1. Git-ify your Zotero Folder
That’s right. The first step is that we’re using git to make your Zotero last longer and be braver in this brave new world.
cd ~/Zotero
git init
Follow the prompts and you’re done.
If you’re a maverick (and you want to actually back up all your Zotero stuff), then go ahead and use your favourite source control setup (like Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket…) and create a repository. You’ll want to add a remote to this one, though.
Maybe something like this:
git remote add origin git@github.com:username/zotero-backup.git
2. Make Initial Backup
Now you just have to use your regular ol’ git tools to make the backup back up. From your ~/Zotero folder, do something like this:
git add *
git commit -m "Initial Zotero snapshot"
git push -u origin master
Now you should see magic happening. It’s pushing all your beautiful pdfs and notes and everything up into the cloud.
3. Make a bunch of changes and make an incremental backup
You’ll probably normally do things like:
- take notes
- add documents
- create bibliographies (actually this doesn’t matter)
So go ahead and do those things (especially adding the pdfs, I like that bit).
You could, of course, back this up using git commands (as above). Or you could use my handy-dandy backup script from https://github.com/jcuenod/zotero-backup-scripts. Clone that repo somewhere and then symbolic link backup.sh to your ~/Zotero folder.
cd ~/Zotero
ln -s somewhere-i-cloned-that-repo/backup.sh .
Now try:
./backup.sh
If it doesn’t work, check your permissions. You should have a new commit that has a message something like this:
Daily backup
(new) Author_1983_Title of work with 'quotes' and every_thing.pdf
(mod) Some other great document that you edited (e.g. with annotations).pdf
Yes, it even has those cool extra lines about what new/modified pdfs are in this commit.
4. Automate: Rinse and Repeat
I want these backups to happen daily so I made a systemd timer (kind of like a cron job). That means you’ve gotta symbolic link those files to your systemd as well and you have to start the timer.
cd ~/.config/systemd/user/
ln -s somewhere-i-cloned-that-repo/zoterobck.service
ln -s somewhere-i-cloned-that-repo/zoterobck.timer
To start the timer:
systemctl --user start zoterobck.timer
And voila, you have daily incremental backups of your Zotero work (and if you do it right [i.e. find a private free version control utility], it’s free).
5. Bonus Points: Version Control your Dissertation…
Obviously this principle works with documents in general. Now if only there were a way to get version control to understand documents. Like if there were a way of writing them in plain text but still have them nicely formatted when necessary…