Getting started with Tarsnap
There are 6 steps before you can begin your first backup with Tarsnap:
1. Install the Tarsnap client code
- Follow the instructions on the Tarsnap client code download page.
- You may predict how much it will cost to store your data in Tarsnap before you sign up.
2. Set up the configuration file
- We recommend that you begin with the default configuration file:
- You may check this text file (comments are indicated with the
#
character). Do not worry about thekeyfile
; that will be created in step 5.
3. Sign up for a Tarsnap account
- Sign up on the Tarsnap registration page.
- You will receive an email asking you to confirm your registration.
4. Deposit funds into your account
- Log into the Tarsnap account management interface and add funds to your account.
- The initial deposit must be $5 or more.
5. Register the machine(s) on which you will be using Tarsnap
- To register a machine with the Tarsnap server,
- /root/tarsnap.key: file in which to store the keys used to create and access archives.
- me@example.com: the email address you used to sign up with Tarsnap.
- mybox: the desired machine name.
with appropriate values substituted:
- Enter your Tarsnap account password when prompted.
6. Keep your key file safe
- Store your /root/tarsnap.key somewhere safe.If you lose tarsnap.key, you will not be able to access your archived data.
- There are many ways to keep it safe:
- Copy it to a different system.
- Put it on a USB disk.
- Give it to a friend.
- Print it out (it is printable text).
- Store it in a bank vault.
from https://www.tarsnap.com/gettingstarted.html
-------------------------
Downloading Tarsnap
At the present time, pre-built binaries are not available for Tarsnap — it must be compiled from the source code. Some operating systems include Tarsnap packages (e.g., the FreeBSD Tarsnap port, NetBSD Tarsnap port), which automate the compiling and installation process.
If you wish to compile manually,
- Download the latest source tarball and SHA256 hash file (below).
- Proceed to Compiling Tarsnap.
Latest Tarsnap release
Tarsnap 1.0.37 (March 10, 2016)
Downloads:
You can see all of the changes between 1.0.36 and this version in the public git repository at
https://github.com/Tarsnap/tarsnap
Major changes since version 1.0.36:
tarsnap-key
(gen
|mgmt
|regen
) now accept a--passphrase-time
option, which specifies the duration to be spent on computing the derived keys used for encrypting the tarsnap key file.tarsnap
now accepts a--keep-going
option when deleting or printing statistics about multiple archives.tarsnap-keymgmt
now accepts a--print-key-permissions
option for listing the permissions contained in a key file.tarsnap --print-stats
now accepts a--csv-file
option for printing statistics in comma-separated-value format.tarsnap
now accepts a--verify-config
command which exits silently after checking the configuration file(s) for syntax errors.tarsnap
now looks for a server named "v1-0-0-server.tarsnap.com
" instead of the historic "betatest-server.tarsnap.com
" hostname. This should have no user-visible effect in most configurations.tarsnap
now correctly warns if a sparse extract fails due to hardlinks.tarsnap
now prints a warning if creating an empty archive.
from https://www.tarsnap.com/download.html
----------------------
Client code for Tarsnap
Tarsnap is a secure, efficient online backup service: "Online backups for the truly paranoid".
This repository is intended for developers who may wish to watch changes in progress, investigate bugs, or test new (unreleased) features.
News
A list of major changes in each version is given in NEWS.md.
Building from git
Normal users should only use the signed tarballs from tarsnap.com, but for experimental development, use:
autoreconf -i
./configure
make
Packaging notes
Bash completion scripts: optional
configure
argument --with-bash-completion-dir[=DIR]
.- If
DIR
is specified, it installs to that directory. - If
DIR
is left blank, it attempts to usepkg-config
andbash-completion >= 2.0
to determine where to put the bash completion scripts. If your system does not match those requirements, please specifyDIR
explicitly.from https://github.com/Tarsnap/tarsnap