the quick check.

go run ./cmd/backup.go --rclone-binary ./rclone.exe --rclone-config ./configs/rclone.conf --config ./configs/config.json --log-bundle-base-dir B:/backup-logs  -checksum

Dry-run

No mutations take place with this flag.

Quick Dry run:

go run ./cmd/backup.go --rclone-binary ./rclone.exe --rclone-config ./configs/rclone.conf --config ./configs/config.json --log-bundle-base-dir B:/backup-logs  --dry-run

Comprehensive Dry run:

go run ./cmd/backup.go --rclone-binary ./rclone.exe --rclone-config ./configs/rclone.conf --config ./configs/config.json --log-bundle-base-dir B:/backup-logs  -checksum --dry-run