What should be backed up?

[Jeffrey Goldberg]

On Aug 23, 2009, at 7:14 PM, Karl Vogel wrote:

>   Touching a timestamp file and backing up stuff newer than that works
>   fine for things you modify, but I frequently copy over source  
> tarballs
>   and the timestamp method won't work for those.

This is one of the several reasons that I use rsync (via rsnapshot).   
At each increment, it backs up the minimum that is need.  With the  
cost of having a complete backup which duplicates what you would find  
in a reinstall, you have a complete system.

Suppose you accidently trash something from the original  
installation.  It may be easier to restore it from your backups than  
going to original installation media.  Disk space is cheap, so having  
a complete back-up (under most circumstances) makes sense.  With -- 
link-dest you can maintain many snapshots with the minimal of copying,  
transmitting, and writing files.

Of course everyone's back up needs are different, and what works for  
me isn't necessarily the best for others.  But if you haven't looked  
at rsnapshot, I'd recommend that you do before writing your own  
scripts.  Even if you don't use rsnapshot itself, look at what it does  
with rsync.

Cheers,

-j

-- 
Jeffrey Goldberg                        http://www.goldmark.org/jeff/