This is true - if you change the destination folder you do copy
everything because rsync does not know you copied anything before.
Rsync syncs. Thus if you wish to sync /my/files/ and
/media/my/backupfiles/ it copies everything from files to back up
files on the first run then every subsequent run it copies changes.
But if I ask it to now sync my/files/ and /media/my/NEW/backupfiles/
it must first copy every thing again because non of the files in
/my/files exist in /media/my/NEW/backupfiles/
If you want to have say /my/files backed up every day with that days
changes but you also want to keep track up each change separately (aka
have a snap shot for every month) so you can go back to prior
versions, then you want to look at rsyncs cousin rsnapshot.
Used in combination with rsync rsnapshot keeps track of changes by
copying files that have changed and creating links to previously
copied files that have not changed.
Here is a quick blog post and a set of narrated presentation slides I
did on rsync and rsnapshot a while back
http://mlwtech.blogspot.com/2009/04/rsync-and-ssh-keys-presentation-on.html
The audio auto-play and self progressing slide features are all messed
up because I did the auto-play stuff on a windows box but if your
interested you can play each slides associated mp3 manually. I keep
thinking I am going to go fix this by simply web linking the
associated auto play mp3 files or manually dealing with relative paths
but I am a bit busy... But I digress! The post and associated slides
are good and you may find the info very useful :)
On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 1:26 AM, Dazed_75 <
lthielster@gmail.com> wrote:
> One thing I might point out though is that you (Betty) said you did the
> backup about once a month and your example shows rsyncing to a directory
> named for the month (October). That's fine but some people use rsync to
> update a single backup destination so they don't keep each backup
> separately. You choice which best suits you, but I thought it worth
> mentioning.
>
> Larry
>
> On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 11:56 PM, Steve Holmes <steve@holmesgrown.com> wrote:
>>
>> 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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>
>
> --
> Dazed_75 a.k.a. Larry
>
> The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions,
> that I wish it always to be kept alive.
> - Thomas Jefferson
>
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