Automated Encrypted Backups via SSH

This is a hack of the script rsnaptar included with the rsnapshot distribution. In short, it takes a few rsnapshot directories, runs them through tar, gzip and gpg finally depositing the results on another machine. I wrote this so that I could grab the backups from a server at work and routinely toss them onto a DVD that I take home with me. It’s a bad idea to be walking around with all of the company’s source code, hence the GPG. The magic all happens on one line which runs tar, piping the output to ssh which runs gzip reading from stdin on the remote machine then on to gpg dumping its output wherever you want.

#!/bin/sh
SNAPSHOT_DIR="/data/backups/tarback"
DEST_LOCATION="/home/stephensdg/Desktop/backups"

USER=stephensdg
HOST=10.32.193.100
ID_FILE=/home/stephensdg/.ssh/id_dsa
GPG_HOME=/home/stephensdg/.gnupg

LS="/bin/ls"
TAR="/bin/tar"
CAT="/bin/cat"
CHMOD="/bin/chmod"
CHOWN="/bin/chown"
MKDIR="/bin/mkdir"
SSH="/usr/bin/ssh"

cd ${SNAPSHOT_DIR}
for BACKUP_POINT in `${LS} ${SNAPSHOT_DIR}`; do
        ${TAR} -chf - ${BACKUP_POINT}/ | ${SSH} -i ${ID_FILE} ${USER}@${HOST} \
        "gzip - | gpg --homedir ${GPG_HOME} -e -r Drew > \
        ${DEST_LOCATION}/${BACKUP_POINT}.tar.gz.gpg"
done