Re: Suggestions for multilevel backup of single machine?
James Youngman <jay@gnu.org> writes:
>(2) It would be useful to have a historic backup capability too (e.g.
>the way the filesystem looked yesterday, last week, last month and a
>year ago), at least for filesystems like /home.
>What are good solutions for doing (2)? (Please only recommend
>software you're using yourself :)
I do this using rsync with the --link-dest option. The idea is that you
sync A to B with reference to C. If a file in A and C are the same, a
hard link is created in B instead of a copy of the file. This means the
only new files in B are files that have changed in A relative to C.
When I start the backup I create a directory for the new backup, named
with the date of the backup. If a symlink "latest" exists, I run rsync
with the argument "--link-dest=.../latest". The new backup will be
performed relative to the latest backup. When rsync is complete, I
update the "latest" link to point to the just-performed backup.
I periodically purge old backups, leaving behind backups ending in 01.
This leaves one backup per month (e.g. 20090301, 20090201, etc) for a
longer term historical backup.
I have a script that does this for me which you are welcome to. Just
email me.
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