Here is a question of mine that may make me look really ignorant. But I have a gazillion of things to do and past experimentation has not given me satisfying outcomes.
What I would like to do is an utterly normal (traditional) backup update of a folder and its sub-folders and files. Sort of like copying the folder to another drive in Nemo by pulling it there with the mouse (or doing a copy-paste). When finished, done; just like with the first backup made.
Problem 1: Nemo will change permissions if they aren't all the same of the current login. (for example root-permissions would become my login name permissions) This would NEVER be what I want. When I want a backup it's like me wanting a perfect photocopy. All exactly the same. Not a faint photocopy or cartoon drawing.
Problem 2: When I have already made such a copy (backup) before, and now I want to update it, how to get that done right? One time-wasting but desired-outcome way would be to delete the backup-folder and then recreate it from scratch via making a fresh copy. But wouldn't it be more reasonable to simply drag the original folder to the backup location WITHOUT first deleting the previously made backup when only a few changes need to be updated? But how to make sure that ONLY updated files and folders replace their already existing older copies of the same name, and that files that were in the meantime deleted in the original folder also get deleted in the backup folder to update it properly --- so in the end the backup folder is identical with the current original folder, which is the original concept of making backups in the simple old days?
Can Nemo do these natural things?
What does its popping up "Merge" button mean?
Things tried: I have played with Grsync and luckyBackup since Nemo has struck me as unreliable. In the older days when I sat on Windows rather than Linux Mint, the default files shell ("Explorer" called, I think) wasn't perfect for backup updates either; so I installed another software ("T"-something) which did it right with maybe only one single fully understandable question or two, if any. In contrast, Grsync and luckyBackup have a huge jungle of partly incomprehensible plus confusingly interacting settings that may very well include a target of Alpha Centauri (
joke).In several experiments with luckyBackup I never got it to delete files in the backup that had been deleted in the original folder. (and I have so many other issues to deal with that time is short and nerves are frayed -- hence this post)
So, a good tip would be greatly appreciated by me. Really. Thanks in advance.
