Problem/Justification
Currently the Cloud Sync feature operates exactly as described - it is a sync/copy only. The backup-dir option allows for versioned/dated backups with a single extra flag. Right now the only other way to approximate this is to get hacky with server-side settings (B2’s object lock) or write a manual rclone script (bypassing the GUI, which I’m unsure is even possible in TrueNAS).
Impact
The primary benefit of exposing this flag would be to allow for version control in backups. Right now as I understand it, if I overwrite a file with all zeros, and run a sync task - the backed up copy gets overwritten with zeros. Which reduces its effectiveness as a data protection method. This would let users be able to roll back an entire backup to a specified date, or just a file.
User Story
I would use envision this feature to do the following - as part of a SYNC task, I would check a box for “version controlled backups” or similar. I would then be prompted for a date format string (similar to snapshots).
During the backup process, when rclone encounters a changed file, it would move that file to the specified backup-dir. As an example, if I have a folder called “nextcloud”, and back that up with the date format of YYYY-MM-DD, then any changed files would get moved on the B2 side to nextcloud-2025-07-10 before storing the new file.
So you would end up with the following at the end of a backup:
nextcloud
–>changed_file.txt
–>unchanged_file.txt
–>frequntly_changed_file.txtnextcloud-2025-07-10
–>changed_file.txtnextcloud-2025-07-09
–>frequntly_changed_file.txtnextcloud-2025-07-08
–>frequntly_changed_file.txt
The restore workflow would work like this:
- first restore the latest backup
- then, if needed, restore from the previous backup folder (which just pulls in the changed files)
- repeat, going back one folder at a time, until you get to the proper version you want.
I’ve done this manually with rclone before, I think many users would love to have a feature like this for those “oh crap moments”