====== Data storage ======

Prosody's current data storage is plain and simple. Data is stored in files in a data storage directory, organised into files and folders.

===== Default data paths =====
With most GNU/Linux packages, the base data directory will be at `/var/lib/prosody`.

Permissions are by default set so that only Prosody can read the files in that area.

===== Backing up and restoring =====
Backups can be made quite simply using tar to create a compressed archive:

   tar czf prosody_data_backup.tar.gz /var/lib/prosody

You can extract the contents of the archive using:

   tar xzf prosody_data_backup.tar.gz

... and then move the folder into place.

**Tip:** As of Prosody 0.8 you can also use the [[:doc:migrator]] tool to import/export user data between Prosody data stores.