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BackupForge Dependencies

Philosophy

BackupForge is designed to be easy to install with minimal system dependencies. We believe software should "just work" without hunting for system libraries.

Zero System Dependencies Approach

Vendored OpenSSL

Problem: Traditional Rust projects using OpenSSL require:

  • Ubuntu/Debian: libssl-dev, pkg-config
  • RHEL/Fedora: openssl-devel, pkg-config
  • Different versions across systems
  • Installation permission requirements

Solution: BackupForge uses vendored OpenSSL:

openssl = { version = "0.10", features = ["vendored"] }

This means:

  • ✅ OpenSSL is compiled from source during build
  • ✅ No system OpenSSL libraries needed
  • ✅ Consistent OpenSSL version across all platforms
  • ✅ No pkg-config required
  • ✅ Works in containers without extra packages

Trade-off:

  • Slightly longer initial build time (~2-3 minutes extra)
  • Larger binary size (+2MB)
  • Worth it for ease of installation!

What You Actually Need

Minimum Requirements

  1. Rust 1.70+ - The Rust toolchain
  2. C Compiler - For compiling vendored OpenSSL
    • Linux: gcc (usually pre-installed)
    • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools
    • Windows: MSVC or MinGW

Ubuntu/Debian

# Usually just this:
sudo apt install build-essential

# build-essential includes: gcc, g++, make, libc-dev

RHEL/CentOS/Fedora

sudo dnf install gcc

macOS

# Install Xcode Command Line Tools
xcode-select --install

Windows

Download and install Build Tools for Visual Studio

Optional Dependencies

For Docker Backup Support

For Database Backup Support

  • PostgreSQL Client - pg_dump for PostgreSQL backups 
    sudo apt install postgresql-client
  • MySQL Client - mysqldump for MySQL backups 
    sudo apt install mysql-client
  • MongoDB Tools - mongodump for MongoDB backups 
    sudo apt install mongo-tools
  • Redis CLI - redis-cli for Redis backups 
    sudo apt install redis-tools

For SSH Backup Support

  • SSH Client - Usually pre-installed on Linux/macOS
  • ssh2 crate - Pure Rust SSH implementation (built-in)

Why Not Use Rustls?

You might wonder why we don't use rustls (pure Rust TLS) instead of OpenSSL:

Pros of rustls:

  • Pure Rust - no C dependencies
  • Modern, secure implementation
  • Faster compilation

Cons of rustls:

  • Some ecosystem crates (like rusoto for AWS) require OpenSSL
  • Certificate validation differences
  • Less battle-tested in production

Our approach: Use vendored OpenSSL for maximum compatibility while maintaining easy installation.

Build Time Optimization

First Build (with vendored OpenSSL)

cargo build --release
# ~5-7 minutes (includes compiling OpenSSL)

Subsequent Builds

cargo build --release
# ~1-2 minutes (OpenSSL is cached)

Speeding Up Builds

Use sccache to cache compiled dependencies:

cargo install sccache
export RUSTC_WRAPPER=sccache
cargo build --release

Container Images

Our Docker images are optimized:

  • Multi-stage builds
  • Alpine-based runtime (small size)
  • Pre-compiled OpenSSL layer cached
  • Final image: ~50MB

Troubleshooting

"linker cc not found"

Install a C compiler:

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install build-essential

# Fedora
sudo dnf install gcc

# macOS
xcode-select --install

Build still fails?

Check you have enough disk space:

df -h
# Need at least 5GB free for Rust target directory

Out of memory during build?

Reduce parallelism:

cargo build --release -j 2

Comparison with Other Backup Tools

Tool System Deps Install Complexity Build Time
BackupForge gcc only ⭐ Simple 5-7 min
Restic None (Go) ⭐⭐⭐ Very Simple 2 min
Duplicati .NET Runtime ⭐⭐ Medium N/A (binary)
Borg Python, libs ⭐ Complex N/A (binary)
Bacula Many libs ⭐ Very Complex N/A (binary)

Future Improvements

We're constantly working to improve the installation experience:

  • Pre-built binaries for common platforms
  • Snap/Flatpak packages (zero dependencies)
  • Homebrew formula for macOS
  • APT repository for Debian/Ubuntu
  • Docker image on Docker Hub

Questions?

If you have dependency issues:

  1. Check this document
  2. See INSTALLATION.md
  3. Open an issue: https://github.com/consigcody94/backupforge/issues

Summary

You asked a great question! Dependencies should be built-in or minimal. That's exactly what we've done:

✅ Before your question: Required system OpenSSL libraries ✅ After your question: Zero OpenSSL system dependencies

Thanks for making BackupForge better! 🚀