Basic backup/restore question

BallerShotCaller · April 8, 2020 at 9:01 AM

When using LibreELEC's backup function via GUI I've read that it basically does backup the following folders:

/storage/.cache

/storage/.config

/storage/.kodi

Since I want to do a scheduled automatic backup onto a remote share via script I'm backing up the following folders via the following command:

Code

tar cfv backup.tar /storage/.cache /storage/.config /storage/.kodi /storage/scripts

As you can see I'm backing up an additional folder called /storage/scripts

Now my question is: When restoring the backup.tar file via GUI, will the additional folder be restored too or do I have to do it manually?

**Iridium** · April 8, 2020 at 9:46 AM Official Post

You'd be better off using the Kodi backup addon. This allows backup/restore, additional folders and scheduling to a remote server.

**chewitt** · April 8, 2020 at 10:06 AM Official Post

The additional folder would be unpacked as "restore" is basically an untar of the file.

See LibreELEC.tv/backup-restore at master · LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv · GitHub

ghtester · November 27, 2022 at 10:01 PM

I have made an extended backup script which also stores the /flash/config.txt file.

The standard Restore Backup from Kodi's GUI menu Settings-LibreELEC-System-Backup works but the /flash/config.txt file is not restored as the /flash folder is mounted as r/o by default.

I believe it would be useful when the restore part of the official backup-restore script could contain the mount -o remount,rw /flash command before tar command (between lines 33 and 34).

Mario77 · November 28, 2022 at 9:00 PM

I believe you can only write/restore what is backed up from /storage.

ghtester · November 29, 2022 at 3:19 AM

I don't think so, see the post #3. Yes the original backup writes just some folders from parent /storage but if you make your own backup script, it's up to you. But the original restore can't restore to read only folders.

sfatula · November 29, 2022 at 6:11 AM

Yeah, wish config.txt would be stored / restored.

Mario77 · November 29, 2022 at 5:45 PM

Quote from ghtester

I don't think so, see the post #3. Yes the original backup writes just some folders from parent /storage but if you make your own backup script, it's up to you. But the original restore can't restore to read only folders.

I mean that i think you can only restore to /storage...regarding backup you can backup anything/anywhere you want but I would keep anything out of /storage to backup to a separate .tar just to have a backup and not to use later for restoring purposes..

edit: looks like we'r saying same thing

ghtester · November 30, 2022 at 5:58 AM

Quote from sfatula

Yeah, wish config.txt would be stored / restored.

See this nice example: RE: How to make a backup of kodi?

So you can make your own backup script which looks like:

Bash

#!/bin/sh
# fullbackup.sh script
set -e
tar cf /storage/backup/$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S).tar \
  --exclude=Thumbnails --exclude=.thumbnails \
  /storage/.kodi /storage/.cache /storage/.config \
  /storage/.ssh /storage/*.* \
  /storage/picons/  \
  /flash/config.txt /flash/cmdline.txt
# find /storage/backup -name "*.tar" -type f -mtime +15 -exec rm -f {} \;

There are some additional folders / files added to be saved, like /storage/picons/ , /storage/*.* , /flash/config.txt and /flash/cmdline.txt .

For restoring you can use standard Restore Backup from Kodi's GUI menu Settings-LibreELEC-System-Backup

But currently you need to put the mount -o remount,rw /flash command to SSH console before restoring. Then the /flash/config.txt and /flash/cmdline.txt files should be restored as well.