Folder Backup Utility

A lightweight Go utility for creating scheduled backups of any folder with automatic retention management.

Overview

This tool creates timestamped ZIP archives of any specified folder and maintains a configurable backup history. While originally created for backing up Obsidian vaults, it works with any directory you need to preserve.

Features

• Creates compressed ZIP backups of any folder
• Names backups with precise timestamps for easy identification
• Manages backup history automatically (configurable retention)
• Simple to configure, build, and run
• Minimal dependencies
• Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)

Requirements

• Go 1.16 or higher

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/binge-coder/Folder-Backup-Utility.git
cd Folder-Backup-Utility

# Install dependencies (automatically fetches required packages)
go mod download

Configuration

Modify these variables in backup-script.go to match your requirements:

sourceFolder := `full\path\to\folder\needing\backup` // Any folder you want to back up
backupFolder := `full\path\to\backup\storage`   // Where backups will be stored

By default, the script keeps the 4 most recent backups. To change this, modify the condition:

if len(backupFiles) > 4 { // Change to your desired number of backups to keep
    // ...
}

Building and Running

# Build the executable
go build -o backup-script.exe

# Run the backup
./backup-script.exe

Automation

Windows

Use Task Scheduler:

1. Open Task Scheduler
2. Create a new task
3. Set the trigger (daily/weekly/etc.)
4. Action: Start a program
5. Browse to your backup-script.exe location

macOS/Linux

Use cron:

# Edit crontab
crontab -e

# Add a line to run daily at 2 AM, for example:
0 2 * * * /path/to/backup-script

How It Works

1. Creates the backup folder if it doesn't exist
2. Generates a timestamped ZIP file of the source folder
3. Counts existing backups and removes the oldest ones if necessary

Customization

The script uses the mholt/archiver library for creating ZIP archives. All dependencies will be automatically downloaded when you run go mod download.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.