rsync - Oct 2007 - --backup-dir or --link-dest?

Hi,

To do incremental backups I am presently using
--backup-dir=/backup/host/$TODAY and the full backup is written to 
/backup/host/current. With this system incremental directories only 
contain deleted files and "current" contains the full backup.

Would it be more efficient to use --link-dest=/backup/host/$YESTERDAY 
and write the main backup to /backup/host/$TODAY ? That way each day 
incremental would contain the full daily snapshot, wouldn't it?

What is the current "best practice" standard for incremental backups?

Thanks,

On 10/15/07, Louis-David Mitterrand <vindex+lists-rsync@apartia.org>
wrote:
> To do incremental backups I am presently using
> --backup-dir=/backup/host/$TODAY and the full backup is written to
> /backup/host/current. With this system incremental directories only
> contain deleted files and "current" contains the full backup.
>
> Would it be more efficient to use --link-dest=/backup/host/$YESTERDAY
> and write the main backup to /backup/host/$TODAY ?
It wouldn't be more efficient, but it might be more convenient...
> That way each day
> incremental would contain the full daily snapshot, wouldn't it?
Yes, the daily snapshots would all appear full, but space would be
saved by hard linking among them.
> What is the current "best practice" standard for incremental
backups?
I would say the best practice is to use --link-dest as you described.
You might like to use a tool that manages the snapshots for you, such
as rsnapshot ( http://www.rsnapshot.org/ ).

Matt