A beautiful TUI (Terminal User Interface) for managing ZFS backups, built with Bubble Tea and Lipgloss.

📖 Full Documentation

• Incremental Backups - Efficient snapshots of ALL datasets with syncoid integration
• Multi-Host Backups - Back up multiple machines to the same drive with hostname namespacing
• Pull Remote Backup - Pull ZFS snapshots from remote servers via SSH
• Push Backup to Remote - Push local snapshots to a remote backup server via SSH
• Force Backup - Destructive backup option for out-of-sync scenarios
• Restore Files - Dual-panel file explorer to browse snapshots and restore files
• Pool Information - View detailed pool structure, health, datasets, and snapshots
• Pool Maintenance - Start, stop, and monitor scrub operations
• Device Preparation - Create encrypted ZFS pools with AES-256-GCM
• Safe Unmounting - Properly export pools and power off USB drives
• Smart Pool Defaults - Auto-detects source/destination pools based on naming
• Saved Host Profiles - Remote hosts are persisted for quick reuse
• CLI Mode - Command-line arguments for automation and scripting

graph LR
    subgraph "Local Machine"
        A[NIXROOT/home]
        B[NIXROOT/nix]
        C[NIXROOT/root]
    end
    subgraph "USB Backup Drive"
        D[NIXBACKUPS/abyss/home]
        E[NIXBACKUPS/abyss/nix]
        F[NIXBACKUPS/abyss/root]
    end
    A -->|syncoid| D
    B -->|syncoid| E
    C -->|syncoid| F

graph LR
    subgraph "Remote Server (myserver)"
        A[NIXROOT/home]
        B[NIXROOT/nix]
    end
    subgraph "Local USB Backup Drive"
        D[NIXBACKUPS/myserver/home]
        E[NIXBACKUPS/myserver/nix]
    end
    A -->|"syncoid (SSH pull)"| D
    B -->|"syncoid (SSH pull)"| E

graph LR
    subgraph "Local Machine"
        A[NIXROOT/home]
        B[NIXROOT/nix]
    end
    subgraph "Remote Backup Server"
        D[NIXBACKUPS/abyss/home]
        E[NIXBACKUPS/abyss/nix]
    end
    A -->|"syncoid (SSH push)"| D
    B -->|"syncoid (SSH push)"| E

graph TB
    subgraph "USB Backup Drive (NIXBACKUPS)"
        subgraph "abyss (laptop)"
            A1[home]
            A2[nix]
            A3[root]
        end
        subgraph "myserver (remote)"
            B1[home]
            B2[nix]
            B3[data]
        end
        subgraph "workstation (remote)"
            C1[home]
            C2[projects]
        end
    end

All datasets are namespaced by hostname, allowing multiple machines to share one backup drive without conflicts. Backward-compatible with existing flat NIXBACKUPS/home layouts.

# Download binary (Linux x86_64)
curl -L https://github.com/timlinux/zfs-backup/releases/latest/download/zfs-backup-linux-amd64 -o zfs-backup
chmod +x zfs-backup
sudo mv zfs-backup /usr/local/bin/

# Or with Nix
nix run github:timlinux/zfs-backup

See Installation Guide for more options including NixOS, Arch (AUR), Debian, Fedora, Snap, and Flatpak.

# Interactive mode
sudo zfs-backup

# CLI mode
sudo zfs-backup --backup      # Run incremental backup
sudo zfs-backup --unmount     # Safely unmount backup drive
sudo zfs-backup --help        # Show help

• Linux with ZFS filesystem
• syncoid (from sanoid package)
• Root privileges or ZFS delegation configured
• External drive with encrypted ZFS pool (for backups)

See Full Keyboard Reference.

• Getting Started
• Backup Operations
• Restore Files
• Pool Information
• Pool Maintenance
• Installation Guide
• ZFS Delegation

zfs-backup/
├── main.go       # Bubble Tea TUI and main application logic
├── zfs.go        # ZFS operations (backup, prepare, unmount)
├── state.go      # Backup state management for resume
├── restore.go    # Restore mode with dual-panel explorer
├── flake.nix     # Nix flake configuration
└── docs/         # MkDocs documentation

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

See Contributing Guide.

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Made with <3 by Kartoza | Donate! | GitHub