Re: Good backup software for Linux

[Siju George <sgeorge.ml@gmail.com>]

On 6/20/05, Maurits van Rees <maurits@vanrees.org> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 20, 2005 at 12:15:03PM +0530, Siju George wrote:
> > I am looking at Bacula
> >
> > but the line
> >
> > # Files deleted after a Full save will be included in a restoration.
> >
> > in
> >
> > http://www.bacula.org/rel-manual/Current_State_Bacula.html
> >
> > under
> >
> > Current Implementation Restrictions
> >
> > makes me a little apprhensive.
> 
> I read this as: you make a backup on Monday. You delete some files on
> Tuesday. You restore from backup on Wednesday and this will restore
> all files including the deleted ones. Usually getting back a deleted
> file is why you backup in the first place. So this seems normal
> behaviour.
> 
> > Is there a backup utility that can backup not only files but even
> > directory structures itsself?
> >
> > i.e
> >
> > If in a Directory "dir1" I have "file1", "file2", "file3" and I take a
> > full backup "backup1" on "Day1" the I delete "file2" from "dir1" and
> > take a differential backup "backup2".
> 
> What has this got to do with directory structure? Backing up the
> directory structure of dir1 to me would mean backing up dir1 and all
> its files and all subdirectories of dir1 with their files (and their
> subdirectories, etc).
> 
> I don't know how every backup program manages differential backups and
> if they take note when a file or directory has been deleted. I would
> suggest a full daily backup if possible. But that depends on how much
> data you have.
> 
> > Now I should be able to restore "dir1" from "backup2" with only "fle1"
> > and "file2"
> 
> I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I think at some point you are
> saying "file2" when you mean "file3" or the other way around.
> 

Sorry :-( this should read as "file1" & "file3"

> In most cases you can't restore from a differential backup. You will
> need the previous full backup as well. In your case file1 hasn't
> changed, so it will only be available in backup1, *not* in backup2 as
> that only records the differences.
> 

Thankyou so much for your response :-)