[TriLUG] Anyone using rdiff-backup?

[Steve Litt via TriLUG]

>>
>> What are reverse differential backups?
>>

Brian Bouterse said on Sat, 25 Feb 2023 09:25:29 -0500

>It's a differential backup so each backup can be restored as a point in
>time snapshot but it minimizes storage by only storing the diffs in
>between each one. Typically with regular differential backups the full
>copy is kept as the first backup and all subsequent back ups are
>diffs. With a reverse differential the latest backup is always the
>full copy.
>
>What's really nice about that is the latest backup is usually much more
>useful than the first backup. By being stored in this way you don't
>need any reassembly to access the latest backup files.

Thanks Brian, I understand now.

I achieve reverse differential backups by doing a cp -al after the
rsync. Here's my script:

=================================================
[slitt at mydesk backup_local]$ cat make_incremental.sh 
#!/bin/bash
[ -d /mnt/backup_local/stevebup/latest/meta ] || exit 11
datestamp=`head -n1 /mnt/backup_local/stevebup/latest/meta/timestamp.txt`
incname=inc_$datestamp

cd  /mnt/backup_local/stevebup
echo "PLEASE WAIT, MAKING INCREMENTAL COPY, cp -al latest $incname..."
time cp -al latest  $incname
echo "DONE WITH    MAKING INCREMENTAL COPY, cp -al latest $incname..."

[slitt at mydesk backup_local]$ 
=================================================

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm