SHSelfHostIndex
LI

linux-timemachine

rsync-based Time Machine style backups for Linux and macOS

Backup & Recovery ★ 842 stars Easy setup MIT

linux-timemachine is a portable POSIX shell script that creates incremental Time Machine style backups using rsync and hard links. It is dependency-free, supports remote SSH targets, and produces dated, browsable snapshot directories.

Official siteSource code

Key features

  • POSIX-compliant single script
  • Hard-linked dated snapshots
  • Remote backup over SSH
  • Zero runtime dependencies

Pros & cons

Strengths

  • Highly portable
  • Easy to audit

Trade-offs

  • No GUI or scheduling
  • No built-in encryption

Is linux-timemachine secure?

OSV.dev has no published security advisories for linux-timemachine's repository. No known vulnerabilities is not proof of security: it means none have been publicly catalogued.

Source: OSV.dev, checked 2026-10-14. How this is measured.

linux-timemachine replaces

Self-hosted Apple Time Machine alternatives

Health badge

Maintain linux-timemachine? Add its health score to your README. The badge links back to this page.

SelfHostIndex: 13 · at risk

Markdown
[![SelfHostIndex health score for linux-timemachine](https://selfhostindex.com/badge/linux-timemachine.svg)](https://selfhostindex.com/app/linux-timemachine/)
HTML
<a href="https://selfhostindex.com/app/linux-timemachine/"><img src="https://selfhostindex.com/badge/linux-timemachine.svg" alt="SelfHostIndex health score for linux-timemachine"></a>
reStructuredText
.. image:: https://selfhostindex.com/badge/linux-timemachine.svg
   :alt: SelfHostIndex health score for linux-timemachine
   :target: https://selfhostindex.com/app/linux-timemachine/

The score is recomputed on every nightly rebuild from public repository data — see how it is calculated.

Similar backup & recovery apps