pybkup2usb is a python module to simplify backing up a folder or file(s) to a USB flash drive on any OS platform.

Install from GitHub:

$ git clone https://github.com/djacobson/pybkup2usb
$ cd pybkup2usb
$ pip3 install -e .

Run the following command, with and without a USB flash drive plugged into your computer:

> bkup2usb stuff_to_backup

...or, to run directly from source (i.e.: skipping the pip3 install above):

> python3 -m pybkup2usb stuff_to_backup

Add a prefix to your backup target:

> bkup2usb stuff_to_backup -p MyID

Also, simply type bkup2usb -h for help with parameters.

Using in your application code is as simple as the following lines of code (prefix is optional):

from pybkup2usb import bkup2usb

retstatus, retmsg = bkup2usb.backup(bkupsource, prefix='MyID')

The original objective of this module was to make something surprisingly complex easy, and accomplish the following:

• Automatically discover the path to the first available USB flash drive (if one is plugged in)
• Backup some files to it
• That's it!

Simple right? ...except do this on any OS platform with Python, and abstract away as much complexity as possible. Seriously, all I wanted to do was the above! You'd think something like that would be pretty straight-forward... :/

• Version 1, it works. :)

• If like me, you are building a dedicated device for a single-purpose app, and interested in using this USB function (i.e.: your app) as the single user interface to the USB flash drive + backup, you may be interested in disabling / suppressing the general desktop feature of automatically launching the File Manager app after inserting and automounting a USB flash drive. Below is a possible solution...

  For Ubuntu:

  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount-open false Credit: ish

  I'm still looking for an equivalent solution for Raspbian's Gnome desktop.

For Posix OSs (i.e.: Linux / Ubuntu, Raspbian, MacOS, etc.):

• pyudev
• psutil

For Windows:

• pywin32

• Platforms tested: Python 3.6 on Raspbian, Ubuntu 18.10, Windows 10

Version 1 of pybkup2usb was designed and written by David Jacobson (github), but, the base functionality is really just an encapsulation of the generous public forum contributions of Howard Lightstone for the Windows USB code, and the excellent StackExchange answer contributed by Michael Daffin and Arjuna for the Posix USB code.