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daweizhou22/python-backup-script

By daweizhou22

•Updated about 1 year ago

Simple Python Backup Script

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Developer tools
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daweizhou22/python-backup-script repository overview

⁠Backup Tool

A lightweight container that compresses a mounted source directory into a timestamped archive (zip, tar, gztar, bztar, xztar).
Ideal for simple, cron-style backups inside CI pipelines, IoT devices, or on any Docker-compatible host.

⁠Quick Start

Run the container

docker run --rm \
  -e backup_type=gztar \
  -e backup_name=project_backup_ \
  -v /host/data:/data \
  -v /host/backups:/destination \
  daweizhou22/python-backup-script
PartWhat it does
--rmAutomatically removes (cleans up) the container filesystem when it exits.
-e backup_type=gztarSets the environment variable backup_type inside the container to gztar.
• Valid formats: zip, tar, gztar, bztar, xztar.
• Here: gztar means “create a .tar.gz archive.”
-e backup_name=project_backup_Sets the environment variable backup_name to project_backup_.
• This string is used as the filename prefix.
• Example output: project_backup_20250803T123045Z.tar.gz.
-v /host/data:/dataMounts the host directory /host/data into the container at /data.
• /data is the source folder that will be archived.
-v /host/backups:/destinationMounts the host directory /host/backups into /destination in the container.
• /destination is where the compressed archive will be written.
daweizhou22/backup-toolThe image name (and implicitly the :latest tag) you’re running.
• This image’s CMD runs the backup.py script using the above env vars and mounts.

⁠Warnings & Errors

  • If you specify an invalid archive format, you’ll see:
Format is not valid!

Important

Make sure you bind host paths with -v /host/path:/container/path so archives are saved on your host and not into Docker-managed anonymous volumes. See the section "If you forget to mount" below.
⁠What happens if you DON'T mount /data or /destination

If you run the container without
-v /host/path:/data or
-v /host/path:/destination,
Docker will create anonymous volumes for the VOLUME paths declared in the image (or mount ephemeral temporary filesystems).
The container will still see /data and /destination as mountpoints and your backup script may run successfully — but the resulting archives will be stored inside Docker's volume store (not in a host directory you control) and can appear “lost”.

⁠If /data is empty or not mounted

If the source directory is empty or not mounted the backup will still run but produce an empty archive.

⁠Timestamp Format

All backup files are suffixed with the current UTC date-time in this exact layout:

YYYYMMDDThhmmssZ
  • YYYY = four-digit year
  • MM = two-digit month (01–12)
  • DD = two-digit day (01–31)
  • T = literal “T” separator
  • hh = two-digit hour (00–23)
  • mm = two-digit minute (00–59)
  • ss = two-digit second (00–59)
  • Z = literal “Z” (denotes UTC)\

For example, backing up on August 3, 2025 at 14:05:09 UTC with prefix project_backup yields:

Backup compressed /destination/project_backup-20250803T140509Z.tar.gz

Tag summary

Content type

Image

Digest

sha256:6c778675d…

Size

41.2 MB

Last updated

about 1 year ago

docker pull daweizhou22/python-backup-script