script to back up pfsense config to github

michmoor

Just wanted to share my working script of backing up pfsense and then committing to my github repo. Feel free to modify to your liking

The grabbing of the pfsense configuration via bash is documented in the official netgate documentation. I just added some flair and the github component.

#!/bin/bash

# === Configuration ===
BACKUP_DIR="pfsense_backup_cfgs"
GIT_REPO_DIR="/home/michael/gafw"
DATE_STR=$(date +%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M)
FILENAME="gafw1_config-router-${DATE_STR}.xml"
FULL_BACKUP_PATH="${BACKUP_DIR}/${FILENAME}"
LOG_FILE="$HOME/pfsense_backup.log"  # Change to /var/log/pfsense_backup.log if running as root

# === Logging Function ===
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LOG_FILE")"
touch "$LOG_FILE"
log() {
    echo "[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] $1" | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"
}

# === Begin Backup ===
log "🚀 Starting pfSense backup process"

# Ensure backup directory exists
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

# Step 1: Login and get CSRF token
log "🔐 Logging into pfSense..."
curl -s -L -k --cookie-jar cookies.txt \
     https://192.168.50.254:10443/ \
     | grep "name='__csrf_magic'" \
     | sed 's/.*value="\(.*\)".*/\1/' > csrf.txt

curl -s -L -k --cookie cookies.txt --cookie-jar cookies.txt \
     --data-urlencode "login=Login" \
     --data-urlencode "usernamefld=admin" \
     --data-urlencode "passwordfld=aergageageg44543456356463blurgggg" \
     --data-urlencode "__csrf_magic=$(cat csrf.txt)" \
     https://192.168.50.254:10443/ > /dev/null

# Get new CSRF token for backup
curl -s -L -k --cookie cookies.txt --cookie-jar cookies.txt \
     https://192.168.50.254:10443/diag_backup.php \
     | grep "name='__csrf_magic'" \
     | sed 's/.*value="\(.*\)".*/\1/' > csrf.txt

# Download backup
log "💾 Downloading configuration backup..."
curl -s -L -k --cookie cookies.txt --cookie-jar cookies.txt \
     --data-urlencode "download=download" \
     --data-urlencode "donotbackuprrd=yes" \
     --data-urlencode "__csrf_magic=$(head -n 1 csrf.txt)" \
     https://192.168.50.254:10443/diag_backup.php > "$FULL_BACKUP_PATH"

# Check if the backup was successfully created
if [ ! -f "$FULL_BACKUP_PATH" ]; then
    log "❌ ERROR: Backup file was not created at $FULL_BACKUP_PATH"
    exit 1
fi
log "✅ Backup created: $FULL_BACKUP_PATH"

# Step 2: Cleanup old backups
log "🧹 Cleaning up backups older than 30 days..."
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -name "*.xml" -type f -mtime +30 -exec rm -v {} \; | tee -a "$LOG_FILE"

# Step 3: GitHub push
log "📤 Copying backup to Git repo and committing..."
cp "$FULL_BACKUP_PATH" "$GIT_REPO_DIR"

cd "$GIT_REPO_DIR" || {
    log "❌ ERROR: Could not change to git repo directory: $GIT_REPO_DIR"
    exit 1
}

git add "$FILENAME"
if git commit -m "Automated backup on ${DATE_STR}"; then
    log "✅ Commit successful"
else
    log "ℹ️  Nothing to commit"
fi

if git push origin main; then
    log "🚀 Backup pushed to GitHub successfully"
else
    log "❌ ERROR: Failed to push to GitHub"
    exit 1
fi

log "🏁 Backup process complete"

Things looking good on my end.

login-to-view

LukasInCloud

@michmoor This is an excellent working script - neat, clear, and already equipped with emoji logs (which I love ). But it could be cleaned up a bit and made more reliable, secure, and readable. I suggest moving the IP address, port, username, and password into clearly named variables at the top of the script. Better yet, store sensitive credentials like passwords in a separate config file (~/.pfsense_backup.conf) or use environment variables to avoid hardcoding passwords into the script.

elvisimprsntr

I created something similar a long time ago to backup to a USB thumb drive (if installed) and to a TrueNAS server. Uses public/private key pair to eliminate need for credentials.

#!/bin/sh
VERSION=`cat /etc/version`
DATE=`date +%Y%m%d`
FILE="config_`hostname -s`_"$DATE"_"$VERSION".xml"
NAS="nas-1"
PATH="/mnt/data/Software/pfsense"

# mkdir /media/usb

/sbin/mount_msdosfs /dev/da0s1 /media/usb
if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then
	echo "USB found"
	/bin/cp /cf/conf/config.xml /media/usb/$FILE
	echo "Backup $FILE created"
	/usr/bin/find /media/usb/ -name "config_*.xml" -mtime +365 -exec rm {} \;
	/sbin/umount /media/usb	
else
	echo "USB not found"
fi	

/sbin/ping -c 3 $NAS > /dev/null 2>&1
	if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
		echo "$NAS found" 
		/usr/bin/scp /cf/conf/config.xml root@$NAS:$PATH/$FILE
		/usr/bin/scp /root/pkg_check.php root@$NAS:$PATH/
		/usr/bin/scp /root/att_cidr.sh root@$NAS:$PATH/
		/usr/bin/scp /root/backup.sh root@$NAS:$PATH/
		echo "Backup $FILE copied to $NAS"
	else
		echo "$NAS not found"
	fi
	
# install cron package and add cron job
# 0 4 * * Sun /bin/sh /root/backup.sh > /dev/null

LukasInCloud

@elvisimprsntr Honestly, that’s a solid, old-school, reliable shell script. But it has a few weak points. It doesn’t stop on errors, so if something fails, the rest of the script will still run without warning. It also uses plain echo statements without logging to a file, which makes it harder to track issues later. The USB device path is hardcoded, which isn’t very flexible if the device name changes. There’s no error handling for the scp commands either. if copying to the NAS fails, you won’t know unless you’re watching the console. It might also be a good idea to move the NAS address and backup path into a config file for easier updates. And while copying the config file locally is fine, it skips CSRF protection that the web interface uses, so it might miss some config details or protections in certain setups. Overall, it’s a good base but could be improved with safer practices and a bit more flexibility.

elvisimprsntr

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