-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Please cc in replies as I am not subscrubed to the list - However I have just searched backwards over the list archive looking for an answer and I can't find any posts relating to this. I am currently backing up my family's windows machine over the network to my linux box by mounting the windows disk as a file share an using cp to copy the data over. This is not very satisfactory I would like to set up my backup so that I can a) restore a disk image for most of the machine a) have an immediate backup of the "My Documents" directory for all users b) provide a facilty where I can collect files from these directories for all users and ultimately copy them to CD-R as long term archive. Sometime in the past I set this machine up with rsync using cygwin with the following command line rsync -a --delete --exclude='/WINDOWS/WIN386.SWP' /* roo::pooh/ where "roo" is a linux box with a area defined by rsyncd.conf as pooh (the machine I am backing up) but I had given up due to the time it takes to run, and the need to schedule the backup automatically on the windows side. Assuming I can find another way to dd if-/dev/hda1 | bzip2 -c | "stream over network" [as an aside I have yet to figure out what the last program of the pipe should be - anyone any ideas] to make a reasonable stable disk image I would like to change that to something like a series of rsync -a --delete --backup --backup-dir=SOMETHING '/My\ Documents/*' roo::pooh/backup/ (but with the profiled version of My Docs) where SOMETHING represents roo::pooh/archive/user but I want to be reasonable sure I can get it to work before destroying the other backup method. I did try some experiments on a local machine, but without a leading '/' the backup-dir seemed to be a subdir of destination. The man page and all other documentation I have been able to find is very unclear just exactly what the semantics for the backup-dir are. Can someone explain very explicitly how backup-dir is related to destination (particularly when there is a rsyncd server acting for destination) and how I can go about achieving what I am trying to do TIA - -- Alan - alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk http://www.chandlerfamily.org.uk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE8Gmdb1mf3M5ZDr2kRAl3rAJ90+A9CqcWrMfsXcdUyReHuRWqNyQCfWdly j/7aMa5rNrxgcS9k9TU8+CI=OiNI -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Alan, The backup-dir is directly related to the destination, so is only a directory, not a server::module/directory thing. To be more specific: backup-dir=<SOMETHING> is a command to the destination RSYNC program to place files that have changed AT THE CURRENT DESTINATION into the location specified by SOMETHING, instead of deleting or renaming them. The backup directory is *completely relative* to the destination MODULE. In your example, you are connecting to the "pooh" MODULE on roo, and so, your backup-directory is relative to the definition of "pooh" (from rsyncd.conf, [pooh] may equal /var/machines/pooh, for example.). If you want to place documents in "pooh"/archive/user/, then your backup-dir=/archive/user/ (Which, from the above example, will place the files in /var/machines/pooh/archive/user/). Note: You can NOT specify another destination AREA for the backups, but you can use symlinks to your advantage on the linux side. Note2: Always end the backup-dir with a slash. Your true life example should read: rsync -a --delete --backup --backup-dir=/archive/user/ '/My\ Documents/*' roo::pooh/backup/ and, assuming that rsyncd.conf defines [pooh] as /var/machines/pooh/, the file destination will be /var/machines/pooh/backup/, and the directories for backed-up files will start at /var/machines/pooh/archive/user/ Jim Delahanty jimd@gie.com