Backup utility in linux

[Jewel]

On 7/11/05, Ante Karamatić <ivoks at grad.hr> wrote:
> I'm not doing system restore, as I find that useless for Linux. I'm
> creating simple backup system to backup userfiles. Backup != System
> Restore. If you ever used any backup system on Linux/BSD/Windows
> (amanda, bacula, etc...) then you know what I'm talking about.
> 

Backing up /usr would of course be useless.  By mentioning /etc I was
thinking of 1) the xorg.conf file[*] and 2) system settings that can
be changed from the included gui tools.  Would it be nice if the
backup tool would give the user the option to save his or her printer
settings, network settings, etc?  Perhaps the amount of complexity
that restoring these settings would add outweighs the benefits.

Other than that, I think it's safe to say that there is probably
nothing more that a "typical" user cares about other than what is in
/home/$user and possibly /home/$otheruser.  I'm kind of envisioning a
dead simple interface where they are presented with:

What do you want to back up?

[ ] Program Settings (2 MB)    [i.e. ~/.*]
[ ] Documents (20 MB)
[ ] Photos (200 MB)
[ ] Videos (2 GB)

or

o All my files (2.2 GB)

Or perhaps a collapsable tree with checkboxes of everything in /home/$user.

Once again, just brainstorming.  Perhaps this is the entirely wrong
direction to go.  I'm trying to envision a very ubuntu interface that
does something more than file-roller or gnome-baker already
accomplish.

Best regards,

Jewel

[*]  On reflection, this probably isn't a big deal.  It's just the
only file I ever grab from /etc before wiping a disk.