Add documentation for manual backup

[Flux159]

Currently, the gogs documentation does not have any documentation on backing up gogs data.

It would be helpful if there was a section covering Administration / Backup practices that also mentions the ./gogs dump command.

As referenced here: https://discuss.gogs.io/t/suggestion-on-repository-load-balancing-and-replication-hot-backup-strategy/182/8

[Liquidream]

I would also be very interested in some documentation to help me automate a nightly backup of my Gogs site (data/files/config/etc.) to somewhere like an archive. That I could then send up to a cloud backup or something.
I'm only just starting to use Gogs, but wouldn't want to get complacent and forget to do any backups.
Many thanks.

[laoshaw]

Same here need docs on how to backup gogs, until then it's just nervous to put gogs for serious use.

[jmgilman]

+1 A well tested method would be appreciated rather than trying to cobble my own together

[Eng3l]

I made a script that backups my postgresql database, compress my repo directory, pack all and send this pack via ssh to my backup server. Is not complicated at all.

[jmgilman]

The object is identifying what needs to be backed up and the best way to do it. Anyone can just grab and compress everything, but that's not what this issue is about.

[Eng3l]

@jmgilman ok, just saying the way I solved, my backups are up to 1 GB so I can keep an entire month. But is not an elegant solution.

[barbuslex]

+1

[jpgreth]

+1

[unknwon]

You can use ./gogs backup --database-only --target=./ and ./gogs restore --from=gogs-backup.zip.

Also possible to backup from SQLite3 and restore to MySQL.

[fake-name]

So it sounds like gogs backup supports a bunch of arguments (--database-only, --target, --from, etc....). Where are they documented?

What is the difference between gogs dump and gogs backup?

[unknwon]

No such command dump right now.

[unknwon]

I'm writing a post, should be up soon.

[fake-name]

Maybe close the issue when it's available?

[fake-name]

Ok, trying gogs backup, it fails. This is on a running and functional gogs instance.

gogs@vcssrv:~$ /opt/gogs/gogs backup
2017/03/16 16:18:55 [ WARN] Custom config '/opt/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini' not found, ignore this if you're running first time
2017/03/16 16:18:55 [ INFO] Backup root directory: /tmp/gogs-backup-513963060
2017/03/16 16:18:55 [ INFO] Packing backup files to: gogs-backup-1489706335.zip
2017/03/16 16:18:55 [FATAL] Fail to dump database: fail to dump table 'User': dial tcp 127.0.0.1:3306: getsockopt: connection refused

I have no idea why it's trying 3306, I'm using postgresql, not mysql.

[unknwon]

@fake-name apparently you should tell Gogs which custom/conf/app.ini to use. Recommend cd into directory before execute backup.

[fake-name]

That's the thing. My gogs server is currently running, and has been being used for ~6 months now. It knows where it's db is.

The config is in /etc/gogs/conf/app.ini, not /opt/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini. For some reason, the normal runtime finds it fine when invoked as gogs web -p 6000.

[unknwon]

Custom config '/opt/gogs/custom/conf/app.ini' not found, ignore this if you're running first time

Log already told you custom config file not found.

[unknwon]

Please don't just dump questions and errors without stop a second and thinking.

[fake-name]

I understand it's not finding it's configuration. My issue is how does it normally determine from where to load it's config? I've been looking through the /usr/bin/gogs bootstrap script, and looked at ps -lafA, and I don't see where the path is being specified at all.

Sure, I can hard-code the ini path in my backup script, but that seems like a bad idea, given that it must be pulling it from somewhere. I'd assume at this point that you can probably specify an environment variable to gogs that tells it where it should get it's config from. I'd like to use that for my backup scripts, so if I wind up moving anything at some point, the backup script will work without having to patch that too.

Maybe this is some oddness related to the packager.io deb process?

[unknwon]

@fake-name if you start Gogs with --config flag, everything you do should always carry --config flag.

Default custom directory is under the same directory as Gogs binary, not work directory.

Post is up: https://discuss.gogs.io/t/how-to-backup-restore-and-migrate/991

[fake-name]

@fake-name if you start Gogs with --config flag, everything you do should always carry --config flag.

That would make sense, but looking at the gogs running gogs process, it's invocation is only ./gogs web -p 6000, ergo my confusion.

durr@vcssrv:~⟫ ps -lAF | grep -i gogs
4 S gogs      6090     1  0  80   0 - 49825 -      36612   0 Mar09 ?        00:01:49 ./gogs web -p 6000
0 S durr      7088 64843  0  80   0 -  2937 pipe_w  2176   1 16:37 pts/2    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i gogs
1 S postgres 42256  1092  0  80   0 - 62438 -      12028   0 13:25 ?        00:00:00 postgres: gogs_user gogs 127.0.0.1(41272) idle
1 S postgres 42258  1092  0  80   0 - 62453 -      14020   1 13:25 ?        00:00:00 postgres: gogs_user gogs 127.0.0.1(41274) idle

[unknwon]

How did you install Gogs?

[fake-name]

Packager.io.

Host system is Ubuntu 14.04 x64. As far as I know, I've changed very little from the defaults, though the original install (more then a year ago) was done manually. I dunno if some really, really old configuration thing is still around or something.

This might be related to the stuff they're dealing with in #2174. That was a config-not-working issue, what I want to know is more why it does work.

[unknwon]

You can also specify GOGS_CUSTOM env var for custom directory, that's a secret trick, could explain your situation.

[fake-name]

Bingo!

root@vcssrv:/etc# grep -ir gogs_custom .
./gogs/conf.d/other:export GOGS_CUSTOM="/etc/gogs"

 Thanks!