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The lionbackup client

Backups run through a lightweight client written in Go that is provided as an open-source client.

What the client does​

The client handles the entire local part of a backup run:

  1. Compressing the selected data,
  2. Encrypting — with client-side end-to-end encryption enabled, only ciphertext leaves your system,
  3. Transferring to an available Citadel of the chosen Storage Zone.

If an endpoint fails during the transfer, the client automatically switches to another available Citadel.

Platforms​

The client supports Linux and Windows. Prebuilt binaries are available for download; the source code is publicly available.

Configuration​

For operation you store in the local configuration:

  • the project-scoped access token,
  • with client-side encryption, the key material,
  • the paths or data sources to be backed up.
Open source

Because the client is open source, it is possible to trace how compression, encryption and transfer work — transparency that fits lionbackup's sovereign orientation.

A complete walkthrough from login to first run is available under Getting started.

Read errors, Windows special folders and run transparency​

As of client v0.1.2:

  • Windows legacy junctions (hidden compatibility links such as "My Pictures" inside the profile folder) are always skipped – they are unreadable by design and contain no data.
  • Read errors below a source (access denied, file removed during the run) default to a warning + skip; the client reports the total of skipped entries at the end. A missing or unreadable source itself still aborts.
  • The behaviour is configurable via on_read_error in lionbackup.yaml: warn (default) or abort to fail hard on the first error.
on_read_error: warn # or: abort

The client narrates its steps ("Step 1/3: checking sources …", "Source 2/5: …", scan progress every second), so even with very large directories you can see immediately what is happening.