Backing up Ubuntu

[Jim]

On 7/1/19 6:08 AM, Jared Norris wrote:
> Good evening all,
> 
> I've been helping my family set up windows and mac machines lately and been
> impressed at their backup options. This put me on to looking at my Ubuntu
> backup options and I feel a little hard done by in comparison, which is odd
> as it's usually the other way around.
> 
> I thought it might just be I don't know all that's out there despite a few
> hours poking around online so I thought I'd put it out to you all. Is there
> such a thing as a good back up system/s for Ubuntu ? My use case is to
> achieve 2 things:
> 1 - Incremental file history - if I break a config file or other day to day
> file I'd like to be able to go back to a specific file and restore the
> single file.
> 2 - System snapshot - if I really break things I'd like the opportunity to
> reinstall as it was x amount of time before the break
> 
> I can't make the deja-dup tool that comes with Ubuntu do either of these
> things reliably (it only restores everything from a date and even then, if
> trying to back up a whole system snapshot it gives errors about being
> unable to read certain files that are obviously in use).
> 
> In the past I've done manual backups with rsync but finding myself looking
> for something more automated.
> 
> Is there anything out there better than my manual rsync to achieve the 2
> types of backups I'm looking for?
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jared Norris
> 
> 

I use Back In Time. I have restored individual files from past backups 
so it satisfies your 1. option. I have never had to do a complete 
restore so I don't know about 2. I run it as root so I know it backups 
system files. I can't remember for sure but I think I have restored a 
couple of system files when I was troubleshooting a problem.

Regards, Jim