How to use duplicity on Ubuntu Lucid to make backups to Google Drive

This blog post is a tutorial explaining how to install duplicity to an Ubuntu Lucid system and how to make backups to Google Drive using duplicity.

Installation

Run these commands (without the leading $) in a terminal window:

$ sudo apt-get install python-setuptools python-dev gcc libc6-dev gnupg librsync-dev screen
$ sudo easy_install gdata
$ sudo easy_install http://code.launchpad.net/duplicity/0.6-series/0.6.19/+download/duplicity-0.6.19.tar.gz
$ duplicity --version
duplicity 0.6.19

Starting a backup

It's recommended to issue the following command from screen, so they don't get aborted if there is a problem with the terminal window.

Example terminal window interaction to start a backup:

$ duplicity ~/Documents gdocs://USERNAME@gmail.com/documents.backup
Password for 'USERNAME@gmail.com':
Local and Remote metadata are synchronized, no sync needed.
Last full backup date: none
GnuPG passphrase:
Retype passphrase to confirm:
No signatures found, switching to full backup.
--------------[ Backup Statistics ]--------------
...
Errors 0
-------------------------------------------------

When duplicity asks you for your Google Account (@gmail.com) password, you have to type your regular password, i.e. the password you use to log in to Gmail and Google Drive, unless you are using 2-step authentication for logging in. In that case you need to generate an application-specific password (at the bottom of this page), and copy-paste it to duplicity.