Linux offers a lot of packages and programs to back up your files. Since I just migrated to Linux, I had to leave my previous backup tools and look for a viable Linux alternative.

If you search hard enough, you will often read about Areca Backup. It is an Open Source backup solution (and I love Open Source) and allows for “delta” backups. These are usually incremental backups, meaning that you only backup the files that were modified since the last backup, which saves a lot of space and is generally faster.

Areca is also a fully fledged graphical application (written in Java) which also works on Windows and Mac OS.

Here is a short guide for getting started with Areca Backup on Linux.

Download and Install

Areca is available on its official website: http://www.areca-backup.org/

Under Download you get redirected to the Sourceforge page of the project. Download the latest version (7.4.9 for me) and unzip the package.

(Optional) Install for all users

After unzipping, you should have the folder areca with the program files in it. Next step is putting it in the /opt directory. This allows the program to be used by all users on the computer. If you are the only user, you can skip this step.

At the end, it should have this directory structure: /opt/areca/areca.sh

Run the application

Now you only need to run the application. For the GUI version, type into the console:

sh /opt/areca/areca.sh

For the console interface, run the following:

sh /opt/areca/bin/run_tui.sh

You can also use these commands with a launcher to use on your desktop.

Also check out the feature list and the screenshots and refer to the user manual for an extensive documentation of Areca.