Skip to main content

Differential Backups Made Simple

To backup or not to backup.  That is the question.

Who likes to make backups? Anyone, Anyone?

Hmm, I thought so...

Versioned Backups
I prefer to make backups with very simple tools, since when things go south, I don't want to have to install a complicated system just to get my data back.

Most UNIX backup systems are based on rsync and by using a careful system of  hard links (multiple new names for the same old file), differential backups can save you oodles of disk space in the long run, while making it very easy to step through an archive and retrieve specific versions of old files:
https://www.nongnu.org/rdiff-backup/
http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/
https://popey.com/blog/2020/12/straightforward-linux-backups-with-rsnapshot/

Three for the Price of One
The original article by Mike Rubel describes how to keep three backups for the price of one, using a combination of hard links and rsync. That idea then spawned the rsnapshot (pull) and rdiff-backup (push) scripts.

The method described below, creates three directory trees of all my data for today, some day and who knows when, without using significantly more disk space than a single backup.  One could similarly expand it to five, ten or more backups - it only depends on your use case and forgetfulness. I can browse the tree on the backup server using a common file browser and click-drag-drop a lost/damaged file back to the host.  This is as simple as it gets and just the way I like it.

Since the PSU of my Raspberry Pi server blew up, I now have a little NUC with a 2TB solid state disk that has all my music, movies and backups as a WiFi enabled file server, using this idea to good effect.   (The RPi is fine, it just needs a new USB widget.)

Differential Backup Script
On my MacBook, my backup script is directly based on Mike's and looks like this:
#! /bin/bash
# Rsync to Muzak 192.168.1.250 and keep 3 old hard linked copies.
# Assumes the public key is installed in /home/herman/.ssh
ssh herman@muzak "mv ~/Backups/Herman.3 ~/Backups/Herman.tmp"
ssh herman@muzak "mv ~/Backups/Herman.2 ~/Backups/Herman.3"
ssh herman@muzak "mv ~/Backups/Herman.1 ~/Backups/Herman.2"
ssh herman@muzak "mv ~/Backups/Herman.0 ~/Backups/Herman.1"
ssh herman@muzak "mv ~/Backups/Herman.tmp ~/Backups/Herman.0"
ssh herman@muzak "cp -al ~/Backups/Herman.1/. ~/Backups/Herman.0"
rsync -avze ssh --progress --delete --max-size=20M --exclude "*Trash*" --exclude "*bak" \
--exclude "*old" --exclude "*cache*" --exclude "*Cache*" --exclude "*iso" ~/ herman@muzak:~/Backups/Herman.0/

The script follows the principle of: Include everything and Exclude the cruft. This makes the script maintenance free.

I simply run this little script whenever I feel like it.


La voila!

Herman
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

On topic comments are welcome. Junk will be deleted.

Popular posts from this blog

Parasitic Quadrifilar Helical Antenna

This article was reprinted in OSCAR News, March 2018:  http://www.amsat-uk.org If you want to receive Satellite Weather Pictures , then you need a decent antenna, otherwise you will receive more noise than picture. For polar orbit satellites, one needs an antenna with a mushroom shaped radiation pattern .  It needs to have strong gain towards the horizon where the satellites are distant, less gain upwards where they are close and as little as possible downwards, which would be wasted and a source of noise.  Most satellites are spin stabilized and therefore the antenna also needs circular polarization, otherwise the received signal will flutter as the antennas rotate through nulls. The helical antenna, first proposed by Kraus in 1948, is the natural solution to circular polarized satellite communications.  It is a simple twisted wire - there seems to be nothing to it.  Various papers have been published on helix antennas, so the operation is pretty well ...
2 comments
Read more

To C or not to C, That is the Question

As most would know, the Kernighan and Ritchie C Programming Language is an improved version of B, which is a simplified version of BCPL, which is derived from ALGOL, which is the Ur computer language that started the whole madness, when Adam needed an operating system for his Abacus, to count Eve's apples in the garden of Eden in Iraq.  The result is that C is my favourite, most hated computer language , which I use for everything. At university, I learned FORTRAN with punch cards on a Sperry-Univac, in order to run SPICE, to simulate an operational amplifier.  Computers rapidly lost their glamour after that era! Nobody taught me C.  I bought the book and figured it out myself. Over time, I wrote a couple of assemblers, a linker-locator, various low level debuggers and schedulers and I even fixed a bug in a C compiler - not because I wanted to, but because I had to, to get the job done!   Much of my software work was down in the weeds with DSP and radio modems...
Post a Comment
Read more

Unlock CRA PDF Forms

Unlock Canada Revenue Agency PDF Forms It appears that there is a relatively new PDF feature to prevent casual copying and saving of a file and that some programs save PDF files with these foolish features active by default.  Many forms from the Canada Revenue Agency are locked in this way, which makes it difficult to do one's taxes, since one can fill the form, but cannot save it.  One can only print the form.  It should be possible to print to a file or export it to a new PDF file, but it is far better to reset the annoying anti-taxpayer flags, since the 'printed' form cannot be edited easily any more and I always manage to make a mistake or three that need to be corrected after review. If there is a Linux (virtual) machine handy, install qpdf and use it to reset the silly flags: $ su - password # dnf update # dnf install qpdf # exit $ qpdf --decrypt lockedfile.pdf unlockedfile.pdf One doesn't need a password to unlock these flags, so the fix is instant. La voila! He...
Post a Comment
Read more