archivekeep

README

Archivekeep

Keep your files archived on multiple places, in a reliable and simple way.

The primary requirements and priorities of ArchiveKeep are to make process of reliable archivation to be simple and easy:

1. safe replication to other storages:
   • prevent propagation of redactions and deletion of files
   • prevent propagation of corruption and destructive changes of original information,
2. offline storages - external HDDs - have first class support,
3. plain files for direct access, maximum compatibility and convenience,
4. optional server with asynchronous online synchronisation.

Under development

The ArchiveKeep is under active development, although it already serves author's needs. Focus is to not introduce breaking changes, especially for formats of data at rest. However, that is not guaranteed.

However, as data files are being kept as plain files, if there would be a breaking change to support data structures, it would only render indexes and other technical data incompatible across versions, and would require reinitialisation and reindexing, and it should not cause data loss to plain data files.

About

Main features and functionality provided:

• synchronization to other places,
• preview of differences before synchronization,
• integrity check of individual data copies to detect tamper or corruption.

Threat model, in which you should still be able to retain your data:

• lost access to a device or online account,
• corrupted drives containing backups,
• tampered or accidentally deleted data - damage is not propagated and can be detected,
• software ceases to exist or becomes unavailable - archived copies are all regular files accompanied by hashes for integrity checks.

Assuming you don't lose every access to each copy of your data.

Inspiration and similar software

This tool is inspired mainly by Perkeep and standard way of delivery of software archives and images via FTP and HTTP repositories having .md5 or .sha1 files containing checksum.

Notable software in similar software with less or more different goals:

• Perkeep - is a set of open source formats, protocols, and software for modeling, storing, searching, sharing and synchronizing data in the post-PC era. Data may be files or objects, tweets or 5TB videos, and you can access it via a phone, browser or FUSE filesystem.
  • difference is in data storage architecture, where Perkeep has custom blob format for files, but ArchiveKeep keeps files as plain files:
    • direct access to files without any software or server running,
    • no lock-in to specific software to access files,
    • i.e. just pass external HDD to other people, or plug it into a smart TV,...
• Syncthing - continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes.
  • difference is in focus, Syncthing focuses on seamless and continuous file synchronisation, where ArchiveKeeps focuses on archivation and preservation of original data untouched and uncorrupted

Installation

Using go:

go install github.com/archivekeep/archivekeep

As a package:

• currently, not packaged for any distribution.

Usage

See docs/features.md for overview. To be documented later.

Warranty

Although author desires to make system 100% bulletproof to prevent loss of own data. This is open-source software accessible for free, and comes with no warranty.

License

The whole project is licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for details.