vpt-rs Documentation

vpt-rs is a cross-platform volume backup library and CLI tool written in Rust. It provides a unified trait-based architecture for snapshot creation, block-level backup, and restore across multiple storage backends.

What Does It Do?

vpt-rs lets you:

• Create snapshots of volumes using native storage APIs (Btrfs subvolumes, LVM snapshots, ZFS snapshots, Windows VSS)
• Back up volumes to stream or image files (incremental or full)
• Restore volumes from backup files
• Manage snapshot lifecycle (create, list, delete)

Who Is This For?

• System administrators who need reliable volume backup across different storage backends
• Backup tool developers who want a library that handles the complexity of platform-specific snapshot APIs
• Rust developers who need volume backup functionality in their applications

How Does It Work?

vpt-rs uses a trait-based architecture where each storage backend implements the same set of traits:

This means you write your backup logic once, and it works across all supported storage backends.

Quick Example

use vpt_rs::platform;
use vpt_rs::{BackupExecutor, BackupPlan, BackupSource, BackupTarget, VolumeRef};

let backend = platform::current_backend();
let plan = BackupPlan {
    source: BackupSource::Volume(VolumeRef::new("/mnt/data")),
    target: BackupTarget::ImageFile("/tmp/backup.img".into()),
    ..Default::default()
};
backend.backup_volume(&plan)?;

Supported Platforms

Platform	Backend	Status
Linux	Btrfs	✅ Full support
Linux	LVM	✅ Full support
Linux	ZFS	✅ Full support
Windows	VSS	✅ Full support
macOS	APFS	🔧 Stubbed
Unix	Generic	🔧 Stubbed

Next Steps

• Installation — Get vpt-rs installed
• Quick Start — Your first backup in 5 minutes
• Architecture — Understand how vpt-rs works internally