--- name: "bupstash-list" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "bupstash" version: "0.12.0-4" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/bupstash-list" --- # bupstash-list(1) ## SYNOPSIS List items in a bupstash repository. **bupstash list \[OPTIONS\] QUERY...** ## DESCRIPTION **bupstash list** fetches, decrypts and prints metadata of items stored in the bupstash repository. It can be used for searching the database with the bupstash query language. Only the metadata needs to be decrypted to list items, so a metadata key is sufficient for item queries, even without access to the data decryption key. ## QUERY LANGUAGE For full documentation on the query language, see [bupstash-query-language(7)](/bupstash-query-language/7.md). ### List query examples: ``` $ bupstash list name='*.tar' ... $ bupstash list timestamp='2020*' ... ``` ## SPECIAL TAGS Bupstash automatically inserts special tags that can be viewed and queried against, they are outlined below. ### decryption-key-id This special tag is inserted when the **--query-encrypted** option is used, it allows searching against the key id that would be uesd for decrypting the given item. This tag is mostly useful for pruning backups for which you do not have the decryption key. ### size This tag is the size of the data stream and any index metadata associated with the snapshot. This means the size may not exactly match the size of the data stream retrieved by [bupstash-get(1)](/bupstash-get/1.md) for the case of snapshots. ### timestamp The time the item was created formatted as **YYYY/MM/DD HH:MM:SS**. ## QUERY CACHING Because all data is stored encrypted on the server, item metadata must first be synchronized to the local machine, and then decrypted on the client side to run a query. The file containing the synced and encrypted metadata is called the query cache. The path to the query-cache file, defaults to one of the following, in order, provided the appropriate environment variables are set, **$BUPSTASH\_QUERY\_CACHE**, **$XDG\_CACHE\_HOME/.cache/bupstash/bupstash.qcache** or **$HOME/.cache/bupstash/bupstash.qcache**. As a special case, a query that consists only of a fully specified id (e.g. **id=$FULL\_ID**) will not require use of the query cache, instead the query can be passed directly to the server. This means it is always more efficient to fully specify an id when running any command that expects a query. ## OUTPUT FORMATS ### Human When **--format** is set to **human**, **bupstash list** outputs rows consisting of: - ``` KEY=VALUE KEY=VALUE KEY=VALUE .... ``` - Where each key and value corresponds to a tag that may be searched against. ### JSONl1 When **--format** is set to **jsonl1**, **bupstash list** outputs one json object per line. Each line has the following json schema: - ``` { "id": hexstring, "decryption_key_id": hexstring, "data_tree": { "address": hexstring, "height": number, "data_chunk_count": number }, "index_tree": { "address": hexstring, "height": number, "data_chunk_count": number }, "data_size": number, // If decryption key present. "index_size": number, // If decryption key present. "put_key_id": hexstring, // If decryption key present. "data_hash_key_part": hexstring, // If decryption key present. "index_hash_key_part": hexstring, // If decryption key present. "unix_timestamp_millis": number, "tags": { string : string, ... } ``` - If --query-encrypted is specified, encrypted tags and metadata are omitted. ## OPTIONS - \-r, --repository REPO The repository to connect to may be of the form **ssh://$SERVER/$PATH** for remote repositories if ssh access is configured. If not specified, is set to **BUPSTASH\_REPOSITORY**. - \-k, --key KEY Primary key used to decrypt data and metadata. If not set, defaults to **BUPSTASH\_KEY**. - \--query-encrypted The query will not decrypt any metadata, allowing you to list items you do not have a decryption key for. This option inserts the pseudo query tag 'decryption-key-id'. - \--query-cache PATH Path to the query-cache file, defaults to one of the following, in order, provided the appropriate environment variables are set, **$BUPSTASH\_QUERY\_CACHE**, **$XDG\_CACHE\_HOME/.cache/bupstash/bupstash.qcache** or **$HOME/.cache/bupstash/bupstash.qcache**. - \--format FORMAT Set output format to one of the following 'human', 'jsonl'. - \--utc-timestamps Display and search against timestamps in utc time instead of local time. - \--no-progress Suppress progress indicators (Progress indicators are also suppressed when stderr is not an interactive terminal). - \-q, --quiet Be quiet, implies --no-progress. ## ENVIRONMENT - BUPSTASH\_REPOSITORY The repository to connect to. May be of the form **ssh://$SERVER/$PATH** for remote repositories if ssh access is configured. - BUPSTASH\_REPOSITORY\_COMMAND A command to run to connect to an instance of [bupstash-serve(1)](/bupstash-serve/1.md). This allows more complex connections to the repository for less common use cases. - BUPSTASH\_KEY Path to a primary key that will be used for decrypting data and metadata. - BUPSTASH\_KEY\_COMMAND A command to run that must print the key data, can be used instead of BUPSTASH\_KEY to fetch the key from arbitrary locations such as the network or other secret storage. - BUPSTASH\_QUERY\_CACHE Path to the query cache file to use. ## EXAMPLES ### List items matching a query ``` $ bupstash list name=backup.tar and timestamp=2020/07/* id="aa87fdbc72241f363568bbb888c0834e" name="backup.tar" size="106.34MB" timestamp="2020-07-24 15:25:00" id="d271ec0b989cfc20e10d01380115747e" name="backup.tar" size="146.38MB" timestamp="2020-07-29 15:25:24" ... ``` ## SEE ALSO [bupstash(1)](/bupstash/1.md), [bupstash-list-contents(1)](/bupstash-list-contents/1.md), [bupstash-keyfiles(7)](/bupstash-keyfiles/7.md), [bupstash-query-language(7)](/bupstash-query-language/7.md)