diff --git a/.env b/.env
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ee4043a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+WORDPRESS_VERSION=5.9.3
+
+MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=""
+MYSQL_PASSWORD=""
+MYSQL_PORT=13306
+
+NGINX_PORT=1312
+
+export BORG_PASSPHRASE=''
+export BORG_REPO='cyberbackup:repositories-borg/synthikat'
+export BORG_RSH='ssh -F /home/synthikat/.ssh/config -o "StrictHostKeyChecking=no"'
+export POD_NAMES='wordpress_wordpress_1 wordpress_db_1'
+export FOLDERS_TO_BACKUP='/home/synthikat/wp-content /home/synthikat/db_data /home/synthikat/wordpress'
+
diff --git a/backup.sh b/backup.sh
index 315abcb..8bb6a6a 100755
--- a/backup.sh
+++ b/backup.sh
@@ -1,20 +1,26 @@
 #!/bin/bash
+set -xeou pipefail
 
+# setup env
 DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" >/dev/null 2>&1 && pwd )"
 cd $DIR
 . ./.env
-# stop the containers to make sure the data doesn't change during backup.
-podman stop wordpress_wordpress_1 wordpress_db_1
 
-# Example backup command:
-# backup: is the remote backup server, defined in ~/.ssh/config - ends with a :
-# repositories-borg/synthikat is the path on the remote server - ends with a ::
-# 'backup{now:%Y%m%d}' is the backup name, this includes today's date in the name
-# the rest are the file paths. You can append as many as you want.
-podman unshare borg create --stats --progress cyberbackup:repositories-borg/synthikat::'backup{now:%Y%m%d-%M}' ../wp-content ../db_data
+# check if these variables have been set
+echo "$BORG_REPO" > /dev/null
+echo "$BORG_PASSPHRASE" > /dev/null
+echo "$FOLDERS_TO_BACKUP" > /dev/null
+echo "$POD_NAMES" > /dev/null
 
-# restart the containers
-podman start wordpress_wordpress_1 wordpress_db_1
+borg check
 
-# Delete all the backups which are too old, to save space in the long term.
-borg prune --keep-daily=7 --keep-weekly=4 cyberbackup:repositories-borg/synthikat
+# don't fail just because the pod is not running
+set +e
+podman stop ${POD_NAMES}
+set -e
+
+podman unshare borg create --stats ::'backup{now:%Y%m%d-%M}' ${FOLDERS_TO_BACKUP}
+
+borg list
+
+podman start ${POD_NAMES}
diff --git a/run-wordpress.sh b/run-wordpress.sh
index 223669f..d60310c 100755
--- a/run-wordpress.sh
+++ b/run-wordpress.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 podman rm -f wordpress_db_1 wordpress_wordpress_1  
 
 # run db container
-podman run --name=wordpress_db_1 --detach \
+podman run --name=wordpress_db_1 --detach --pull always \
         -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD} 	\
         -e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress 			\
         -e MYSQL_USER=wordpress 			\
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ podman run --name=wordpress_db_1 --detach \
         mysql:5.7
 
 # run wordpress container
-podman run --name=wordpress_wordpress_1 --detach \
+podman run --name=wordpress_wordpress_1 --detach --pull always \
         -e WORDPRESS_DB_HOST=78.46.128.202:${MYSQL_PORT} 	\
         -e WORDPRESS_DB_USER=wordpress 			\
         -e WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=${MYSQL_PASSWORD}	\