[wplug] Backup tool?

Christopher DeMarco demarco at maya.com
Thu Nov 8 14:17:04 EST 2007


On Thu, Nov 08, 2007 at 11:06:03AM -0800, Sam Al-Droubi wrote:

> I am just looking to a backup my desktop to a nfs or a usb drive.  I
> don't know how easy it is to setup rsync and if it does keep older
> versions of the files.  Any comments?

Problem is, there are no UN*X backup tools that are "simple" in a
Windows sense.

tar, cpio and dump are "simple" in the UN*X sense -- they each do one
thing very well with little overhead and much flexibility.  

rsync doesn't keep older versions of files, and while it's very good
for moving changes place-to-place, it requires a bit of thought to get
it exactly right.

A cousin of rsync, Unison,
(http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/) is a bit better as a
fire-and-forget backup or synchronization tool, but (as with most UN*X
tools), requires you to invest effort up front to understand and
implement to your needs.

Subversion and git are version-control systems that many many people
use for keeping home directories up-to-date across multiple systems.
(http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/06/svn_homedir.html) But,
again, you'll have to understand how they work and then implement them
to your specifics.

HTH...


-- 
Christopher DeMarco <demarco at maya.com>
Information Technology Supervisor
MAYA Group
+1-412-488-2900


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