1. Introduction

1.1. Overview

homi_main

Homi is an app for protecting your home directory. It takes a snapshot of files every hour and saves it to a pen drive or USB drive. If you accidentally delete a file, or if your hard disk or SSD dies, then you can use Homi to recover the data. The backups can be mounted and browsed as a normal folder, and you can copy the files that you require.

Backups are created using BorgBackup. Data is encrypted, compressed, and de-duplicated to save space. These backups are very space-efficient. Dozens of snapshots can be created every hour and they won’t take up any space if the files have not changed. Backups can be protected with a password.

This tool is designed to be easy to use and has very few settings. All you need to do is to select the folder where you want to save the backups. Everything else is automatic. If you need more options check out Baqpaq which provides more functionality and is designed for experienced users.

1.2. Features

  • Backup home directory data to a pen drive or USB drive

  • Create snapshots at intervals between every 5 mins to every 1 hour

  • Hourly snapshots are kept for the last 2 days and daily snapshots for the last 2 weeks. Older snapshots are removed automatically.

  • Backups are incremental, compressed, and de-duplicated to save space

  • Backups are encrypted and protected with a password

  • Backups can be mounted to a folder and opened with a file manager to copy files that are needed

  • Easy to use. No configuration is needed.

1.3. Use-Case

  • Protect files from accidental deletion. Recover deleted files from previous snapshots.

  • Recover older versions of documents and files from previous snapshots

  • Recover home directory data in case of a dead hard disk or SSD

1.4. Supported Distributions

This app is meant for use on Linux distributions based on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Fedora.

  • Debian

    • Debian 10 (Buster) and derivatives

    • Debian 11 (Bullseye) and derivatives

    • Older releases of Debian are not supported

  • Ubuntu

    • Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic) and derivatives

    • Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal) and derivatives

    • Ubuntu’s current Non-LTS release, and derivatives

    • PopOS, ZorinOS, MX Linux, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, ElementaryOS, and others

    • Linux Mint 19, 20, and later releases. Mint 18 and older releases are not supported.

    • Solus and KDE Neon are not supported.

    • Older releases of Ubuntu are not supported

  • Fedora

    • Fedora 32, 33, 34, and later releases

    • RedHat 8, CentOS 8, AlmaLinux, etc

    • Fedora Silverblue and rpm-ostree distributions are not supported

  • Arch Linux

    • Manjaro

    • Other Arch-based distributions (not-tested)

1.5. Supported Hardware

This software is meant for use on computers with Intel, AMD, or ARM processors.

  • Intel & AMD computers

    • 64-bit packages are available (amd64)

  • Single-board computers (SBCs) with ARM CPUs

    • 32-bit (armhf) and 64-bit (arm64) packages are available

    • Supports Raspberry Pi 4B/400 and Odroid N2/N2+

    • Supports Raspbian, Raspberry Pi OS, Debian, Armbian, and Ubuntu.

1.6. Install Homi Lite

A basic version of Homi is available as a free download. The free version takes backups at 60-minute intervals and keeps 6 hourly snapshots.

Run the following command in a terminal window to install Homi Lite.

This command will only download and install packages. It does not add any repository and you won’t receive automatic updates. You can re-run the same command in the future to update to a newer version.

wget -O- https://teejeetech.com/install-homi-lite.sh | bash

1.7. Install Full Version

Homi can be purchased from the store.

Native packages and repositories (for apt/dnf/pacman) are available for all supported Linux distributions.

Installation steps and license keys will be sent to the email address provided at the time of purchase. Installation is as simple as running a one-line command.

1.8. Uninstall

Run the following command in a terminal window:

sudo apt-get purge -y homi*
sudo rm -fv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*homi*

This will remove all packages for Homi and also remove the repository.

1.9. Purchase

The full version of Homi is available for purchase from the store.

1.10. Trial & Refunds

There is a no trial version available but there is a 14-day refund policy. If the app does not meet your requirements, please drop an email to support@teejeetech.com within 14 days of purchase to get a full refund.