whatisgithub

What is vbkview?

gotoolsharing/vbkview — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

★ 14GoAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

In one sentence

A command line tool for browsing and extracting individual files from Veeam .vbk backup archives without a full restore.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((vbkview))
    What it does
      Browse Veeam backups
      Extract files
      No full restore
    Tech stack
      Go
    Use cases
      List backup contents
      Script extraction
      Search files
    Audience
      Ops teams

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Browse the filesystem inside a Veeam backup without restoring it

USE CASE 2

Extract a single file from a large backup archive

USE CASE 3

Script automated backup inspections using JSON output

USE CASE 4

Search for files by name or content pattern across a backup

What is it built with?

Go

How does it compare?

gotoolsharing/vbkviewgizmodata/adbc-driver-quackgokele/ovh
Stars141414
LanguageGoGoGo
Setup difficultymoderatemoderatemoderate
Complexity3/53/53/5
Audienceops devopsdeveloperops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Go installed or a prebuilt binary, plus access to a Veeam .vbk backup file.

So what is it?

vbkview is a command-line tool for inspecting and extracting data from Veeam .vbk backup files without restoring the full backup. Veeam is a popular backup product for virtual machines, and .vbk files are its full backup format. This tool lets you browse and retrieve individual files from those archives directly. The tool works in two modes: an interactive shell where you navigate the backup's filesystem using familiar commands, and a non-interactive mode suited for scripting and automation. In the interactive shell, tab completion works for both command names and file paths. In non-interactive mode, most commands support a --json flag for structured output. Available commands mirror standard filesystem operations: ls to list directories, tree to print a directory structure, stat to show file metadata, cat to read file contents, get to extract a file to your local system, find to locate files by name, and grep to search for text patterns across files. Additional commands specific to backup files include disks, which lists embedded virtual disk files in formats like .vhd and .vmdk, and volumes, which auto-detects the guest operating system partitions inside those virtual disks. The tool supports reading NTFS, EXT4, and XFS guest filesystems. Extraction supports resuming interrupted downloads and optional SHA-256 integrity verification. The tool also defines a set of stable exit codes for common error conditions, which makes it predictable in shell scripts. vbkview is written in Go and is built on top of the vbktoolkit library. It can be installed with go install or built from source.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Help me install vbkview using go install
Prompt 2
Show me how to list the virtual disks embedded in a .vbk backup file
Prompt 3
Write a script that uses vbkview in non-interactive mode to extract a file with JSON output
Prompt 4
Explain the exit codes vbkview returns for scripting

Frequently asked questions

What is vbkview?

A command line tool for browsing and extracting individual files from Veeam .vbk backup archives without a full restore.

What language is vbkview written in?

Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go.

How hard is vbkview to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is vbkview for?

Mainly ops devops.

Open on GitHub → Ask about another repo

This repo across BitVibe Labs

Verify against the repo before relying on details.

What are similar repos?