MOBI Backup (rsync wrapper)

like probably every Linux admin, I eventually came to the point where I felt like it was time to write My Own Backup Implementation as an rsync wrapper to do some backups. This script is in its funcitonality very similar to what rubi does: it creates a new sub-directory with the date of the backup as directory each time the backup is run. every backup directory contains a full backup of the source, but only the difference since the last backup does actually need to be synced. when i say the difference i mean files that have changed.. yes, files, not blocks! so if your 2GB log file gets a new line, 2GB will have to be downloaded. but if your file does not change, it will be hard-linked to the previous backup and therefore nothing needs to be downloaded.

to achieve this, I use rsync's –link-dst option.

In most cases, this proves to be simple but still efficient enough, rather than trying block-level incrementals.

at the end of a successful backup, a rotation is made and old backups are being deleted where appropriate. also a summary email is sent to the admin.

so here is the script.. use it at your own risk and let me know if you find bugs or have contributions to make. simply send me an email to contact at psuter dot ch.