How to make a backup

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How to make a backup of your Gramps genealogy database.

TODO: check if command line uses default options on export, last used options or ignore options not set on command line. Because default options by using Gramps user interface and Exporter enable "privacy filters"...

Gramps version 3.3 and later

Simply select "Make Backup..." from the "Family Trees" menu item.

Fig. 1. Backup Options


You can enter the path where the backup should be stored. You can enter a file name.

You can either choose to include the media or not.

Note that this is just a regular XML export, except that no data is filtered out. You can import these as usual with any exported file.

You can also define the pattern for the backup filename by setting the paths.quick-backup-filename in the ~/.gramps/gramps34/gramps.ini key file like the following:

[paths]
quick-backup-filename='%(filename)s_%(year)d-%(month)02d-%(day)02d.%(extension)s'

You can use any of the following keywords in the pattern: year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, filename, extension.

For version 3.3 you should use the appropriate ~/.gramps/gramps33/gramps.ini key file.

Gramps version 3.1.x and later

With media files

Assuming your database is called "My Family Tree", and you want the backup to include external media objects such as images and documents, the recommended method to create a backup is to use the gramps-pkg format:

gramps -O "My Family Tree" -e backup.gpkg

or

gramps --open="My Family Tree" --export=backup.gpkg

This is equivalent to selecting the following menu options:

Family Trees -> Export -> "GRAMPS package (portable XML)" -> "Entire Database".

In case of problems, you can add the format of the output to the above command. For a gramps package:

--format=gpkg

or

--format=gramps-pkg

Without media files

If you don't need to include the media objects in your backup, then you can make use of the gramps-xml format:

gramps -O "My Family Tree" -e backup.gramps 

or

gramps --open="My Family Tree" --export=backup.gramps 

This is equivalent to selecting the following menu options:

Family Trees -> Export -> "GRAMPS XML database" -> "Entire Database".

The Generate XML page has further information on what can be done with the .gramps files.

Gramps verson 3.0.x

With media files

Assuming your database is called "My Family Tree", and you want the backup to include external media objects such as images and documents, the recommended method to create a backup is to use the gramps-pkg format:

gramps --open="My Family Tree" --output=backup.gpkg --format=gramps-pkg

This is equivalent to selecting the following menu options:

Family Trees -> Export -> "GRAMPS package (portable XML)" -> "Entire Database".

Without media files

If you don't need to include the media objects in your backup, then you can make use of the gramps-xml format:

gramps --open="My Family Tree" --output=backup.gramps --format=gramps-xml

This is equivalent to selecting the following menu options:

Family Trees -> Export -> "GRAMPS XML database" -> "Entire Database".

The Generate XML page has further information on what can be done with the .gramps files.

Gramps version 2.2.x

Without media files

The gramps-xml data format will produce a backup of your data excluding any media objects, such as external images and documents. The following example shows how to create a gramps-xml file from a database called "MyFamilyTree.grdb":

gramps -O MyFamilyTree.grdb -o backup.gramps -f gramps-xml

GEDCOM export

Gnome-important.png
GEDCOM export

Please note that GEDCOM is not recommended for backups since it is a lossy format.

But there are times you may need to export your data to GEDCOM. This command will attempt to export your database as a GEDCOM file:

gramps --open="My Family Tree" --output=export.ged --format=gedcom