Restore backups from updater and disable backups

fkbreitl · November 1, 2022, 9:45am

I found that the Nextcloud updater uses a lot of space by creating backups at data/updater-xxx/backups/.

There is no documentation how to restore these backups. There is no database. Is it even possible to restore them or are these backups just wasting a lot of space.

How can one disable these seemingly useless backups or reduce their number?

RodmanB · November 9, 2022, 3:35pm

Good question!
Although my question is sorta different. My question is; is it necessary to retain them past a good upgrade? I’ve noticed in ‘data/updater-oc817ns0y7e4/backups/’ there are several retained backup folders of the previous versions. Same with ‘data/updater-oc817ns0y7e4/downloads/’.
Can I delete these backed up folders?

devnull · November 9, 2022, 3:53pm

@fkbreitl @RodmanB
There are documentation for Backup and Restore. And yes you must backup (dump) the database and i think there is no database dump in /updater-xxx/backups. But i don’t know if you could create a dump with the database credentials in config.php at all. Maybe the directory is more for a rollback during the update. I think that makes more sense. I think updater-xxx/backups is only anupdater-backup and then it makes sense. The user data, for example, is not backed up. Contained are rather the apps.

Also if you make a backup you do not need to backup or use this directory. And if you need a backup you can not use it, too.

And what do we learn from it. Always make a backup yourself before updating.

e-raser · January 28, 2024, 2:54pm

Can you elaborate on this confusing statement?

A backup is a backup. So are the $nextcloud-data-dir/updater-ocXXXXXXXXXX/backups. Of course those do not contain user data or the database - but all the rest, so core/server itself and all apps.

devnull · January 29, 2024, 6:16am

I don’t really know my way around either. But the files created there by Nextcloud are rather intended for a rollback in the event of a faulty upgrade. It has less to do with a real backup. You have a real backup, for example, if the entire hard disk breaks, in which case these files would possibly be included.

e-raser · January 29, 2024, 8:47am

It’s an application backup which served well for restoring after a faulty update. Did not contain user data or database.

szaimen · January 29, 2024, 8:49am

github.com

nextcloud/updater/blob/d8e71cb580579df1676345e8ad3f164f0f0df19c/lib/UpdateCommand.php#L76


      
          	public static function getUpdaterVersion(): string {
          		if (class_exists('NC\Updater\Version')) {
          			$versionClass = new Version();
          			return $versionClass->get();
          		} else {
          			return 'git';
          		}
          	}
          
          	protected function execute(InputInterface $input, OutputInterface $output) {
          		$this->skipBackup = (bool)$input->getOption('no-backup');
          		$this->skipUpgrade = (bool)$input->getOption('no-upgrade');
          
          		$version = static::getUpdaterVersion();
          		$output->writeln('Nextcloud Updater - version: ' . $version);
          		$output->writeln('');
          
          		// Check if the config.php is at the expected place
          		try {
          			$path = dirname(__DIR__); // dirname() because we are inside the lib/ subfolder
          			$pharPath = \Phar::running(false);

devnull · January 29, 2024, 2:40pm

Maybe not everybody can read out the parameter in the source code. You do not need to edit the source code. Use.

sudo -u www-data php /path/to/nextcloud/updater/updater.phar --no-backup

TheJohn · March 29, 2024, 8:21am

Any solution if you don’t have root access on a shared host and don’t want to edit code which gets overwritten with the next update?