| Borg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | The Borg Collective |
| Release | June 11, 2015 |
| Stable release(s) | |
1.4.1[1] 
/ 18 April 2025 | |
| Preview release(s) | |
2.0.0b17[2]
/ 23 May 2025 | |
| Written in | Python, Cython, C |
| Operating system | Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD Experimental: Cygwin, Windows via WSL |
| Type | Backup |
| License | BSD 3-clause license[3] |
| Website | borgbackup |
| Repository | github |
Borg (previously called Attic) is deduplicating backup software for various Unix-like operating systems.[4][5] Borg is notably included in the Debian, Fedora, and Arch repositories.
History
edit| Attic | |
|---|---|
| Original author | Jonas Borgström |
| Release | March 14, 2010 |
| Final release(s) | |
0.16
/ May 16, 2015 | |
| Written in | Python, C |
| Operating system | Linux, FreeBSD, OS X |
| Size | 86 KB |
| Type | Backup |
| License | BSD[6] |
| Website | attic-backup |
| Repository | |
Attic development began in 2010 and was accepted to Debian in August 2013. Attic was available from pip and notably part of Debian, Ubuntu, Arch and Slackware.
In 2015, Attic was forked as "Borg" to support a "more open, faster paced development", according to its developers.[7] Many issues in Attic have been fixed in this fork, but backward compatibility with the original program has been lost (a non-reversible upgrade process exists). Borg 1.0.0 was finally released on 5 March 2016.
As of April 2021, the attic website was removed.[8]
The next major Borg version, 2.0, in beta since 2022, will break backward compatibility again, requiring a non-reversible upgrade process.[9]
As of 2024, Borg is actively developed by many contributors,[10] while Attic is no longer available. Stable releases can be found in various Linux distributions such as Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, as well as in the ports collection of various BSD derivatives and through Homebrew for macOS. The project also offers pre-built binaries for Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS.
Design
editBorg offers efficient, deduplicated, compressed and (optionally) encrypted and authenticated backups.
A backup includes metadata like owner/group, permissions, POSIX ACLs and Extended file attributes. It handles special files also - like hardlinks, symlinks, devices files, etc. Internally it represents the files in an archive as a stream of metadata, similar to tar and unlike tools such as git. The Borg project has created extensive documentation of the internal workings.
It uses a rolling hash to implement data deduplication for all data in single repository. Compression defaults to lz4, encryption is AES (via OpenSSL) authenticated by a HMAC.
Frontends
editSince Borg is essentially a command line program, several GUI frontends for Borg exist. Desktop applications like Vorta and Pika Backup, as well as many web interfaces, add features on top of Borg. See the community pages for an updated list.[11]
See also
edit
References
edit- ^ "Release 1.4.1".
- ^ "Release 2.0.0b17, beta quality, for testing only".
- ^ "LICENSE published in source repository". 2013-06-24. Retrieved 2023-01-29 – via GitHub.
- ^ Thommes, Ferdinand. "Keep It Safe » Linux Magazine". Linux Magazine. Retrieved 2026-05-06.
- ^ Singh, Tanveer (2025-12-05). "BorgBackup is great, but this self-hosted web UI makes it the best backup manager". XDA. Retrieved 2026-05-06.
- ^ "LICENSE published in source repository". 2013-06-24. Retrieved 2023-01-29 – via GitHub.
- ^ "Discuss Goals · Issue #1 · borgbackup/Borg". GitHub.
- ^ "Archive of attic-backup.org as of 2021-04-15". 2021-04-15. Archived from the original on 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
- ^ "Important notes 2.x — Borg - Deduplicating Archiver 2.0.0b9.dev56 documentation". borgbackup.readthedocs.io. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
- ^ "The BorgBackup Open Source Project on Open Hub". 20 July 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
- ^ "Resources from the Borg Community". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
External links
edit- Official Website of BorgBackup
- Website of Attic Backup Archived 2021-04-15 at the Wayback Machine
