Is this suitable as a cron job...?

[tenfoot]

Using LinuxMint v19.0 Mate

All the data I create is saved to a Data partition and, as I prefer to do a new install when a new version of Mint is released, there are only the following files I copy to a usb stick as a backup.

(a) specified hidden files in /home/user
(b) specified directories in /home/user
(c) specified directories in /media/user/Data

First of all I create directory and name it "yyyy-mm-dd" (this is the date of creation) on the USB stick and then select and drag and drop the items into that directory

Can this be automated through cron, please.

If not, I would welcome any other suggestions.

[gm10]

Unless your USB stick is always plugged in when the cron job runs then this doesn't sound like something you would use cron for.

That said, you could create a script or use any existing backup software (plenty in Software Manager) to handle this either on demand or on a schedule.

[Petermint]

Timeshift can be configured to do that.

Timeshift can run on schedule or at the press of a button. I use USB 3 connected disks and run via the button click. I can then run the backup when I have finished using the computer.

All backups use a lot of space for the first backup. After the first backup, Timeshift stores only the changes. The result is a very small backup. You can run several backups a day when you are making major changes.

[AndyMH]

Anacron might do the job for you, it's installed on my system, so might be there by default, if not it's in software manager. And as others have stated, you can probably achieve what you want with timeshift/backintime.

[tenfoot]

Thank you gm10, Petermint and AndyMH for your suggestions. I will work through them and see if I can decide upon a solution to suit my simple mind.