Backup Files Using GNU Stow

This repository provides a generic method to backup your files using GNU Stow. Stow is a symlink farm manager which can be used to manage your dotfiles and backups efficiently.

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Usage
  • Step 1: Organize Your Files
  • Step 2: Create a Stow Directory
  • Step 3: Stow Your Files
  • Step 4: Unstow Your Files
  • Step 5: Restore Your Files
• Example
• Contributing
• License

Prerequisites

Before using Stow, ensure you have the following:

• GNU Stow installed on your system. You can install it using your package manager. For example:
  • On Debian-based systems: sudo apt-get install stow
  • On Red Hat-based systems: sudo yum install stow
  • On macOS: brew install stow

Usage

Step 1: Organize Your Files

Organize the files you want to backup into directories. Each directory should represent a category or a specific backup set. For example:

backup/
├── documents
│   ├── file1.txt
│   └── file2.txt
├── photos
│   ├── photo1.jpg
│   └── photo2.jpg
└── configs
    ├── .bashrc
    └── .vimrc

Step 2: Create a Stow Directory

Create a directory where you will store your stow packages. This is typically done in your home directory:

mkdir -p ~/stow-backups

Step 3: Stow Your Files

Navigate to your stow directory and use Stow to create symlinks for your backup files. For example:

cd ~/stow-backups
stow -t ~ documents
stow -t ~ photos
stow -t ~ configs

This will create symlinks in your home directory pointing to the actual files in your backup directory.

Step 4: Unstow Your Files

If you need to remove the symlinks created by Stow, use the --delete option:

cd ~/stow-backups
stow -D documents
stow -D photos
stow -D configs

Step 5: Restore Your Files

To restore your files, simply navigate to the cloned repository and re-run the stow commands, specifying the target directory with -t. This will recreate the symlinks in your home directory or the target directory you specified:

cd ~/your-repo
stow -t ~ documents
stow -t ~ photos
stow -t ~ configs

Example

Assume you have the following files to backup:

1. .bashrc
2. notes.txt
3. photo.jpg

You can organize them as follows:

backup/
├── configs
│   └── .bashrc
├── documents
│   └── notes.txt
└── photos
    └── photo.jpg

Then, you can stow them:

cd ~/stow-backups
stow -t ~ configs
stow -t ~ documents
stow -t ~ photos

To unstow (remove) them:

cd ~/stow-backups
stow -D configs
stow -D documents
stow -D photos

To restore (re-stow) them:

cd ~/your-repo
stow -t ~ configs
stow -t ~ documents
stow -t ~ photos