Command Line

Kopia provides a command-line interface (CLI) for accessing all its functions. All commands are accessible through single binary called kopia (or kopia.exe on Windows).

Kopia functionality is organized into Common Commands for typical use or Advanced Commands for low-level data manipulation or recovery. Click on the above links for more details.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables can be used to configure how Kopia runs:

Connecting to Repository

Most commands require a Repository to be connected first. The first time you use Kopia, repository must be created, later on it can be connected to from one or more machines.

Creating a repository is as simple as:

$ kopia repository create <provider> <flags>

Examples:

• create repository in local filesystem
• create repository in Google Cloud Storage bucket
• create repository in S3-compatible bucket (e.g. Amazon S3, minio.io, Wasabi)

To connect to an existing repository use the same flags but instead of create use connect:

$ kopia repository connect <provider> <flags>

To disconnect:

$ kopia repository disconnect

Quick Reconnection To Repository

To quickly reconnect to the repository on another machine, you can use kopia repository status -t, which will print quick-reconnect command that encodes all repository connection parameters in an opaque token. You can also embed the repository password, by using kopia repository status -t -s.

Such command can be stored long-term in a secure location, such as password manager for easy recovery.

$ kopia repository status -t -s
...

To reconnect to the repository use:

$ kopia repository connect from-config --token 03Fy598cYIqbMlNNDz9VLU0K6Pk9alC...BNeazLBdRzP2MHo0MS83zRb

NOTICE: The token printed above can be trivially decoded to reveal the repository password. Do not store it in an unsecured place.

NOTE: Make sure to safeguard the repository token, as it gives full access to the repository to anybody in its possession.

Configuration File

For each repository connection, Kopia maintains a configuration file and local cache:

By default, the configuration file is located in your home directory under:

• %APPDATA%\kopia\repository.config on Windows
• $HOME/Library/Application Support/kopia/repository.config on macOS
• $HOME/.config/kopia/repository.config on Linux

The location can be overridden using --config-file.

The configuration file stores the connection parameters, for example:

{
  "storage": {
    "type": "s3",
    "config": {
      "bucket": "some-bucket",
      "endpoint": "s3.endpoint.com",
      "accessKeyID": "...",
      "secretAccessKey": "..."
    }
  },
  "caching": {
    "cacheDirectory": "<path-to>/kopia/7c04ae89ea31e77d-1",
    "maxCacheSize": 524288000,
    "maxListCacheDuration": 600
  }
}

The password to the repository is stored in operating-system specific credential storage (KeyChain on macOS, Credential Manager on Windows or KeyRing on Linux).