From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Bill Davidsen Subject: Re: Backups w/ rsync Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:48:34 -0400 Message-ID: <46FD1442.70707@tmr.com> References: <20070918230914.9FF5910215F@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <20070919014919.DF19D10215F@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <20070919174956.9497310209D@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <46F292E2.1090700@tmr.com> <20070920184738.441FD10208C@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <46F2E159.9030806@msgid.tls.msk.ru> <20070921005851.44E8910236D@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <87r6knay66.fsf@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> <20070925181618.82F47102162@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <87sl521kqh.fsf@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> <20070925235016.02F6E1023B9@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <87k5qe19p0.fsf@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> <20070927062317.3CCAB1023E0@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> <46FB7D2A.1050608@ziu.info> <20070927 221049.19BE21023EB@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20070927221049.19BE21023EB@medulla.enet.sharplabs.com> Sender: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org To: "Dean S. Messing" Cc: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-raid.ids Dean S. Messing wrote: > It has been some time since I read the rsync man page. I see that > there is (among the bazillion and one switches) a "--link-dest=DIR" > switch which I suppose does what you describe. I'll have to > experiment with this and think things through. Thanks, Michal. > Be aware that rsync is useful for making a *copy* of your files, which isn't always the best backup. If the goal is to preserve data and be able to recover in time of disaster, it's probably not optimal, while if you need frequent access to old or deleted files it's fine. For example, full and incremental backup methods such as dump and restore are usually faster to take and restore than a copy, and allow easy incremental backups. Consider: touch bkup_full_new timestamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%T) find /home -depth | cpio -o -Hcrc | gzip -3 >/mnt/USBbkup/full-$timestamp && mv -f bkup_full_new bkup_full && touch bkup_incr Now you can do an incremental (since last full or incremental) or partial (since last full): touch bkup_incr_new timestamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%T) find /home -cnewer bkup_incr | cpio -o -Hcrc | gzip -3 >/mnt/USBbkup/incr-$timestamp && mv -f bkup_incr_new bkup_incr timestamp=$(date +%Y%m%d-%T) find /home -cnewer bkup_full | cpio -o -Hcrc | gzip -3 >/mnt/USBbkup/part-$timestamp The advantage of the incr is that files are smaller, the advantage of partial is that you only restore full+part (two total), and the advantage of rsync is that deleted files will really be deleted (that's why I say it a copy, not a backup). Hope this is useful. -- bill davidsen CTO TMR Associates, Inc Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979