Ubuntu – Simple rsync incremental backup that timestamps deleted files

backuprsync

I use rsync as follows:

rsync -a –backup –suffix="."$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M") source backups

to dump the whole of folder source into the folder backups, with the additional feature that if I modify some file foo in source, the old version of foo in backups will be renamed with a date suffix before the new foo is copied into backups.

This simple procedure does the job for me, only that I would like a deleted file to be renamed with the date suffix instead of being removed from backups. That is, if foo is deleted from source, then rename foo in backups with the date suffix.

I have tried to achieve this but so far no success. Any ideas?

Best Answer

Adding the --backup-dir option should do what you're looking for:

--backup-dir=DIR In combination with the --backup option, this tells rsync to store all backups in the specified directory on the receiving side. This can be used for incremental backups. You can additionally specify a backup suffix using the --suffix option (otherwise the files backed up in the specified directory will keep their original filenames).

e.g.

rsync -ab --backup-dir=versions --suffix="."$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M") --delete /source/folder/ /destination/folder

This would create backups of your files at /destination/versions

Source: https://linux.die.net/man/1/rsync

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Script for an incremental file system backup

You may wish to use a tool that automates the whole process for you, such as rsnapshot, which seems to implement what you are trying to do.

Ubuntu – How to exclude files in rsync

There are several issues with your rsync command (also see manpage for rsync for detailed explanation of filter rules).

we need an --exclude command each for any given pattern.
paths given need to be relative to the source path (no absolute paths).
options need to be given before we state source and destination.

For your example the following syntax will work:

rsync -avAX --exclude=another/ --exclude=temp/ ~/Documents/ ~/Backups/TEST

Note that if an exlude pattern ends with / it refers to a directory. If you omit it both, files and directories with that name will be excluded. Replace it with a wildcard * to exclude all files or directories with that string in their names.

Best Answer

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