Rsync time backup

Time Machine style backup with rsync. Should work on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows with Cygwin.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup

or download "rsync_tmbackup.sh".

Usage

rsync_tmbackup.sh <source> <destination> [excluded-pattern-path]

Examples

# Backup the home folder to backup_drive

rsync_tmbackup.sh /home /mnt/backup_drive  

# Backup with exclusion list:

$ rsync_tmbackup.sh /home /mnt/backup_drive excluded_patterns.txt

Exclude file

An optional exclude file can be provided as a third parameter. It should be compabible with the --exclude-from parameter of rsync. See [this tutorial] (https://sites.google.com/site/rsync2u/home/rsync-tutorial/the-exclude-from-option) for more information.

Features

Each backup is on its own folder named after the current timestamp. Files can be copied and restored directly, without any intermediate tool.
Files that haven't changed from one backup to the next are hard-linked to the previous backup so take very little extra space.
Safety check - the backup will only happen if the destination has explicitely been marked as a backup destination.
Resume feature - if a backup has failed or was interrupted, the tool will resume from there on the next backup.
Exclude file - support for pattern-based exclusion via rsync --exclude-from parameter.
The application is one bash script that can be easily edited.

TODO

Check if there's enough space in the destination before doing the backup. Also automatically delete old backups.
Manage the backups in a way similar to Time Machine - hourly backups for the past 24 hours; daily backups for the past month; weekly backups for the previous months.

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