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Tarsnap is cozy

I have been aware of tarsnap for a long time, but only recently did I actually get around to using it for anything, as a result of my big personal digital resiliency audit for 2025. For those of you not in the know, tarsnap is “online backups for the truly paranoid”, and tarsnap the command-line program is the client-side tool you invoke to actually zip up and push your archives into the vault. Its creator, Dr. Colin Percival, is a really smart and interesting dude for a whole bunch of reasons. I’m led to believe the whole business is basically a two-man show between him and his brother these days.

I have been aware of tarsnap for a long time, but only recently did I actually for anything, as a result of my big personal digital resiliency audit for 2025. If you use it solely to back up the few megabytes of “crown jewels” data we all have lying around, don’t be surprised if the calculator tells you your initial $5 or such will last for over 1,000 years. About the only thing I could think I might want more from a service like this is the opportunity to use a hardware key instead of a keyfile - I’m sure Colin has thought about this possibility himself and has good reasons for or against implementing it, however.

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