Cleanup Failed Backups (cleanback) 🚮⚡

Repository: https://github.com/kevinveenbirkenbach/cleanup-failed-backups

cleanback validates and (optionally) cleans up failed Docker backup directories in a production-safe way.

It scans backup folders under a configurable backups root (for example /Backups), uses dirval to validate each backup subdirectory, and removes only those backups that are confirmed to be invalid.

Validation runs in parallel for performance; deletions are explicitly controlled and can be interactive or fully automated.

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✨ Highlights

• Parallel validation of backup subdirectories
• Uses dirval (directory validator) via CLI
• Safe deletion model: only truly invalid backups are removed
• Interactive or non-interactive cleanup (--yes)
• Supports validating a single backup ID or all backups
• Clear exit code semantics for CI and system services
• Clean Python package with pyproject.toml
• Unit tests and Docker-based E2E tests

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📦 Installation

Via pip (recommended)

pip install cleanback

This installs:

• the cleanback CLI
• dirval as a dependency (declared in pyproject.toml)

Editable install (for development)

git clone https://github.com/kevinveenbirkenbach/cleanup-failed-backups
cd cleanup-failed-backups
pip install -e .

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🔧 Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Read/write access to the backups root directory tree (e.g. /Backups)
• dirval (installed automatically via pip dependency)

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🚀 Usage

CLI entrypoint

After installation, the command is:

cleanback

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Validate a single backup ID

cleanback --backups-root /Backups --id <ID>

Validates directories under:

/Backups/<ID>/backup-docker-to-local/*

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Validate all backups

cleanback --backups-root /Backups --all

Scans:

/Backups/*/backup-docker-to-local/*

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⚙️ Common options

Option	Description
--dirval-cmd <cmd>	Path or name of dirval executable (default: dirval)
--workers <n>	Number of parallel validator workers (default: CPU count, minimum 2)
--timeout <sec>	Per-directory validation timeout in seconds (float supported, default: 300.0)
--yes	Non-interactive mode: automatically delete invalid backups (dirval rc=1 only)
--force-keep <n>	In --all mode: skip the last n timestamp subdirectories inside each backup folder

Note: Backups affected by timeouts or infrastructure errors are never deleted automatically, even when --yes is used.

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🧪 Examples

# Validate a single backup and prompt before deleting invalid ones
cleanback --backups-root /Backups --id 2024-09-01T12-00-00

# Validate all backups and automatically delete invalid ones
cleanback --backups-root /Backups --all --workers 8 --yes

# Use a custom dirval binary and a short timeout (testing only)
cleanback \
  --backups-root /Backups \
  --all \
  --dirval-cmd /usr/local/bin/dirval \
  --timeout 5.0

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🔒 Safety & Design Notes

• Validation and deletion are strictly separated
• Only backups explicitly marked invalid by dirval are eligible for deletion
• Timeouts and infrastructure errors are NOT treated as invalid backups
• Backups affected by timeouts are never deleted automatically
• Infrastructure problems (timeouts, missing dirval) cause a non-zero exit code
• Deletions require confirmation unless --yes is specified
• Tests never touch the host filesystem (E2E tests run inside Docker only)

This design makes cleanback safe for unattended operation on production systems.

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🚦 Exit codes

cleanback uses exit codes to clearly distinguish between backup issues and infrastructure problems:

Exit code	Meaning
0	All backups valid, or invalid backups were successfully removed
1	Validation infrastructure problem (e.g. timeout, missing dirval)
2	CLI usage or configuration error

This makes the tool suitable for CI pipelines, systemd services, and other automation.

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🧪 Tests

Run all tests (unit + Docker-based E2E):

make test

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🪪 License

This project is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. See the LICENSE file for details.

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👤 Author

Kevin Veen-Birkenbach 🌐 https://www.veen.world 📧 kevin@veen.world