Extract a Folder from Duplicity Archive

Question

Using the duplicity command, I need to specify the following:

• a specific folder to restore
• indicate time and date from which to restore
• indicate the destination to restore to

How can I specify these 3 things using the duplicity command?

Solution 1

That's correct, even if it tells "--file-to-restore", you can enter any file or folder path (without the "/" sign at the beginning of it, for example "temp/logs") at "foldername" and any "destination folder" (with the "/"sign at the beginning of it, for example "/temp/logs") to the command.

Sample: I want to restore my /temp/logs which is backed-up 3 days ago into the same folder:

duplicity -t 3D --file-to-restore temp/logs file:///backup/location /temp/logs

Sample2: I want to restore my file /temp/logs/app-error.log which is backed-up 3 days ago into the same folder:

duplicity -t 3D --file-to-restore temp/logs/app-error.log file:///backup/location /temp/logs/app-error.log

Note that you have to give a full destination path for the file.

Sample3: My backup stays at an ftp server=my.ftp.server with user=root at the location=my_backup, the same scenario with #1:

duplicity -t 3D --file-to-restore temp/logs sftp://[email protected]/my_backup /temp/logs

Solution 2

duplicity -t 3D --file-to-restore <foldername> file:///backup/location <destination folder>

Duplicity enters restore mode because the URL comes before the local directory.

-t 3D 3 days ago

If you want to check more information, here are useful links depending on the version:

• http://duplicity.nongnu.org/vers7/duplicity.1.html
• http://duplicity.nongnu.org/docs.html
• https://duplicity.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Comments

[der Michi]

Actually, when using the parameter --file-to-restore in duplicity 0.8.12 and specifying a file or directory to restore, I had to use the absolute path instead of a relative one. This is opposed to that the documentation states. Otherwise I always got an error message that the indicated file/path cannot be found in the backup.