Yes, I commend you for going for the command line tools like that.
Tackling rsync is no slouch by any means.  Frankly, I can rarely
remember all the command line options for rsync and have to either
constantly look at the man page or previous working examples.  I would
also create little one or two line shell scripts with these commands
in them and then just run the script each month or whenever.  That's
why Joseph's script example had the '$1' and '$2' thingies in there.
those can then be substituted by just putting in the names of the
paths and run the script.  Also, I believe Joseph's example included
the --delete option.  However, I don't recall what is actually being
deleted at that point.  Might wanna check to be sure there.

Also, if you get more adventuresome in the future, you might wanna
look at a program called rdiff-backup.  It uses rsync under the hood
and allows for optional inclusions and exclusions like rsync does but
allows for staging different backup sets over time and yes, each
subsequent backup is just the differences.  Plus then if you need to
restore a file from the most recent backup, it is merely a mirror of
your current environment so you can just copy the desired item to be
restored.  But rsync is a good start and an excellent way to sync up
two computers over a network too.

On Wed, Dec 08, 2010 at 10:18:01PM -0700, Alan Dayley wrote:
> Do not think yourself stupid!  I know software developers who are
> afraid of anything on a command line.  The fact that you are using
> rsync is a long ways from anything close to stupid!
> 
> Excellent work.
> 
> Alan
> 
> On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 10:05 PM, betty <nicepenguin@webcanine.com> wrote:
> > ok, great, so do i just do this;
> >
> > stormy@stormy-desktop:~$ rsync -avEHh /home/stormy/ /media/october
> >
> > or do i do this :
> > stormy@stormy-desktop:~$ rsync -avEHh --delete-after --progress
> > /home/stormy/ /media/october
> >
> > sorry to be so stupid, but i rely on you guys for this ;)
> > thank you!!
> > betty
> >
> >
> > On 12/08/2010 08:32 PM, Joseph Sinclair wrote:
> >>
> >> You're pretty close to ideal there.
> >> I use
> >> rsync -avEHh --delete-after --progress $SOURCE $DESTINATION
> >> Generally no need to sudo for your own homedir, and "-z" is really only
> >> useful for network copying (it compresses in-transit, not on disk).
> >>
> >> That will only copy over changes between the source and destination, and
> >> will remove anything in destination that's no longer in source.
> >>
> >> Make sure the external drive is formatted EXT3 or XFS so you can preserve
> >> things like access controls and ownership.
> >>
> >> When you look at the final output of the command, there's usually a ratio
> >> listed.
> >> That's the amount that could be copied vs. the amount actually copied.  If
> >> that's much larger than 1, then you're only copying changes.
> >>
> >> ==Joseph++
> >>
> >> betty wrote:
> >>
> >>>
> >>> I have an ext hdd that i copy my stuff to every few months. I think that
> >>> i am copying everything all over again each time.
> >>> What I'd like to do is just copy files that have changed.
> >>> This is the command i have been using
> >>>
> >>> stormy@stormy-desktop:~$ sudo rsync -azvH /home/stormy/ /media/october
> >>>
> >>> please don't suggest that i use dd or whatever else there is because i
> >>> am not good at trying new things. i think i'm doing a lot just to do the
> >>> backup every few months.
> >>>
> >>> any rsync suggestions greatly appreciated. if i am already using the
> >>> correct command for just copying things that have changed, please let me
> >>> know.
> >>>
> >>> THANKS, Merry Christmas to all pluggers !
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > betty i.
> > www.webcanine.com
> > information for people
> > who care for dogs.
> >
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