rsync or replacement backup

[Kent Borg]

Karl Larsen wrote:
> sudo rsync -avz /root /boot ... /usr : /mnt

Now that you are using rsync, add in the "linkdest" option!

I recently got back to doing regular backups of my notebook on an 
external disk. A coworker had his notebook disk die and it unnerved me...

So in the last month-or-so I have backed up my 70GB home directory at 
least a dozen times (and the rest of my 120GB disk), onto a 320GB 
external disk. The disk is still less than 60% full and I have every one 
of my backups available. (Do the math, it doesn't add up.) No, I am not 
doing compression.

I am using rsync's nifty "linkdest" feature where hard links can point 
multiple times to a single file (that is, for files that didn't change 
from one backup to the next).

I got the basics from 
http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/ though I have made 
customizations. Give it a look. It is nice to know I can grab a file 
from many backups ago.


-kb