CouchDB backup/restore tool

Editing view/show/list/filter/… functions in Futon might be painful, so I prefer editing it on disk. Also I usually manage my data with VCS (e.g. Mercurial). So why not have a tool helping us to synchronize between disk and database?

Configuration

Choose some directory where you’d like to store your couchdb design document. I prefer a folder named couchdb-design-docs in my project root folder (near manage.py script). All examples will use this assumption.

Directory structure must be like the following:

For view functions:

document-name.language-extension/views/function_name/map.language-extension
and
document-name.language-extension/views/function_name/reduce.language-extension

For filters and shows function:

document-name.language-extension/filters/function_name.language-extension

Example:

auth.js/views/users/map.js
pages.js/views/list/map.js

Using tool

Help text:

$ ./manage.py help couch
Usage: manage.py couch [options]

Backup and restore couchdb database. Usage: ./manage.py couch [restore|backup]

Options:
  -v VERBOSITY, --verbosity=VERBOSITY
                        Verbosity level; 0=minimal output, 1=normal output,
                        2=all output
  --settings=SETTINGS   The Python path to a settings module, e.g.
                        "myproject.settings.main". If this isn't provided, the
                        DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable will be
                        used.
  --pythonpath=PYTHONPATH
                      A directory to add to the Python path, e.g.
                      "/home/djangoprojects/myproject".
  --traceback           Print traceback on exception
  -f, --force           Real run (change target data)
  -s SERVER, --server=SERVER
                        Server address
  -d DATABASE, --database=DATABASE
                        Database name
  -p PATH, --path=PATH  Working directory
  -n DBKEY, --name=DBKEY
                        Database key (from settings.py). Will override
                        --server and --database arguments
  -r, --delete          Delete exceed items from database during restore
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Examples

1. Dump design documents from named (-n) database (defined in settings.COUCHDB['db1']) to directory couchdb-design-docs/_backup:

   $ ./manage.py couch backup -n db1 -p couchdb-design-docs
   

Notice : _backup will be automatically appended to disk path in backup run.

2. Dry run of restore design documents from disk onto database with checking exceed documents (-r):

   $ ./manage.py couch restore -n db1 -p couchdb-design-docs -r
   

3. Real run (-f) of restore design documents from disk onto database with checking exceed documents (-r):

   $ ./manage.py couch restore -n db1 -p couchdb-design-docs -r -f
   

4. Backup some database by its url to disk:

   $ ./manage.py couch backup -s http://node1:5984 -d some_database -p couchdb-design-docs
   

Setting default views path

Since 1.5.2, you can set default disk views path to simplify backup/restore:

COUCHDB_VIEWS_DIR = '/path/to/project/couchdb-design-docs'

COUCHDB = {
    'somename': {
        'server': 'http://localhost:5984',
        'database': 'dbname',
        'default': True,
    }
}

Now, you can just run:

$ ./manage.py couch restore -n somename

And script will use design docs from path /path/to/project/couchdb-design-docs/somename.

Or you can define exact path for any database:

COUCHDB = {
    'somename': {
        'server': 'http://localhost:5984',
        'database': 'dbname',
        'default': True,
        'path': '/path/to/project/couchdb-design-docs/different-path'
    }
}

And script will use design docs from path /path/to/project/couchdb-design-docs/different-path.