rsync syntax help for /home backup

[chris_debian]

Hi, all.

Each month, I backup my /home to an external USB HDD. This works well, but takes a long time. I suspect this is because everything is being copied fresh, each time I perform the operation, when I only need the added and deleted files to be amended. I can confirm that files that have been deleted from my /home are being deleted as part of the rsync back up.

Could I ask anyone who uses rsync to have a look at the command I am using, and see whether it looks correct.

For info, I am executing the command as a user (chris), and I want to back up /home/chris to my Freecom HDD directory, called Backup. I think I am excluding files that begin with a '.'

I am using this:

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rsync -av --delete --exclude=".*/" /home/chris/ /media/chris/FREECOM\ HDD/Backup/

I'd really appreciate a second opinion on this. As I say, the backup completes, it just takes a long time, and most of the contents don't change from one month to the next (photos, music etc).

Cheers,

Chris.

[Habitual]

Hey Chris:

That looks alright.
Test it with "rsync -avn" ...

But you may wish to reconsider excluding some of those. ~/.config and ~/.gconf are pretty important.

Try this: (with -avn first!)

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#!/bin/bash
clear
cd ~
if $(cat /proc/mounts | grep  -i "FREECOM" > /dev/null)  
then
rsync -avz --no-perms . /media/chris/FREECOM\ HDD/Backup/ --delete --exclude=".*/"
else
	echo "Backup Drive is NOT mounted"
	exit
fi
#EOF

I believe placement doesn't matter with rsync, so

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rsync -avzn --no-perms . /media/chris/FREECOM\ HDD/Backup/ --delete --exclude=".*/"

and

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rsync -avn --delete --exclude=".*/" /home/chris/ /media/chris/FREECOM\ HDD/Backup/

would functionally be the same thing.

Let me know.

[coffee412]

Hi Chris,

I also backup using rsync. A little background on my setup: I backup my home directory on a 1tb drive to another 1tb drive in my system. It does this every morning at about 1:00AM. I have been doing this for about 6 months now.

My command line is simply:

rsync -a --exclude /home/coffee/dino /home/coffee /mnt/BACKUP

This will backup everything in my home directory except my simlink to my raid (dino) on another system that I store all my long term backups. This is basically all you ever need. What it does is copy over any files that have changed since the last backup.

I would also agree with Habitual that you should backup your .* files as these are your configuration files for your user login. Should you lose those then you will be in a world of hurt.

Have a great day,

coffee

[chiefjim]

I've been using the Grsync version for quite some time. So far I've not found a way to effectively have it skip cache files. Although not large in file size they take a proportionally large amount of time.

[chris_debian]

Thanks, chaps.

Just giving rsync -a a go, and also grsync, to see what the difference is.

I prefer the simplicity of the terminal, and agree with you that the '.' files should be backed up. Also, I prefer to see what the rsync command is doing, so I assume the 'v' option is for verbose. I was surprised that the man page wasn't more explicit on this, but maybe I scrolled through too quickly.

Apologies for my delay in responding to your helpful answers.

Cheers,

Chris.

[austin.texas]

I've been using the Grsync version for quite some time. So far I've not found a way to effectively have it skip cache files.

You can tell grsync to skip any folder. Create a file named grsync-exclude.txt and then tell grsync where the file is.

My grsync-exclude.txt file (all these will be excluded):
.adobe/
.cache/
.gnome2/
.macromedia/
.miro/
.mozilla/
.openshot/
.pulse/
.thumbnails/
.thunderbird/
.xine/
.kompozer.net/
Downloads/Miro/
hp-check.log
.gvfs/

Then after creating that file, open grsync and go to Advanced Options > Additional Options and add this line
to tell grsync the location of your grsync-exclude.txt file -
--exclude-from=/home/yourusername/grsync-exclude.txt

[chiefjim]

You can tell grsync to skip any folder. Create a file named grsync-exclude.txt and then tell grsync where the file is.

Thanks. Works great. Baffled at how a txt file works doing this.

[Habitual]

Thanks, chaps.

Just giving rsync -a a go, and also grsync, to see what the difference is.

I prefer the simplicity of the terminal, and agree with you that the '.' files should be backed up. Also, I prefer to see what the rsync command is doing, so I assume the 'v' option is for verbose. I was surprised that the man page wasn't more explicit on this, but maybe I scrolled through too quickly.

Chris:
I not sure where you got this about man not being explicit but I read:

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man rsync
...
-v, --verbose               increase verbosity

and the other method is

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rsync --help | less
...
-v, --verbose               increase verbosity

What version are you using?

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rsync --version | head -1

[mintybits]

Mine is like this:

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rsync -vaR --partial --filter='. filter' /home/me/ /backupfilepath/

And my "filter" file contains:

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- Backups
- .cache
- Cache
- cache
- temp
- .gvfs
- .thumbnails
- thumbnails
- Trash

[Nick Payne]

My exclude file contains the following:

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- .local/share/Trash/
- .local/share/wineprefixes
- .cache/
- .thunderbird/xtjje1ch.default/Cache/
- .thunderbird/xtjje1ch.default/startupCache/
- .gconf/
- .gvfs/
- .googleearth/
- .thumbnails/
- .mozilla/
- .kde/
- temp/
- .lilypond-fonts.cache-2/
- .adobe/
- .config/
- .wine/
- .wine-pipelight/
- .PlayOnLinux/
- PlayOnLinux's virtual drives/
- /*/.gvfs

And the rsync command line is

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rsync -rptgoDvSL --del --delete-excluded --exclude-from=/home/nick/scripts/exclude /home/nick/ /media/nick/BACKUP/nick/

[usbtux]

I use
rsync -r -n -t -p -v --progress -s --exclude VirtualBox* --exclude Dropbox --exclude Downloads --exclude /home/steve/.local/share/Trash /home/steve /media/steve/sharemedia/backup/020414

if you use time before the rsync it will it will tell you exactly how long it took to complete.
time rsync -r -n -t -p -v --progress -s --exclude VirtualBox* --exclude Dropbox...

http://www.electrictoolbox.com/rsync-ig ... ate-newer/
http://earthwithsun.com/questions/40887 ... ated-files