Dealing with Backups

Syncline's append-only CRDT database gives you built-in edit history. But servers die, drives fail, databases corrupt. You still need backups.

Backing Up the Database

The safest approach: back up the server's SQLite database file (syncline.db). It contains the full sync history and current state of every document.

While the Server Is Running

SQLite handles concurrent access well enough that you can take a backup without stopping the server:

sqlite3 syncline.db ".backup 'syncline_backup.db'"

Throw that in a cron job, ship the backup file to S3 or another drive, and you're covered.

Using the Folder Client as a Live Backup

You can also run a syncline sync instance on a separate machine (a NAS, a second VPS, whatever) and let it pull down every edit in real time:

syncline sync -f /path/to/my/backup/folder -u ws://my-server:3030/sync

This gives you a constantly-updated, plain-text Markdown copy of the entire vault. If the server dies, you still have readable files.