Scaling Storage with Archiver.FS: Tips for Large Repositories

Getting Started with Archiver.FS: Features, Setup, and Best PracticesArchiver.FS is a modern file-archiving tool designed to streamline backups, versioning, and distribution of file collections for developers, sysadmins, and teams. This guide walks you through Archiver.FS’s core features, step-by-step setup, practical workflows, and best practices to get the most from the tool in real-world projects.

What Archiver.FS is (and isn’t)

Archiver.FS is a content-addressed archiving system that focuses on efficiency, integrity, and reproducibility. It stores file content (or file chunks) using cryptographic hashes, enabling deduplication, tamper-evidence, and straightforward caching across clients and storage backends. Unlike monolithic archive formats that simply compress bytes into a single file, Archiver.FS treats archives as structured, versionable, and network-friendly objects suitable for incremental workflows and distributed teams.

Key features

Content-addressed storage: Files and chunks are identified by hashes, enabling deduplication across archives and easy verification of integrity.
Incremental snapshots: Save only changed files or blocks between snapshots to minimize transfer and storage.
Multiple backends: Supports local disk, S3-compatible object stores, and networked block stores.
Client-side encryption: Optional end-to-end encryption for archives before upload to remote backends.
Pluggable compression: Choose from fast or high-ratio codecs depending on needs.
Manifest and metadata support: Each archive includes a manifest with file metadata (names, permissions, timestamps) and provenance information.
Content addressing and immutability: Archives are verifiable and resistant to silent corruption.
Efficient streaming and partial restores: Stream archives or restore individual files without fetching the entire dataset.
API and CLI: Full-featured command-line client and a programmatic API for integration into CI/CD, backup scripts, or custom tooling.

Typical use cases

Periodic backups of code, docs, or datasets with deduplication.
Artifact storage for CI systems (build outputs, release bundles).
Distributing large datasets or media with partial fetch capabilities.
Long-term archival with cryptographic integrity and encrypted offsite storage.

Setup and installation

Below are generalized steps to install and configure Archiver.FS. Replace platform specifics with your environment’s package manager or binary download.

1) Install the CLI

macOS (Homebrew):
```
brew install archiver-fs 
```

Linux (apt):

sudo apt update sudo apt install archiver-fs

Alternatively, download the prebuilt binary for your OS from the project releases and place it on your PATH:

wget https://example.com/archiver-fs/linux-amd64/archiver-fs chmod +x archiver-fs sudo mv archiver-fs /usr/local/bin/

2) Initialize a repository

Create a local data directory and initialize the Archiver.FS repository (this sets up metadata stores and local cache):

archiver-fs init --repo /var/lib/archiverfs

This command will create a config file (typically at ~/.archiverfs/config.toml) and a local object cache.

3) Configure remote backend(s)

Edit the repository config (or use CLI commands) to add a backend. Example S3-compatible backend:

[backend.s3] type = "s3" endpoint = "https://s3.amazonaws.com" bucket = "my-archiverfs-bucket" region = "us-east-1" access_key = "AKIA..." secret_key = "..."

Or via CLI:

archiver-fs backend add s3 my-s3    --endpoint https://s3.amazonaws.com    --bucket my-archiverfs-bucket    --region us-east-1    --access-key "$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"    --secret-key "$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"

For testing, you can add a local filesystem backend:

archiver-fs backend add local /mnt/archiver-backend

4) (Optional) Enable client-side encryption

Create or import a key and enable encryption:

archiver-fs keygen --name backup-key --passphrase-file ~/.archiverfs/passphrase archiver-fs config set encryption.key backup-key

Archiver.FS will encrypt content before uploading to remote backends if encryption is enabled.

Basic workflows

Creating a snapshot (archive)

To create an archive of a directory:

archiver-fs snapshot create --repo /var/lib/archiverfs /path/to/project -m "daily backup"

This computes hashes for files, stores new objects in the local cache, uploads them to configured backends (if run with network access), and writes a manifest object representing the snapshot.

Listing snapshots

archiver-fs snapshot list --repo /var/lib/archiverfs

This shows snapshot IDs, timestamps, sizes, and descriptions.

Inspecting a snapshot

Show files, metadata, and provenance without extracting:

archiver-fs snapshot inspect <snapshot-id>

Restoring files

Restore a full snapshot:

archiver-fs restore <snapshot-id> --target /restore/location

Restore a single file (partial restore):

archiver-fs restore <snapshot-id> ./path/to/file --target /restore/location --partial

Pruning and garbage collection

Remove unreferenced objects to reclaim space:

archiver-fs gc --repo /var/lib/archiverfs --retain 30d

This retains objects referenced by snapshots younger than 30 days and deletes older unreferenced objects.

Integration examples

CI: Upload build artifacts as snapshots after a successful pipeline run; use manifest metadata to tag releases.
Backup scripts: Add cron job to create daily snapshots and run gc weekly.
Data distribution: Publish a snapshot manifest URL so clients can fetch only required files.

Example cron entry for nightly backups:

0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/archiver-fs snapshot create --repo /var/lib/archiverfs /srv/data -m "nightly"

Best practices

Use content-addressed storage with chunking enabled for large datasets—this maximizes deduplication.
Enable client-side encryption for sensitive data stored on third-party backends.
Configure multiple backends (local + remote) for redundancy: local cache for fast restores, remote for offsite durability.
Keep metadata manifests small by avoiding storing unnecessary generated files (e.g., large build caches) — use .archiverignore to exclude them.
Apply lifecycle rules on remote backends (e.g., S3) in addition to Archiver.FS’s garbage collection to control costs.
Monitor repository size and run periodic gc. Schedule verification jobs to validate archive integrity.
Tag snapshots with descriptive metadata (branch, commit SHA, pipeline ID) for easy lookup in CI workflows.
Test restores regularly — an archive is only as good as your ability to restore from it.

Troubleshooting

Slow uploads: check network bandwidth and backend throttling; verify chunking settings and consider increasing parallelism.
Corrupt manifests: use the inspect command to verify object hashes; re-run snapshot create if local cache is inconsistent.
Permission issues on restore: confirm manifest-preserved permissions and adjust umask or restore flags if needed.
Missing objects on restore: ensure the remote backend is reachable and that the object upload completed; check gc retention settings.

Example: Small project walkthrough

Init repo: archiver-fs init –repo ~/archiver-repo
Add local backend: archiver-fs backend add local ~/archiver-backend
Snapshot project: archiver-fs snapshot create –repo ~/archiver-repo ~/projects/myapp -m “v1.0 release”
List and inspect: archiver-fs snapshot list; archiver-fs snapshot inspect
Restore single file: archiver-fs restore ./config.yaml –target ~/restore-dir –partial

Conclusion

Archiver.FS is built for efficient, verifiable, and flexible archiving across local and remote storage. Its content-addressed design, incremental snapshots, and optional encryption make it a solid choice for backups, CI artifact storage, and dataset distribution. Follow the setup steps, adopt the best practices above, and add regular restore tests to ensure your archives remain reliable.