Package options
This page describes the different packages offered by Duplicati
To better fit a number of different use-cases, Duplicati is packaged into different installers, with different purposes. The choice of which package makes most sense is related to where and how you intend yo use Duplicati. There are three parameters that define the packages:
Operating system and processor type
Usage type
Installation type
The operating system and processor type are defined by the machine you run Duplicati on. If you are unsure about the processor type, it is usually x64 for Windows and Linux, and arm64 for MacOS. Starting from the operating system, you can then read about the options for each system.
Windows
Because every Windows version includes a desktop component, there are only two options for the usage type: GUI and Agent.
The most versatile option is the GUI package, which also includes all the commandline utilities. Due to the way Windows works, it is possible to install the GUI version and use only the Server or Commandline components. This works beacuse each component is an executable that can be launched independently. The overhead for the unused executables is very low, usually less than 1 MiB.
The Agent form is a reduced version of Duplicati, usable for integrating with the Duplicati Console and is intended to run without any local access possible.
In terms of installation type there are two types offered for Windows: MSI and Zip. The contents of both are the same, so you can pick the installation type that best suits your needs. The MSI package is easier to integrate with some package managers and also offers the options to install shortcuts. The Zip package is just all the contents compressed and ready to use.
Linux
It is common to have Linux installations that do not have any desktop components, meaning they are purely servers with no display attached. Since these setups do not have any destop packages installed, installing the GUI package on such a system would require installing a large set of desktop-related packages. For this reason, the Linux packages are available as GUI, CLI, and Agent forms.
The GUI package has the most dependencies as it requires a desktop environment. This package also includes all the commandline components together with the TrayIcon application that is shown in the system menu or activity area.
The CLI package has very few dependencies, as everything is bundled with the package. It is essentially the same as the GUI package, but without the TrayIcon executable.
The Agent form is a reduced version of Duplicati, usable for integrating with the Duplicati Console and is intended to run without any local access possible.
For installation, Duplicati offers .deb packages for the Debian based distros, such as Ubuntu and Mint, as well as .rpm packages for the Redhat based distros, such as CentOS. There are also .zip packages available, which allows you to fully self-manage the installation and dependencies. If you are using the .zip packages the only thin missing is the service files used to integrate with launchctl.
If you are using SELinux, there is currently an extra step to ensure that the binaries, which are placed in /usr/lib/duplicati, are allowed to execute:
MacOS
For MacOS the GUI TrayIcon is bundled inside a MacOS app-bundle, similar to other applications on MacOS. Inside the app bundle are the commandline components and they can be invoked as binaries from within the app bundle. The GUI application is packaged as a .dmg file that supports drag-n-drop style installation, as well as a .pkg installer package. The contents of the two package formats are the same, but the .pkg also installs a launchagent which automatically starts Duplicati on login.
If the UI is not needed, there is also a CLI version which does not contain the TrayIcon. This version installs itself into the commandline path for easy use from the commandline. Since the CLI version does not need an app bundle, there is only a .pkg version of the CLI package. The package also installs a launchagent that can be edited to allow starting the Server on login.
The Agent form is a reduced version of Duplicati, usable for integrating with the Duplicati Console and is intended to run without any local access possible. Since the agent does not need an app bundle it is only available as a .pkg file.
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