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https://github.com/xrstf/stardew-diary

A backup/diary tool for Stardew Valley
https://github.com/xrstf/stardew-diary

backup stardew-valley

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A backup/diary tool for Stardew Valley

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README 

        
# Stardew Diary



This project aims to build a simple backup tool for [Stardew Valley](http://stardewvalley.net/)

savegames (currently limited/only tested on Windows). The backup mechanism makes

use of [Fossil](http://fossil-scm.org/).



* [Installation](#installation)

* [Usage](#usage)

  * [Finding Savegames](#finding-savegames)

  * [Creating Backups](#creating-backups)

  * [Checking Backups](#checking-backups)

  * [Reverting to a Previous Backup](#reverting-to-a-previous-backup)

    * [Understanding What Goes On](#understanding-what-goes-on)

  * [Diary Mode](#diary-mode)

  * [Restoring a Deleted Savegame](#restoring-a-deleted-savegame)



## Installation



Download the latest release from the [Github Release page](https://github.com/xrstf/stardew-diary/releases)

and extract it anywhere you like, for example ``C:\Users\you\stardew-diary``.



Stardew Diary has no graphical user interface, so you must use the Windows

command prompt (or any other shell) to use it. Navigate to the directory where

you extracted the release and run the ``stardew-diary.exe``:



    > stardew-diary.exe

    NAME:

       stardew-diary - Keeps backups of your savegames.



    USAGE:

       stardew-diary.exe [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]



    VERSION:

       1.0.0



    COMMANDS:

         watch    Watches savegames for changes. Let this run in the background while you are playing.

         log      Prints a list of backups for a given savegame.

         history  Prints a nice list of achievements and general changes.

         revert   Reverts a savegame back to a specific date in the past.

         dump     Dumps a given diary revision to disk for further debugging.

         help, h  Shows a list of commands or help for one command



    GLOBAL OPTIONS:

       --help, -h     show help

       --version, -v  print the version



## Usage



Stardew Diary automatically finds savegames and takes care of initializing the

backup repository for you. Backups are kept in the same folder where the

``stardew-diary.exe`` is placed, so that even when the game is deleted, all

backups are still available.



### Finding Savegames



Run the ``savegames`` command to get a list of all known savegames. These

include your current savegames as well as all backups of previous ones.



    > stardew-diary.exe savegames



      Savegames

      =========



       - Concerned on the "Star Trek Farm" (156295541) [new]

       - Schotty on the "HSV Farm" (142210113)

       - test on the "test Farm" (153507091) [dead]



      New savegames will be processed when the `match` command is next used.

      Dead savegames can be restored by running:



        stardew-diary.exe resurrect 153507091



Savegames can be new (have never been backed up), dead (deleted in the game

but exist as backups) or normal (exists in the game and has backups).



### Creating Backups



When playing the game, you will want to have the ``watch`` mode of SD running

in the background. Use your command prompt to run



    stardew-diary.exe watch



and then just let the window sit there. You can close and restart the process

at any time, just make sure it runs while you're playing.



Everytime you save, the watcher will notice the changed savegame file and

automatically create a backup for you.



### Checking Backups



You can see a list of all backups for a given savegame via



    stardew-diary.exe log [NAME]



The ``NAME`` is your savegame name, which consists of your player name and a

random number. To avoid having to remember the ID all the time, it's sufficient

to give just as many characters of your savegame to make it unique.



For example, suppose you have three savegames: **Testerman_12345**,

**Testerwoman_98765** and **Concerned_42069**. To get the logs for the **Concerned**

savegame, you can just specify the **c**:



    > stardew-diary.exe log c



      Concerned's Diary

      =================



    * [05] [0e3c12c127] 5th of Spring, Year 1 (383 G)

      [04] [624d3e1724] 4th of Spring, Year 1 (1433 G)

      [03] [2ad2ffbd0e] 3rd of Spring, Year 1 (1054 G)

      [02] [0636f2a0b5] 2nd of Spring, Year 1 (674 G)

      [01] [208b80743e] 1st of Spring, Year 1 (500 G)



To get the **Testerwoman** account, you would need to specify at least **testerw**



    stardew-diary.exe log testerw



SD will tell you when it cannot uniquely identify the savegame:



    > stardew-diary.exe log t

    2017/06/25 19:34:33 The savegame name 't' is ambiguous, could mean any of [Testerman_12345, Testerwoman_98765].



### Reverting to a Previous Backup



When you look at the output of the ``log`` command



    > stardew-diary.exe log c



      Concerned's Diary

      =================



    * [05] [0e3c12c127] 5th of Spring, Year 1 (383 G)

      [04] [624d3e1724] 4th of Spring, Year 1 (1433 G)

      [03] [2ad2ffbd0e] 3rd of Spring, Year 1 (1054 G)

      [02] [0636f2a0b5] 2nd of Spring, Year 1 (674 G)

      [01] [208b80743e] 1st of Spring, Year 1 (500 G)



you will notice an asterisk, a decreasing number and some random gibberish. You

can basically ignore the gibberish, unless you want to dig into your backups

manually using Fossil.



The asterisk is telling you what day your are currently on. While playing the

game normally, the asterisk will always show the first (i.e. most recent) day.



The decreasing number is just that, a number to identify each day of the

savegame. The fact that the numbers in brackets in the example above are

identical to the days of month in the game is just coincidence.



To revert to a different day, first **close the game**. Then, use the ``revert``

command and supply the savegame (again, abbreviate as much as you like as long

as it's unique) and the number right next to the asterisk. For example, to go

back to the 3rd of Spring, you'd type



    stardew-diary.exe revert c 3



(Again: **3** because that's the number in brackets above (``[03]``), not

because it's the day of month!)



After reverting, running ``log`` again shows this:



    > stardew-diary.exe log c



      Concerned's Diary

      =================



      [05] [0e3c12c127] 5th of Spring, Year 1 (383 G)

      [04] [624d3e1724] 4th of Spring, Year 1 (1433 G)

    * [03] [2ad2ffbd0e] 3rd of Spring, Year 1 (1054 G)

      [02] [0636f2a0b5] 2nd of Spring, Year 1 (674 G)

      [01] [208b80743e] 1st of Spring, Year 1 (500 G)



You can move the asterisk to any day you like, but before you start the game

again and play, make sure you understand what happens when you save. Read the

following chapter carefully.



#### Understanding What Goes On



Think of your progression through the game as a graph, a series of savestates:



![graph 1](http://i.imgur.com/sy1w9Iu.png)



The last day has a thicker border because that's the current day of your

savegame. In the ``log`` command, it's marked with an asterisk. When you reverted

your savegame to day 3, you basically did this:



![graph 2](http://i.imgur.com/RwXCp1r.png)



You moved the marker, but all 5 versions of your game are still visible to

Stardew Diary and you can move freely between all of them.



When you now start the game, load your savegame and then *save*, this is what

happens:



![graph 3](http://i.imgur.com/kFp5BUz.png)



You just split the timeline of your savegame into two branches. The old timeline,

now drawn in grey, is no longer visible to Stardew Diary, **but it still exists

in your backups**. For simplicity's sake, SD is only ever concerned (pun intended)

with your current timeline. When you now run the ``log`` command, you will see

that day 5 vanished and day 4 is the new day 4 (notice the different amounts of

gold and the different random gibberish at the beginning of the line):



    > stardew-diary.exe log c



      Concerned's Diary

      =================



    * [04] [81db1ac8d0] 4th of Spring, Year 1 (2948 G)

      [03] [2ad2ffbd0e] 3rd of Spring, Year 1 (1054 G)

      [02] [0636f2a0b5] 2nd of Spring, Year 1 (674 G)

      [01] [208b80743e] 1st of Spring, Year 1 (500 G)



As you continue to play and save, your new timeline grows as expected:



![graph 4](http://i.imgur.com/INpVupB.png)



You can however still reach and restore **any** version that has ever been

recorded, thanks to Fossil. It does require manual intervention and some doc

reading on your end, though.



### Diary Mode



Because each backup contains all versions of a single savegame, SD can diff them

to each other and see the differences for each day. Because it knows where

certain stuff (like levels, buildings, pets, ...) are stored, it can simulate

a diary view for each savegame. Try it out by using the ``history`` command:



    > stardew-diary.exe history c



      Concerned's Diary

      =================



      1st of Spring, Year 1



       - I've reached Foraging Level 1!

       - I've spent 300 wood to fix the bridge at the beach.

       - While digging around, I found a Lost Book :o



      2nd of Spring, Year 1



       - I met this nice old man by the beach. We talked about

         fishing for a while, before he gave me a fishing rod :) It's

         just a bamboo pole, but as time comes, I might find better

         rods...



      3rd of Spring, Year 1



       - I've reached Foraging Level 2!



      4th of Spring, Year 1



       ...nothing happened...



      5th of Spring, Year 1



       - I've adopted a dog and named it George!

       - I've reached Farming Level 1!

       - I've stumbled upon some old things and had to visit Gunther

         at the library to learn more about them. He encouraged me to

         search for more artifacts and minerals, so that I could

         donate them to the museum. So I went straight ahead and

         donated my Limestone and Rusty Spur.



      6th of Spring, Year 1



       - I've reached Mining Level 1!



      7th of Spring, Year 1



       - I've reached Combat Level 1!

       - While digging around, I found a Lost Book :o

       - Once again I've found ancient stuff and went to the museum

         to donate the Quartz, Earth Crystal, Nekoite, Topaz, Glass

         Shards and Slate.



      8th of Spring, Year 1



       ...nothing happened...



      9th of Spring, Year 1



       - I've reached Mining Level 2!

       - Once again I've found ancient stuff and went to the museum

         to donate the Amethyst, Calcite and Thunder Egg.



      10th of Spring, Year 1



       - I've reached Farming Level 2!



### Restoring a Deleted Savegame



When a savegame is deleted within the game, the backup file remains intact. You

can get a list of all known savegames by running the ``savegames`` command:



    > stardew-diary.exe savegames



      Savegames

      =========



       - Concerned on the "Star Trek Farm" (156295541)

       - Schotty on the "HSV Farm" (142210113)

       - test on the "test Farm" (153507091) [dead]



      Dead savegames can be restored by running:



        stardew-diary.exe resurrect 153507091



As you can see, we have a savegame that was deleted and can be restored. Do as

SD tells you:



    > stardew-diary.exe resurrect 153507091

    The savegame test_153507091 has been successfully restored.