make                                    # Build binary
make build VERSION=0.1.0                # Build with version
make test                               # Run tests
backer                                  # Run
backer --version                        # Show version
backer -c /path/to/config.json          # Custom config

That will produce binary named backer. Copy it somewhere in /usr/local/sbin/backer, for example. In data directory resides config_example.json. Using this file make working config, put it into /etc/backer.json.

Service ready to run.

You can copy systemd unit from contrib directory to /etc/systemd/system and make usual rituals required for systemd.

If you running alpine linux or gentoo, you can use openrc init script from contrib dir.

If you running FreeBSD, use the rc.d script contrib/backer.freebsd and place it in /usr/local/etc/rc.d/.

How to use it

Build, install and configure backer. On your backup storage server you can do

curl -u username:password https://your_server:8086/archive -o "backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz"

and you'll get your backup with timestamp in filename, like backup-20260325-105100.tar.gz

Of course, something can go wrong, so you must check http status code after downloading backup.

About config options

AI suggests to fill this section with useful information, despite that all options described in example config.

Option	Default value	Wtf	Notes
address	"0.0.0.0"	Address at which server listens.	In many cases 0.0.0.0 is okay.
port	8086	Port at which server binds	Number picked after intel first comercially successful cpu.
cert	"/path/to/ssl.crt"	Path to ssl certificate file	It is not enforced in obvious form, but you should limit access to certificate at least with file permissions.
key	"/path/to/ssl.key"	Path to ssl certificates key file	It is not enforced in obvious form, but you should limit access to certificates key at least with file permissions.
nohttps	false	ability to disable https and use plain http.	This option is for lab experiments or for development needs. In case of this utility you should consider using long enough certificate with well ciphers.
location	"/archive"	This is static location where curl (or more sophisticated client) should aim to download backup	/archive is okay, but you free to choose something more wild like "/backup", just for giggles.
user		You should pick up some flashy username for basic auth to prevent unauthorized access to your backup.	Enough said.
password		You should pick up something super-duper secretous to prevent unauthorized access to your backup.	Enough said.
log	stderr	Where log messages are directed. If no value set, logs drops to stderr
loglevel		Verbosity of logs.	Can be error, warn, info, debug. Pick whatever you like.
directories		An array with directories. Backer can work only with directories, not single files.	Put here all the folders you'd like to backup!
backup_timeout	60	Timeout in minutes for backup streaming operations.	If a backup takes longer than this, the connection will be terminated. Useful for large backups. Range: 1-1440 minutes (1 day max).
compression_level	9	Gzip compression level for tar.gz archives.	1 (fastest) to 9 (best compression). Higher values produce smaller files but take longer to compress.
exclude_patterns	[]	Regex patterns to exclude from backup.	E.g., `[".*\\.tmp$", "/node_modules/"]`. Files matching any pattern are skipped.

Best practices

Traditional yada-yada-yada about internet threats.

It is entirely possible to use this utility without https/certificate. But you should not do this, really. Validity of certificate is up to you, it can be even expired, but it should be well secured with reasonable key length and good enough cypher.

And one more thing user and password are mandatory, we should have at least some minimal barriers, right?

Special Thanks

This project was developed with the assistance of opencode (AI co-programmer powered by MIMO). The AI helped with:

Code implementation and refactoring
Test coverage
Documentation
Bug fixes
Linting and code style consistency

Big thanks to the AI for doing most of the boring stuff while I was drinking coffee.