Creating your first backup

The first backup shows you whether everything the plugin needs is present on this server. A run writes a dump of all database tables with the table prefix of this installation as well as the selected directories into a ZIP file, working in short passes in the background. At the end, the backup is in the list with a time stamp, scope and size.

What the overview reports beforehand

• Storage location — the directory that is written to
• ZipArchive available — without this PHP class no archive is created
• OpenSSL (encryption) — only needed if you want to encrypt
• Directory writable — if it says “no” here, every run fails

Defining the scope and starting

1. In the WordPress admin area, open the menu item “Kakapo Backup”. The view starts in the “Backups” area.
2. On the left under “Configuration”, switch to “Scope” and decide on “Include uploads”, “Include plugins” and “Include themes”. The database is always included.
3. Also check “Max. file size (MB)” there — individual files above this limit are skipped; the default is 128.
4. Go back to “Backups” and read in the “Advance estimate” card how big the archive is likely to be and how much space has to be free. If the file count was stopped after its time budget, the card says so — the real values are then higher.
5. In the “Back up now” card, click “Backup now”.
6. Follow the run in the “Live backup stream” card; tables, rows and files are listed there as it goes, and you stop it via “Cancel”.
7. For the finished backup in the list, click “Check” — this compares the SHA-256 checksum against the file on the disk.

wp-content/uploads/kwpb-backups

Every backup sits as its own ZIP file in the backup directory. Inside the archive are the database.sql and a manifest.json with the origin details, which are checked before every restore. When it is created, the directory gets an .htaccess with “Deny from all” and an empty index.html.