Africa's OSS/Linux All Blogs

Linux server is better than Swiss army knife. Using pipes you can join commands together to process and transform data.

Task:

Automatically backup entire folder to encrypted file and upload in secure manner to backup server using minimum of disk space.

Code:

#
# install as cronjob, must escape any % as \% otherwise it becomes newline
#
tar cvf - /home/tom | gpg --no-tty --passphrase-file pass.txt -c - | ssh user@backup.com "cat > tom.tar.gpg"

Explanation:
--no-tty is required for cronjob as there is no tty attached during execution
pass.txt will contain your symmetrical password

#
# create tarball containing entire folder and send output to stdout
#
tar cvf - /home/tom

#
# read from stdin and encrypt data stream using pass phrase in file pass.txt
#
| gpg --no-tty --passphrase-file pass.txt -c -

#
# read from stdin data stream and send via secure shell to backup server as tom.tar.gpg
#
| ssh user@backup.com "cat > tom.tar.gpg"

for more info try

man tar
man gpg
man ssh

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