yesterdaypy

What is YesterdayPy? - TLDR Version

A Python software to backup Linode configuration to a local folder or Linode Object Storage.

What is YesterdayPy? - Longer Version

Have you asked the question “How was this configured yesterday?” while working with Linode, or any of the variations with the same meaning?
If yes, YesterdayPy will help you find the answer.
If no, well, you are in the wrong corner of the Internet.

Note: A project called yesterday was already in PyPI, so I just added Py in front of the name.

YesterdayPy creates a backup of your Linode configuration.
For each Linode product (Firewall for example), the software will create a JSON file for each object you have.
The file will be named using the format ID+date.json, with ID being the object’s ID (every Linode object has an ID), and date being the last update date.
If the file already exists, no file is created. That means, it will only backup the changes since the last backup.

If you want to know how the object was configured yesterday while troubleshooting a problem, you can then just compare the current version with the JSON file.

Technical Bits

Requires Python version 3.9 or above.
Requires linode_api4 (https://github.com/linode/linode_api4-python).
If used to backup configuration to Linode Object Storage, Boto3 is also required (https://github.com/boto/boto3).
Currently supports the following products Firewall, Linode, LKE, and VPC.

Installation

Use pipx (https://github.com/pypa/pipx) to install YesterdayPy.

pipx install yesterdaypy

If you need Linode Object Storage to store the backup, install Boto3.
You must use boto version 1.35.99, until Linode fixes compatibility.
More information here (https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/aws-cli-sdks-support-details).

pipx inject yesterdaypy boto3==1.35.99

You can also clone this repository and run:

python yesterdaypy/yesterdaypy.py

How to use it?

First, you need to setup the necessary environment variables.

Linode token is mandatory:

export LINODE_TOKEN=ABC

If using Linode Object Storage:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=ABC
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=ABC
export AWS_ENDPOINT_URL=ABC

Run the software:

yesterdaypy

It will backup all objects to the current directory, for all supported products, with a folder per product.

To backup to a specific folder, specify the location.

yesterdaypy --storage /home/user/backup/example/

To backup to Linode Object Storage, storage needs to start with s3:// followed by the bucket name.

yesterdaypy --storage s3://bucket-name

You can also use –products to limit the products you want to backup.
Use –errors to get the list of errors.
Use –output to print basic information.
Use –verbose to print extra information.
Use –debug to print debug information.
Lastly, –help for the help information.

Docker

You can use the Dockerfile in this repository to build a local image.
Also, the image is available from DockerHub (https://hub.docker.com/r/leonardobdes/yesterdaypy).

Use the export command to setup the necessary environment variables.
Example using DockerHub:

docker run -e LINODE_TOKEN \
--mount type=bind,src=.,dst=/usr/local/yesterdaypy \
leonardobdes/yesterdaypy:latest

This will save the files to the current folder.

You don’t need the mount option to save to Linode Object Storage.

Systemd Service

The most common setup will be to run YesterdayPy daily.
You can do that using a systemd service and timer.
Copy the files yesterdaypy.service and yesterdaypy.timer to the folder /etc/systemd/system/.

The timer is configured to run daily at midnight, so change it based on your preference.
The service has 2 examples, the first command runs the software after installation using pipx, and the second one using Docker.
In both cases, it reads the Linode token from the file linode_token.txt.

jq

Download from https://github.com/jqlang/jq
Use jq to print the text formatted.
You can also use the online version https://play.jqlang.org/

$ jq . 1056933+20250222233724.json
{
  "id": 1056933,
  "label": "test-fw",
  "created": "2024-10-22T22:38:26",
  "updated": "2025-02-22T23:37:24",
  "status": "enabled",
  "rules": {
    "inbound": [
      {
        "action": "ACCEPT",
        "addresses": {
          "ipv4": [
            "1.1.1.1/32"
          ]
        },
        "ports": "22",
        "protocol": "TCP",
        "label": "test-ssh",
        "description": null
      }
    ],
    "inbound_policy": "DROP",
    "outbound": [],
    "outbound_policy": "ACCEPT",
    "version": 3,
    "fingerprint": "cb6bf75b"
  },
  "tags": [],
  "entities": [
    {
      "id": 72473810,
      "type": "linode",
      "label": "ubuntu-gb-lon",
      "url": "/v4/linode/instances/72473810"
    }
  ]
}

You can query a specific part.

$ jq .rules.inbound 1056933+20250222233724.json
[
  {
    "action": "ACCEPT",
    "addresses": {
      "ipv4": [
        "1.1.1.1/32"
      ]
    },
    "ports": "22",
    "protocol": "TCP",
    "label": "test-ssh",
    "description": null
  }
]

jd

Download from https://github.com/josephburnett/jd
Use jd to compare 2 JSON files.
You can also use the online version http://play.jd-tool.io/

$ jd 1056933+20250222233724.json 1056933+20250314231035.json
@ ["entities",0]
[
- {"id":72473810,"label":"ubuntu-gb-lon","type":"linode","url":"/v4/linode/instances/72473810"}
]
@ ["rules","fingerprint"]
- "cb6bf75b"
+ "69cc1741"
@ ["rules","inbound",1]
  {"action":"ACCEPT","addresses":{"ipv4":["1.1.1.1/32"]},"description":null,"label":"test-ssh","ports":"22","protocol":"TCP"}
+ {"action":"ACCEPT","addresses":{"ipv4":["0.0.0.0/0"],"ipv6":["::/0"]},"description":null,"label":"icmp","protocol":"ICMP"}
]
@ ["rules","version"]
- 3
+ 4
@ ["updated"]
- "2025-02-22T23:37:24"
+ "2025-03-14T23:10:35"

To do

Products

Add more products. Also, some objects have other obejcts under it (Linode Configuration Profile).
Thread

Add threads for large configurations.
Mac OS

Test on MacOS, it should work.
Windows

Need some changes to work on Windows.

Other software ideas

YesterdayPy_Clone

Clone an object with a new label (name).
YesterdayPy_Restore

Restore the object to the configuration of the JSON file.

Author

Name:
Leonardo Souza
LinkedIn:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/leonardobdes

How to report bugs?

Use GitHub issues to report bugs.

How to request new functionalities?

Use GitHub issues to request new functionalities.

Use the following format in the title RFE - Title.

Metadata

Release files for yesterdaypy 1.1.5

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for yesterdaypy 1.1.5
File	Size	Uploaded
yesterdaypy-1.1.5.tar.gz	9.6 kB	May 4, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for yesterdaypy 1.1.5
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
yesterdaypy-1.1.5-py3-none-any.whl 8.3 kB May 4, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 17.9 kB

Release files / yesterdaypy-1.1.5.tar.gz

Download URL	yesterdaypy-1.1.5.tar.gz
Size	9.6 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`9423b1f4343fb0cecb552f316ea8d48b3dadcc4575c7231a1b4187668a1eaab3`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`4265fa7e464af90f40367ce2d49c5e29dde3b2038db00524374be642b4109482`
Upload date	May 4, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.4`

Release files / yesterdaypy-1.1.5-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	yesterdaypy-1.1.5-py3-none-any.whl
Size	8.3 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`e6d0a3439992ac7010d7adb00ba4014dda0d8b79cec25f3f0b441e12f79964aa`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`d411cdac651457da5bd8179059a50a38cea9a9d3adeedb209662cd36536c62d0`
Upload date	May 4, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.4`