Re: [PLUG] Backups vs Copies: was Avoid Arvixe at all costs!

[Rich Freeman <r-plug@thefreemanclan.net>]

On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 11:07 AM, Fred Stluka <fred@bristle.com> wrote:
> Rich,
>
> I get a full backup, plus daily incrementals out of a single rsync
> command:
> % rsync -rpogtlv --del --backup --backup-dir=sparse src/ full
>
> This updates my full backup tree, but instead of overwriting or
> deleting files from that tree, it moves them to a new timestamped
> incremental tree that is sparsely populated only with the files
> that would have been changed or deleted.
>

That essentially works, but you might seriously consider using
rsnapshot instead in such a situation.  The only thing that changes is
how the files are organized.

Instead of a bazillion timestamped files all over the place, you
instead end up with timestamped parent directories that are populated
with full backups, which are sparse in the sense that they're full of
hard-links where files didn't change.

The advantage of rsnapshot is that you can just copy/rsync one of
those directories back and you get your filesystem in the state as of
the timestamp you used (presumably the latest), vs getting a
filesystem full of timestamped incremental files all over the place
that you then need to try to clean up.  Either way you can still go
back in time for any particular file.

But, they both get the job done, and depending on how you prefer the
format of your archive and the state after restoration, either could
be the "better" solution.

-- 
Rich
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