rsync - Apr 2013 - Space Machine - an rsync helper script for easier offsite backups

Dear rsync community,

As Time Machine doesn't support offsite backups, I started developing an
rsync helper script for synchronizations between Macs and network attached
storage (NAS) devices. After running and refining my script for some time now,
it works very well for my purposes.

Lately, I made my script, that I called Space Machine, available on my blog:
http://goo.gl/KhgF4

With Space Machine, each backup job is stored in a small configuration file
which is fed to the script. It is possible to set backup intervals, split up big
backup tasks into smaller folder jobs and also to create a backup history by
transferring the backup into a dated folder upon each run. Upon completion, the
script either sends an email or displays a growl notification on my Mac's
desktop. By adding the backup jobs to cron, they run in the background according
to a predefined schedule without needing any further attention from the user.

I hope this is helpful for people here. As I am not a programmer or expert in
this matter, I would very much appreciate your feedback for further improvement!
To make my code easily accessible, I added comments to both the script itself as
well to an example backup job file.

Thank you for your time.

Elmar