plakar

PLAKAR(1) General Commands Manual PLAKAR(1)

plakareffortless backups

plakar[-config path] [-cpu number] [-keyfile path] [-no-agent] [-quiet] [-trace subsystems] [at kloset] subcommand ...

plakar is a tool to create distributed, versioned backups with compression, encryption, and data deduplication.

By default, plakar operates on the Kloset store at ~/.plakar. This can be changed either by using the at option.

The following options are available:

path
Use the configuration at path.
number
Limit the number of parallel workers plakar uses to number. By default it's the number of online CPUs.
path
Read the passphrase from the key file at path instead of prompting. Overrides the PLAKAR_PASSPHRASE environment variable.
Run without attempting to connect to the agent.
Disable all output except for errors.
subsystems
Display trace logs. subsystems is a comma-separated series of keywords to enable the trace logs for different subsystems: all, trace, repository, snapshot and server.
kloset
Operates on the given kloset store. It could be a path, an URI, or a label in the form “@name” to reference a configuration created with plakar-store(1).

The following commands are available:

Run the plakar agent and configure scheduled tasks, documented in plakar-agent(1).
Create an archive from a Kloset snapshot, documented in plakar-archive(1).
Create a new Kloset snapshot, documented in plakar-backup(1).
Display file contents from a Kloset snapshot, documented in plakar-cat(1).
Check data integrity in a Kloset store, documented in plakar-check(1).
Clone a Kloset store to a new location, documented in plakar-clone(1).
Create a new Kloset store, documented in plakar-create(1).
Manage configurations for the destination connectors, documented in plakar-destination(1).
Show differences between files in a Kloset snapshot, documented in plakar-diff(1).
Compute digests for files in a Kloset snapshot, documented in plakar-digest(1).
Show this manpage and the ones for the subcommands.
Display detailed information about internal structures, documented in plakar-info(1).
Find filenames in a Kloset snapshot, documented in plakar-locate(1).
List snapshots and their contents in a Kloset store, documented in plakar-ls(1).
Remove unused data from a Kloset store, documented in plakar-maintenance(1).
Mount Kloset snapshots as a read-only filesystem, documented in plakar-mount(1).
Create a .ptar archive, documented in plakar-ptar(1).
List installed plugins, documented in plakar-pkg(1).
Install a plugin, documented in plakar-pkg-add(1).
Build a plugin from source, documented in plakar-pkg-build(1).
Package a plugin, documented in plakar-pkg-create(1).
Unistall a plugin, documented in plakar-pkg-rm(1).
Restore files from a Kloset snapshot, documented in plakar-restore(1).
Remove snapshots from a Kloset store, documented in plakar-rm(1).
Start a Plakar server, documented in plakar-server(1).
Manage configurations for the source connectors, documented in plakar-source(1).
Manage configurations for storage connectors, documented in plakar-store(1).
Synchronize snapshots between Kloset stores, documented in plakar-sync(1).
Serve the Plakar web user interface, documented in plakar-ui(1).
Display the current Plakar version, documented in plakar-version(1).

Passphrase to unlock the Kloset store; overrides the one from the configuration. If set, plakar won't prompt to unlock. The option keyfile overrides this environment variable.
Reference to the Kloset store.

~/.cache/plakar and ~/.cache/plakar-agentless
Plakar cache directories.
~/.config/plakar/klosets.yml ~/.config/plakar/sources.yml ~/.config/plakar/destinations.yml
Default configuration files.
~/.plakar
Default Kloset store location.

Create an encrypted Kloset store at the default location:

$ plakar create

Create an encrypted Kloset store on AWS S3:

$ plakar store add mys3bucket \
    location=s3://s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/backups \
    access_key="access_key" \
    secret_access_key="secret_key"
$ plakar at @mys3bucket create

Create a snapshot of the current directory on the @mys3bucket Kloset store:

$ plakar at @mys3bucket backup

List the snapshots of the default Kloset store:

$ plakar ls

Restore the file “notes.md” in the current directory from the snapshot with id “abcd”:

$ plakar restore -to . abcd:notes.md

Remove snapshots older than 30 days:

$ plakar rm -before 30d
Plakar July 8, 2025 PLAKAR(1)