Re: Question on backups using rsync
On Mon, Dec 19, 2005 at 08:01:04PM -0700, Daniel Webb wrote:
> One thing to consider is that it's safer to use a LVM snapshot while
> copying a mirror. That way it won't matter if the files change during the
> mirroring. This issue won't keep the system from booting, since libc6 and
> such never change, but if a database file changes, for example, it could wreck
> havoc with that.
<replying to myself here>
I read somewhere that this isn't a problem with rsync, that it only copies
atomically. So are snapshots even needed if using rsync? I couldn't find
anything about this issue on the man page, but it is a huge man page. Also
couldn't find anything about this issue in the rdiff-backup man page.
Another question:
I'm curious as to the relative merits of rdiff-backup vs. rsync snapshots
(http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/). Am I mistaken in
thinking that the rsync snapshots method would be very inefficient if a small
part of a large file (like revision control databases) changed regularly? How
much overhead is involved in all those hardlinks compared to rdiff-backup's
metadata overhead?
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