Alternatives to Disk ARchive (dar)
Command-line archiver and backup tool with compression, encryption and differential archives. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Disk ARchive (dar)
Command-line archiver and backup tool with compression, encryption and differential archives.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Disk ARchive (dar).
BorgBackup
A deduplicating archiver for Linux, macOS and BSD that makes daily backups cost almost nothing beyond the day’s changes.
BorgBackup replaces differential archives with deduplicated, encrypted repositories reached over SSH, runs on Linux, macOS and BSD, and archives can be mounted with FUSE.
restic
A single-executable backup program that makes encrypted, deduplicated snapshots and can send them almost anywhere.
restic is a single binary for Windows, macOS and Linux that makes encrypted, deduplicated snapshots and sends them to local disks, SFTP or cloud storage.
Duplicity
Encrypted, bandwidth-efficient incremental backup to remote storage.
Duplicity keeps encrypted incremental backups but focuses on remote storage back ends, and long incremental chains make restores slow and require periodic full backups.
rdiff-backup
Reverse incremental backup that keeps the newest copy as a plain mirror.
rdiff-backup keeps the newest backup as a plain readable mirror with reverse deltas for history, runs on Windows too, but has no client-side encryption.
Kopia
An encrypted snapshot backup tool with both a command line and a proper desktop app, pointed at whatever storage you choose.
Kopia adds a desktop app alongside the command line, with encrypted, deduplicated snapshots to cloud, network or local storage, though it is still pre-1.0.
bup
Command-line backup system built on the git packfile format with deduplication and fast incremental saves.
bup uses the git packfile format for global deduplication and fast incremental saves, handling large files well, but it also stays command line only.
rsnapshot
Filesystem snapshot backups using rsync and hard links.
rsnapshot makes each snapshot a browsable directory using rsync and hard links, but it has no encryption or compression of its own.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
par2cmdline
The reference command-line tool for creating PAR2 recovery files and repairing damaged file sets.
FSArchiver
Command-line archiver that saves and restores whole Linux filesystems.
git-annex
A command-line tool that manages and syncs large files with git without storing their contents in git.
Amanda
Long-running network backup system for disk and tape.
Tarsnap
A command-line online backup service for Unix-like systems with client-side encryption and block-level deduplication.
