Best Backup software for Ubuntu 8.10

[Chris Mohler]

On Thu, Apr 2, 2009 at 11:50 PM, Robert Parker <rlp1938 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 3, 2009 at 8:12 AM, Robert Holtzman <holtzm at cox.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, 2 Apr 2009, Derek Broughton wrote:
>
>>> rsync is a low-level utility, it's not a backup application.
>>
>> I've seen that statement or one similar a few times. Could you point me
>> to a doc(s) that explains the drawbacks of using it for backups in a
>> little more detail?
>
> It's fairly obvious if you take a few seconds to think about what you
> want from a backup.
> 1. Do you want to retrieve the state of DocumentA from 3 days ago?
> Nothing in rsync to allow that.

I've not followed the thread but...

IMO, a new day calls for a new copy - IE, if you want to go back in
time (and you will!), you should create revisions as you work.  I'd
hate to have to back up my entire HD (or even diffs) every day or two
just to find an earlier version of a document.

> 2. Do you want to retrieve DocumentB that you deleted yesterday? If
> you used rsync with the --delete option since too bad rsync has done
> what you wanted and deleted the copy in your mirror.

rsync is a very fancy copy command - it can be used as a tool to
create backups.  But (as you mentioned), you need to do some planning
beforehand.  rsync is not a complete backup solution on its own, but
paired with regular backup of the rsync mirror (to something like
optical media) it can be quite effective.  Reading the man page is
mandatory.

Chris