Re: [Duplicity-talk] Remove everything before doing a new full backup

[edgar . soldin]

hey Altor,

On 17.11.2023 08:25, Aitor Soroa via Duplicity-talk wrote:
> Hi!
>
> My backup scheme consists of creating a full backup at the beginning of
> each month and then daily incremental backups. The problem is that my
> remote storage does not have enough space to store two full backups, so at
> the beginning of each month I need to erase everything before starting
> the new full backup. So I need something like:
>
> IF the full backup is older than one month THEN
>    - remove all backups
>    - start a new full backup.
> ELSE
>    - do an incremental backup
>
> I know that this schema is sub-optimal, and that there exists a window
> where I can lose everything, but I can live with that.

indeed,so maybe find more space or a second/local location?

> Is there any way to do this with duplicity?

no. closest would be `backup --full-if-older-than <time>` followed by a 
`remove-all-but-n-full <n>` but that'd would lead to _two_ backup chains on the 
remote, which you say is not an option.

workaround could be externalizing "cleanup and full backup" decision on first 
monthly backup (via shell scripting in cron or duply pre script) like
1. delete remote target folder
2. save a marker file that this month cleanup succeeded, so this is tried again 
on the next run if it failed somehow
3. run backup as usual

good luck.. ede/duply.net