VaultGen

Welcome to VaultGen! VaultGen is a lightweight, Python-based tool for creating backups as virtual disk images and extracting them when needed. It’s designed to make your data backup process straightforward and secure by generating virtual disk images where your data can be safely stored.

How VaultGen Works

VaultGen works by taking a folder that you want to back up and generating a virtual disk image (like a .img file). It formats that image, copies your folder’s contents into it, and stores it securely. Later, you can extract the contents from that virtual disk image whenever you need them.

Here’s a simple Mermaid graph that explains the backup and extraction process:

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant VaultGen
    participant DiskImageHandler
    participant FolderHandler

    User ->> VaultGen: Start VaultGen (backup/extract)
    
    alt Backup
        VaultGen ->> FolderHandler: Calculate folder size
        FolderHandler -->> VaultGen: Folder size in MB
        
        VaultGen ->> DiskImageHandler: Create disk image
        DiskImageHandler -->> VaultGen: Disk image created
        
        VaultGen ->> DiskImageHandler: Format disk image
        DiskImageHandler -->> VaultGen: Disk image formatted
        
        VaultGen ->> DiskImageHandler: Mount disk image
        DiskImageHandler -->> VaultGen: Disk image mounted
        
        VaultGen ->> FolderHandler: Copy folder to disk image
        FolderHandler -->> VaultGen: Files copied
        
        VaultGen ->> DiskImageHandler: Unmount disk image
        DiskImageHandler -->> VaultGen: Disk image unmounted
        
        VaultGen -->> User: Backup Complete

    else Extract
        VaultGen ->> DiskImageHandler: Mount disk image
        DiskImageHandler -->> VaultGen: Disk image mounted

        VaultGen ->> FolderHandler: Extract folder from disk image
        FolderHandler -->> VaultGen: Files extracted

        VaultGen ->> DiskImageHandler: Unmount disk image
        DiskImageHandler -->> VaultGen: Disk image unmounted

        VaultGen -->> User: Extraction Complete
    end

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Features

• Backup your data into virtual disk images (.img) with ease.
• Extract the contents from the disk image to any destination folder when needed.
• Uses system tools like mkfs to format and mount for mounting/unmounting disk images.
• Visual progress tracking with the rich library to make the process friendly and fun to use.

How to Use VaultGen

1. Install Dependencies

Before using VaultGen, make sure to install the required Python libraries and ensure your system supports the necessary commands (mkfs.ext4, mount, umount).

pip install rich pyfiglet

or

sudo pip3 install rich pyfiglet

ALSO you need to use WSL to run this in Windows.

2. Running VaultGen

VaultGen has two main operations: backup and extract. Here's how you can use it:

Backup a Folder to a Disk Image

To backup a folder, you need to specify the folder you want to backup and the name of the disk image file that will be created.

sudo python3 vaultgen.py backup --folder /path/to/your/folder --image /path/to/virtual_backup.img

• --folder: This is the source folder you want to back up.
• --image: The path where you want to save the virtual disk image file (e.g., virtual_backup.img).
• --mount: (Optional) The directory used to temporarily mount the disk image (defaults to /mnt/virtual_disk).

Extract a Folder from a Disk Image

When you want to extract the contents of a backup disk image, just specify the image and the destination folder where the contents will be extracted.

sudo python3 vaultgen.py extract --folder /path/to/extracted/folder --image /path/to/virtual_backup.img

• --folder: This is the destination folder where the extracted files will be placed.
• --image: The path to the virtual disk image file you want to extract from.
• --mount: (Optional) The directory used to temporarily mount the disk image (defaults to /mnt/virtual_disk).

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
operation	Yes	Specifies whether you want to backup or extract.
--folder	Yes	The source folder for backup or the destination folder for extraction.
--image	Yes	The path to the disk image file (either for creating or extracting from).
--mount	No	The temporary mount point for the disk image (defaults to /mnt/virtual_disk).

Example Usage

Backup

To back up the folder /mnt/d/BackUp into a disk image virtual_backup.img, you would use:

sudo python3 vaultgen.py backup --folder /mnt/d/BackUp --image /mnt/d/virtual_backup.img

Extract

To extract the contents of virtual_backup.img into a folder /mnt/d/ExtractedData, you would use:

sudo python3 vaultgen.py extract --folder /mnt/d/ExtractedData --image /mnt/d/virtual_backup.img

How VaultGen Works (Detailed)

1. Backup: VaultGen calculates the size of the folder, creates a virtual disk image big enough to store that folder, formats the image, mounts it, copies the folder contents to the image, and unmounts the disk.

2. Extract: VaultGen mounts the disk image, copies the contents to your specified folder, and unmounts the disk afterward.