Re: Which better: rsync or snapshot + rsync --delete

[Kai Krakow <hurikhan77+btrfs@gmail.com>]

Martin <m_btrfs@ml1.co.uk> schrieb:

> Which is 'best' or 'faster'?
> 
> Take a snapshot of an existing backup and then "rsync --delete" into
> that to make a backup of some other filesystem?
> 
> Or use "rsync --link" to link a new backup tree against a previous
> backup tree for the some other filesystem?

I'm doing it vice-versa... I rsync --inplace --delete to a scratch area and 
only then after that finished without errors, I'm taking a snapshot of that. 
That way I always know the snapshots are in good and consistent state while 
the scratch area is just playground for in-progress backups.

Just in case you are curious, here's the gist: 
https://gist.github.com/kakra/5520370

Using inplace and no-whole-file options ensures space-efficient snapshots. I 
don't worry about fragmentation, it's only the backup drive. It doesn't 
matter if it's fragmented and thus a little bit slower, it only matters 
restore works fine.

It is using systemd for automation but feel free to call it from cron...

HTH
Kai