---
name: "bup-on"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "bup"
version: "0.34-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/bup-on"
---

# bup-on(1)

run a bup on a remote host, communicating with a local server

## NAME

bup-on - run a bup on a remote host, communicating with a local server

## SYNOPSIS

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] index ...

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] save ...

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] restore ...

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] split ...

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] version ...

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] features ...

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] help ...

bup on \[*user*@\]*host*\[:*port*\] get ...

(Prefer `bup get --source-url ssh://<hostname>...`)

## DESCRIPTION

`bup on` runs the command on the remote host via ssh, connected to a bup server running on the local machine, so that remote commands like `bup save` can back up to the local repository. See [`bup-index`(1)](/bup-index/1.md), [`bup-save`(1)](/bup-save/1.md), and so on for the command details.

Note that you don’t need to (and shouldn’t) provide a `--remote` option. This “reverse mode” is useful when the machine being backed up isn’t supposed to be able to ssh into the backup server. Instead, the backup server, even if hidden behind a one-way firewall on a private or dynamic IP address, can connect to each of your important machines using an ssh key, and initiate a backup that saves the remote data to the local repository.

## EXAMPLES

-

  ```
  # First index the files on the remote server
  $ bup on myserver index -vux /etc
  bup server: reading from stdin.
  Indexing: 2465, done.
  bup: merging indexes (186668/186668), done.
  bup server: done
  # Now save the files from the remote server to the
  # local $BUP_DIR
  $ bup on myserver save -n myserver-backup /etc
  bup server: reading from stdin.
  bup server: command: 'list-indexes'
  PackIdxList: using 7 indexes.
  Saving: 100.00% (241/241k, 648/648 files), done.
  bup server: received 55 objects.
  Indexing objects: 100% (55/55), done.
  bup server: command: 'quit'
  bup server: done
  # Now we can look at the resulting repo on the local
  # machine
  $ bup ftp 'cat /myserver-backup/latest/etc/passwd'
  root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
  daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
  bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
  sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
  sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
  ...
  ```

## SEE ALSO

[`bup-index`(1)](/bup-index/1.md), [`bup-save`(1)](/bup-save/1.md), [`bup-split`(1)](/bup-split/1.md), [`bup-get`(1)](/bup-get/1.md)

## BUP

Part of the [`bup`(1)](/bup/1.md) suite.

## AUTHORS

Avery Pennarun ⟨apenwarr@gmail.com⟩\\c.