Differential ZIP Backup

This is a vault backup plugin for Obsidian.

We can store all the files which have been modified, into a ZIP file.

Installation

1. Install this plug-in from Beta Reviewers Auto-update Tester.

How to use

Making backup

1. Perform Create Differential Backup from the command palette.
2. We will get backupinfo.md and a zip file YYYY-MM-DD-SECONDS.zip in the backup folder
   • backup folder can be configured in the settings dialogue.

Restore a file

1. Perform Restore from backups from the command palette.
2. Select the file you want to restore.
3. Select the backup you want to restore.
4. Select the place to save the restored file.
5. We got an old file.

Settings

General

Key	Description
Start backup at launch	When the plug-in has been loaded, Differential backup will be created automatically.
Auto backup style	Check differences to... Full to all files, Only new to the files which were newer than the backup, Non-destructive as same as Only new but not includes the deletion.
Include hidden folder	Backup also the configurations, plugins, themes, and, snippets.
Backup Destination	Where to save the backup Inside the vault, Anywhere (Desktop only), and S3 bucket are available. Anywhere is on the bleeding edge. Not safe. Only available on desktop devices.
Restore folder	The folder which restored files will be stored.
Max files in a single zip	How many files are stored in a single ZIP file.
Perform all files over the max files	Automatically process the remaining files, even if the number of files to be processed exceeds Max files.
ZIP splitting size	An large file are not good for handling, so this plug-in splits the backup ZIP into this size. This splitted ZIP files can be handled by 7Z or something archiver.

On Inside the vault

Key	Description
Backup folder	The folder which backups are stored. We can choose only the folder inside the vault.

On Anywhere (Desktop only)

Key	Description
Backup folder (desktop)	The folder which backups are stored (if enabling Use Desktop Mode). We can choose any folder (Absolute path recommended).

On S3 Compatible bucket

Key	Description
Endpoint	The endpoint of the S3 bucket.
AccessKey	The access key ID of the S3 bucket.
SecretKey	The secret access key of the S3 bucket.
Region	The region of the S3 bucket.
Bucket	The name of the S3 bucket.
Use Custom HTTP Handler	Use a custom HTTP handler for S3. This is useful for mobile devices services.
Backup folder	The folder which backups are stored. We can choose only the folder inside the bucket.

Buttons

• Test: Test the connection to the S3 bucket.
• Create Bucket: Create a bucket in the S3 bucket.

Tools

Here are some tools to manage settings among your devices.

Key	Description
Passphrase	Passphrase for encrypting/decrypting the configuration. Please write this down as it will not be saved.
Copy setting to another device via URI	When the button is clicked, the URI will be copied to the clipboard. Paste it to another device to copy the settings.
Paste setting from another device	Paste the URI from another device to copy the settings, and click Apply button.

Misc

Reset Backup Information

If you want to make a full backup, you can reset the backup information. This will make all files to be backed up.

Encryption

If you configure the passphrase, the ZIP file will be encrypted by AES-256-CBC with the passphrase.

Important

Not compatible with the encrypted zip file. We have to decrypt the file by OpenSSL, without this plug-in. Decryption command is openssl enc -d -aes-256-cbc -in <encrypted file> -out <decrypted file> -k <passphrase> -pbkdf2 -md sha256.

What is backupinfo.md?

This markdown file contains a list of file information. The list is stored as YAML. backupinfo.md is also stored in each Zip file. For the sake of simplicity, suppose we have three files, make a backup, change one of the files and make another backup.

Then we get the following.

Untitled.md:
  digest: 452438bd53ea864cdf60269823ea8222366646c14f0f1cd450b5df4a74a7b19b
  filename: Untitled.md
  mtime: 1703656274225
  history:
    - zipName: 2023-12-28-41265.zip
      modified: 2023-12-27T05:51:14.225Z
  storedIn: 
Untitled 2.md:
  digest: 7241f90bf62d00fde6e0cf2ada1beb18776553ded5233f97f0be3f7066c83530
  filename: Untitled 2.md
  mtime: 1703656274225
  history:
    - zipName: 2023-12-28-41265.zip
      modified: 2023-12-27T05:51:14.225Z
Untitled 1.md:
  digest: e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855
  filename: Untitled 1.md
  mtime: 1708498190402
  history:
    - zipName: 2023-12-28-41265.zip
      modified: 2023-12-27T05:51:14.225Z
    - zipName: 2024-2-21-56995.zip
      modified: 2024-02-21T06:49:50.402Z

The following entries are important.

key	value
digest	SHA-1 of the file. DZB detects all changes by this hash.
history	Archived ZIP file name and Timestamp at the time.

Note: Modified time has been stored due to the lack of resolution of the ZIP file, but this is information for us.

ZIP files

We will get the following zip files.

2023-12-28-41265.zip	2024-2-21-56995.zip
Untitled.md
Untitled 1.md
Untitled 2.md	Untitled 1.md
backupinfo.md	backupinfo.md

As the astute will have noticed, we can pick the ZIP that contains the file we want from only the latest one without any special tool!

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License: MIT