rsync - Jan 2007 - Question on --backup --backup-dir Switches For Incremental Backs

I current do some rsync backups with a command like so every day

rsync -az -e ssh --stats --delete --exclude "stuff" /
user@server:/home/user/

What I want to do is have some incremental backups in there in
subdirectories. So, for example, something like this on the remote
server
/home/user/something.tuesday
/home/user/something.friday

I thought the --backup --backup-dir Switches were used to store just
the files that had changed in seperate directories, am I wrong on
that?

I've read everything I could find, including the big rsnapshot
scripts, but I'm not able to do what I want, it seems so simple but
something's not right, am I wrong that subdirs should have just files
that are new or have changed. I tried various things like this, but
had no luck

rsync -az -e ssh --stats --delete --backup --backup-dir=/home.Thursday
--exclude "stuff" / user@server:/home/user/

Thanks!

On Mon 29 Jan 2007, Blake Carver wrote:
> I current do some rsync backups with a command like so every day
> 
> rsync -az -e ssh --stats --delete --exclude "stuff" / 
> user@server:/home/user/
> 
> What I want to do is have some incremental backups in there in
> subdirectories. So, for example, something like this on the remote
> server
> /home/user/something.tuesday
> /home/user/something.friday
> 
> I thought the --backup --backup-dir Switches were used to store just
> the files that had changed in seperate directories, am I wrong on
> that?
You're right on that account.

Why do you want incremental backups?  Things like dirvish or rsnapshot
(I'm not so familiar with rsnapshot) will create complete backups that
don't take that more space than incrementals (the main difference is the
space needed for the directory structure, common files are hard-linked
between versions).  If I then want to restore from a specific day, I
don't have to gather all the incremental versions one after the other,
and that's not taking into account files that have been deleted between
days...

I'd recommend using the --link-dest option.  Start with one day, e.g.
Monday, and then use that as a basis for Tuesday:

rsynz -az --stats --delete --exclude "stuff"
--link-dest=../something.monday / user@server:/home/user/something.tuesday/

You may want to also use -H in addition to -a to preserve hardlinks from
the source.


Paul Slootman

On Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 10:34:39AM -0500, Blake Carver
wrote:
> I thought the --backup --backup-dir Switches were used to store just
> the files that had changed in seperate directories, am I wrong on
> that?
It stores the old files that are being updated or deleted, moving (or
copying) them before they are changed in the current transfer.  If you
want to store the new, changed files, use one or more --compare-dest
options (one pointing at an old full backup, and an extra option for any
intervening incrementals).  However, I think that --link-dest is a
better way to go for any OS that supports the hard-linking of files.

..wayne..