haondt-charon 1.2.1

charon is a utility for backing up data from one location to another at regular intervals.

charon

charon is a utility for backing up data from one location to another at regular intervals.

table of contents

• installation
• usage
• configuration
  • sources
  • destinations
  • schedule
• styx
• tests

installation

charon can be installed as a docker image

# from docker hub
docker pull haumea/charon
# from gitlab
docker pull registry.gitlab.com/haondt/cicd/registry/charon:latest

see docker-compose.yml for a sample docker compose setup.

charon can also be installed as a python package

# from pypi
pip install haondt-charon
# from gitlab
pip install haondt-charon --index-url https://gitlab.com/api/v4/projects/57154225/packages/pypi/simple

usage

start charon with:

# if installed as a python package, or if running from source
python3 -m charon
# the pypi package also includes a standlone binary
charon
# from the docker image
docker run --rm -it -v ./charon.yml:/config/charon.yml registry.gitlab.com/haondt/cicd/registry/charon:latest

charon will look for a config file at charon.yml. a different path can be specified with:

charon -f MY_CONFIG.yml

charon uses the sched library for scheduling tasks, meaning charon will exit when there are no more tasks to run. this is possible depending on the configuration.

configuration

configuration is given as a yaml file with the following structure:

# NOTE: to use gcp buckets, charon must be run in an environment where GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS exists
gcp_buckets: # optional, configuration for gcp buckets
    my_bucket:
        bucket: 1234-name-of-my-bucket-in-gcp

jobs:
    my_job:
        source: # where data is coming from
            type: type_of_source
            # ...
        destination: # where data is going
            type: type_of_destination
            # ...
        schedule: # how often to run job
            # ...
    my_job_2:
        # ...

see charon.yml for an example config.

sources

all sources will have a few shared fields:

source:
    type: local # determines how to interpret the source config
    encrypt: 4B71... # optional, 32 byte hex-encoded encryption key

the data from the source will be archived in a gz'd tar file. if an encryption key is provided, the tar file will then be encrypted.

below are the possible ways you can configure the source object, based on the type key.

local

this pulls from a local file

source:
    type: local
    path: /path/to/data # path to data to back up. can be a file or a directory. does not use variable expansion

http

performs an http request, and saves the response body to a file

source:
    type: http
    url: http://example.com/ # url to make request to
    method: get # optional, request method, defaults to get
    ext: json # optional, extension to use for saved file, defaults to txt
    auth:  # optional, authentication configuration
        bearer: eyJhbGc... # optional, bearer token

sqlite

performs a backup on an sqlite3 db

source:
    type: sqlite
    db_path: /path/to/db_file.db

destinations

all destinations will also have some shared fields

destination:
    type: local # determines how to interpret the destination config
    name: my_output # the name of the output file, can include path seperators (foo/bar)

note: the name of the file (where applicable) in the destination will be destination.name + a file extension determined by the source.

bewlow are the possible ways you can configure the destination object, based on the type key.

local

this pushes to a local file

destination:
    type: local
    path: ./foo # must be a directory, file will be created inside this dir
    overwrite: false # optional, whether or not to overwrite an existing output file. defaults to false

gcp_bucket

uploads to a google cloud storage bucket. requires gcp_buckets to be configured, and GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS envrionment variable.

destination:
    type: gcp_bucket
    config: my-bucket # name of config in gcp_buckets:

schedule

how often the program is run. there are a few different ways to configure the schedule

cron

the schedule can be configured using a cron string.

note: this program uses croniter for scheduling with the cron format. Croniter accepts seconds, but they must be at the end (right hand side) of the cron string.

schedule:
    cron: "* * * * * */10" # every 10 seconds

one shot

this runs once, after the given delay. the delay is given in the 1d2h3m4s format. numbers must be integers.

schedule:
    after: 1d # wait 1 day, then run once

intervals

this runs at regular intervals, using the one shot format, starting from the time charon is run.

schedule:
    every: 1h30m # run every hour and a half

combinations

you can combine schedules, for example to run immediately, and then every other day

schedule:
    after: 0s
    every: 2d

styx

charon includes a subcommand, styx, that will run a job once, immediately.

charon styx apply MY_JOB

styx can also run the job in reverse, pulling it from the destination and dumping it to a given directory

charon styx revert MY_JOB OUTPUT_DIRECTORY

you can specify the config file before calling styx

charon -f MY_CONFIG.yml styx apply MY_JOB

see tests for more examples.

tests

each test*.sh file will run some commands (must be run inside the tests folder, with a python environment set up for charon), and has a comment in the file detailing the expected output.

cd tests
./test.sh
./test2.sh
...