From 1c094bc77277db38eafea8fe859b00b8b1b0186f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Luca Rota <luca.rota@live.it>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:48:53 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] feat: add secure -C option to support VACUUM INTO as an
 alternative to .backup command

---
 README.md |  1 +
 backup.sh | 39 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e187de5..a2e01ad 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ Options:
     -s | --sleep:       Number of seconds to sleep between backup attempts
     -P | --pending:     Extension to give to file while creating backup
     -T | --timeout:     Timeout in ms to acquire DB lock
+    -C | --command:     Command to use for binary backups: .backup (default) or "VACUUM INTO".
     -o | --output:      Output type: auto (the default), sql or db (or bin). When auto, guessed from file extension.
     -c | --compression: Compression level. When empty, the default, default compression will be triggered when name ends with .gz.
     --with-arg: Pass created path to backup file to command
diff --git a/backup.sh b/backup.sh
index 649e2bd..bf6bdcc 100755
--- a/backup.sh
+++ b/backup.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,10 @@ SQLITE_BACKUP_SLEEP=${SQLITE_BACKUP_SLEEP:-5}
 # Number of ms to wait while acquiring a lock on the SQLite DB
 SQLITE_BACKUP_TIMEOUT=${SQLITE_BACKUP_TIMEOUT:-"5000"}
 
+# SQLite command to use for binary backups. Defaults to .backup but can be
+# changed to VACUUM INTO.
+SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND=${SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND:-".backup"}
+
 # Type of the backup, one of `auto` (decided by the extension of the name of the
 # backup, see above), `dump` or `sql` for textual SQL dumps, `bin`, `db`,
 # `sqlite` fo binary DB perfect copies.
@@ -134,6 +138,11 @@ while [ "$#" -gt "0" ]; do
         --timeout=*)
             SQLITE_BACKUP_TIMEOUT="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
 
+        -C | --command) # Command to use for binary backups: .backup (default) or "VACUUM INTO".
+            SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND=$2; shift 2;;
+        --command=*)
+            SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND="${1#*=}"; shift 1;;
+
         -o | --output) # Output type: auto (the default), sql or db (or bin). When auto, guessed from file extension.
             SQLITE_BACKUP_OUTPUT=$2; shift 2;;
         --output=*)
@@ -261,6 +270,20 @@ if [ "$#" = "0" ]; then
     usage
 fi
 
+# Validate and normalize SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND
+case "$(printf "%s" "$SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" in
+    .backup | backup | default)
+        SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND=".backup"
+        ;;
+    vacuum | "vacuum into")
+        SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND="VACUUM INTO"
+        ;;
+    *)
+        warn "Unknown backup command: $SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND ! Allowed values: .backup, backup, default, VACUUM, VACUUM INTO."
+        usage 1
+        ;;
+esac
+
 # Guess output type out of backup file name template extension (no ending $ to
 # be sure we can have .gz also).
 if [ "$SQLITE_BACKUP_OUTPUT" = "auto" ]; then
@@ -272,6 +295,12 @@ if [ "$SQLITE_BACKUP_OUTPUT" = "auto" ]; then
     log "Selected output type: $SQLITE_BACKUP_OUTPUT"
 fi
 
+if [ "$SQLITE_BACKUP_OUTPUT" = "dump" ] || [ "$SQLITE_BACKUP_OUTPUT" = "sql" ]; then
+    if [ "$SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND" != ".backup" ]; then
+        warn "Output type is $SQLITE_BACKUP_OUTPUT, so binary backup command (-C) '$SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND' will be ignored."
+    fi
+fi
+
 # Automatically add a .gz when compression is turn on by force and to a give
 # level.
 if [ -n "$SQLITE_BACKUP_COMPRESSION" ] && [ "$SQLITE_BACKUP_COMPRESSION" -gt "0" ]; then
@@ -326,9 +355,17 @@ while IFS= read -r fname; do
                 fi
                 ;;
             db | bin | sqlite*)
+                case "$SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND" in
+                    .*)
+                        backup_cmd="${SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND} '${SQLITE_BACKUP_DESTINATION}/${DSTFILE}'"
+                        ;;
+                    *)
+                        backup_cmd="${SQLITE_BACKUP_COMMAND} '${SQLITE_BACKUP_DESTINATION}/${DSTFILE}';"
+                        ;;
+                esac
                 if ! retry sqlite3 -readonly "$fname" \
                         ".timeout $SQLITE_BACKUP_TIMEOUT" \
-                        ".backup '${SQLITE_BACKUP_DESTINATION}/${DSTFILE}'" \
+                        "$backup_cmd" \
                         .exit; then
                     warn "Could not create backup!"
                     rm -rf "${SQLITE_BACKUP_DESTINATION:?}/$DSTFILE"