Logs

Logs live on the rootfs under /var/lib/iosbackupmachine/ so they survive reboots and power loss. Each backup and each sync writes its own timestamped file, the app prunes old ones itself, and the web UI Logs page can browse and live-tail the most recent backup and sync. Volatile runtime state stays in RAM to avoid wearing the SD card.

Where logs live

Logs are stored on the rootfs under /var/lib/iosbackupmachine/, so they survive reboots and power loss. They are deliberately kept off /var/log, which on this Armbian image is a zram RAM disk (armbian-ramlog) that loses anything not yet synced to disk when the device is cut abruptly. That abrupt cut is the exact failure mode of a power-loss shutdown.

Volatile runtime state stays on /var/log/iosbackupmachine/: backup_status.json, start_requested, and stop_requested. This state is rewritten constantly and regenerated every run, so keeping it in RAM avoids SD-card wear.

Per-run log files

Each run creates a timestamped file:

backup-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log
sync-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log

Retention

Retention is managed by the app, not logrotate. The newest 50 backup logs and the newest 50 sync logs are kept, and anything older than 90 days is pruned. Override the defaults with two environment variables:

IOSBACKUP_LOG_KEEP: how many of each log type to keep
IOSBACKUP_LOG_MAX_AGE_DAYS: maximum age in days before pruning

The continuous append logs (ntp-sync.log, autostart.log, update.log) are size-capped by logrotate. webui.log self-rotates.

Browsing logs

The web UI Logs page can browse backup log files directly from the browser. It has separate live-tail links for the most recent backup log and the most recent sync log.

Web UI for the Logs page and the rest of the browser interface