plakar

PLAKAR(1) General Commands Manual PLAKAR(1)

plakar [-concurrency number] [-config dir] [-cpu number] [-json] [-keyfile path] [-quiet] [-silent] [-stdio] [-time] [-trace subsystems] [at kloset] subcommand ...

DESCRIPTION

plakar is a tool to create distributed, versioned backups with compression, encryption, and data deduplication.

By default, plakar operates on the Kloset store at ~/.plakar. This can be changed either by using the at option.

The following options are available:

-concurrency number: Set the maximum number of parallel tasks for faster processing. Defaults to the CPU count.
-config dir: Specify an alternate configuration directory. Defaults to ~/.config/plakar.
-cpu number: Limit the number of parallel workers plakar uses to number. By default it's the number of online CPUs.
-json: Use newline-delimited JSON as output format for some subcommands.
-keyfile path: Read the passphrase from the key file at path instead of prompting. Overrides the PLAKAR_PASSPHRASE environment variable.
-quiet: Disable all output except for errors.
-silent: Disable all output.
-stdio: Use text lines as output format for some subcommands instead of the default ncurses frontend. Enabled by default when the standard output is not a terminal.
-time: Report the time the subcommand took to run.
-trace subsystems: Display trace logs. subsystems is a comma-separated series of keywords to enable the trace logs for different subsystems: all, trace, repository, snapshot and server.
at kloset: Operates on the given kloset store. It could be a path, an URI, or a label in the form “@name” to reference a configuration created with plakar-store(1).

General Commands

help: Show this manpage and the ones for the subcommands.
login: Authenticate to Plakar services, refer to plakar-login(1).
logout: Log out from Plakar services, refer to plakar-logout(1).
service: Manage additional Plakar services that require you to be logged in, refer to plakar-service(1).
token create: Generate a token to interact with Plakar services, refer to plakar-token-create(1).
version: Display the current Plakar version, refer to plakar-version(1).

Configuration management

destination: Manage configurations for the destination connectors, refer to plakar-destination(1).
source: Manage configurations for the source connectors, refer to plakar-source(1).
store: Manage configurations for storage connectors, refer to plakar-store(1).

Kloset management

check: Check data integrity in a Kloset store, refer to plakar-check(1).
create: Create a new Kloset store, refer to plakar-create(1).
info: Display detailed information about internal structures, refer to plakar-info(1).
maintenance: Remove unused data from a Kloset store, refer to plakar-maintenance(1).
prune: Prune snapshots according to a policy, refer to plakar-prune(1).
ptar: Create a .ptar archive, refer to plakar-ptar(1).
server: Start a Plakar server, refer to plakar-server(1).
sync: Synchronize snapshots between Kloset stores, refer to plakar-sync(1).
ui: Serve the Plakar web user interface, refer to plakar-ui(1).

Snapshot management

archive: Create an archive from a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-archive(1).
backup: Create a new Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-backup(1).
cat: Display file contents from a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-cat(1).
diff: Show differences between files in a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-diff(1).
digest: Compute digests for files in a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-digest(1).
dup: Duplicate an existing snapshot with a different ID, refer to plakar-dup(1).
locate: Find filenames in a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-locate(1).
ls: List snapshots and their contents in a Kloset store, refer to plakar-ls(1).
mount: Mount Kloset snapshots as a read-only filesystem, refer to plakar-mount(1).
restore: Restore files from a Kloset snapshot, refer to plakar-restore(1).
rm: Remove snapshots from a Kloset store, refer to plakar-rm(1).

Plugin handling

pkg add: Install a plugin, refer to plakar-pkg-add(1).
pkg build: Build a plugin from source, refer to plakar-pkg-build(1).
pkg create: Package a plugin, refer to plakar-pkg-create(1).
pkg rm: Uninstall a plugin, refer to plakar-pkg-rm(1).
pkg show: List installed plugins, refer to plakar-pkg-show(1).

ENVIRONMENT

PLAKAR_PASSPHRASE: Passphrase to unlock the Kloset store; overrides the one from the configuration. If set, plakar won't prompt to unlock. The option keyfile overrides this environment variable.
PLAKAR_REPOSITORY: Reference to the Kloset store.
PLAKAR_TOKEN: Token to authenticate for Plakar services.

FILES

~/.cache/plakar: Plakar cache directories.
~/.config/plakar/destinations.yml: Restore destinations configuration.
~/.config/plakar/sources.yml: Backup sources configuration.
~/.config/plakar/stores.yml: Kloset stores configuration.
~/.plakar: Default Kloset store location.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit codes are aligned with sysexits(3) where applicable:

0: Command completed successfully.
1: A general error occurred.
64 (EX_USAGE): Invalid command-line arguments or flags.
65 (EX_DATAERR): Data integrity check failed (corrupted chunks, verification mismatch).
66 (EX_NOINPUT): The repository could not be opened or located.
77 (EX_NOPERM): Authentication or decryption failure (wrong passphrase, missing keyfile).
78 (EX_CONFIG): Incompatible repository version.

EXAMPLES

Create an encrypted Kloset store at the default location:

$ plakar create

Create an encrypted Kloset store on AWS S3:

$ plakar store add mys3bucket \
    location=s3://s3.eu-west-3.amazonaws.com/backups \
    access_key="access_key" \
    secret_access_key="secret_key"
$ plakar at @mys3bucket create

Create a snapshot of the current directory on the @mys3bucket Kloset store:

$ plakar at @mys3bucket backup

List the snapshots of the default Kloset store:

$ plakar ls

Restore the file “notes.md” in the current directory from the snapshot with id “abcd”:

$ plakar restore -to . abcd:notes.md

Remove snapshots older than 30 days:

$ plakar rm -before 30d

Plakar May 5, 2026 PLAKAR(1)

NAME

SYNOPSIS