protonscr

Automating backups?

steamopen
ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#8436 · opened 2022-02-23 by unknown321 · updated 2022-03-18 · 0 comments · github
Uunknown321 2022-02-23 github

Your system information

  • Steam client version (build number or date): Feb 22 2022
  • Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Debian 11
  • Opted into Steam client beta?: [Yes/No] Yes
  • Have you checked for system updates?: [Yes/No] Yes

Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:

I am trying to automate game backups. Right now there are about 600 installed games and I want to backup some of them via "Backup and restore" - about 100 titles, 400 GBs. After ticking all the boxes and starting the process, it compressed the first game and then failed without specifying a reason. It worked for two titles selected (Atom Zombie Smasher and Spacewar), there is plenty of free space.

Re-ticking 100+ games again is not an option, so I tried to automate backups via console. Grabbed all names and app_ids from terminal (apps_installed), but how am I supposed to run app_backup for all of them? It accepts only one app_id, so it makes sense to automate the process. However, built-in console doesn't accept chained commands (i.e. app_backup 1; app_backup 2); -script launch option is undocumented and doesn't seem to run console scripts. Steam browser protocol steam://backup/<app_id> requires human interaction, which is unacceptable for my case. There is no documented way to delegate automation to, let's say, bash scripts (launching steam console commands).

There is another problem with restore. You'll have to untick a lot of checkboxes if you want to install a single game from backup archive with hundreds of games. Creating backup archives with one game per directory is possible, but will take a lot of time since it requires interaction.

How can I back up my games without ui in automated manner on linux?

Steps for reproducing this issue:

  1. Select 1000 games for backup
  2. Simulate the backup failure (for example, run out of space, network storage disconnect, whatever)
  3. Realize that you'll have to select all the games again
  4. Try to automate, realize that there is no way to automate
  5. Feel bad

Nothing extracted yet.