[ubuntu-in] Some help with rsync

[Balaji Narayanan]

ramnarayan.k at gmail.com said the following on Saturday 21 June 2008 11:21 AM:
> Hi
> 
> I use rsync to back up my work regularly.
> 
> the command used for the /home directory is
> rsync -av /home/ram/ /media/backup_disk/bak_home/
> 
> this however backups all the hidden folders as well - some of them of 
> course are useful to have backed up but in most cases they seem to take 
> up valuable disk space. Like the .beagle directory which runs into GB's.
> 
> So how can i avoid backing up the entire . sections (the hidden directories)


You can put in an exclude file with a pattern to be ignored. I just dont 
want to speculate now without testing but you can try it out as 
explained here.

http://optics.ph.unimelb.edu.au/help/rsync/rsync.html#lbAM

> 
> Second i don't use (haven't used) the -z compression command in rsync - 
> if i were to do so now what effect would it have on the backup - would 
> it make the entire backup compressed or only the updated section. Over 
> the few years i have on my back up lots of stuff thats deleted from the 
> place from where i backed up (so as to create space on the original 
> /home section) So am wondering what effect will this revised -z command 
> have.

-z is only compression for transfer of files or the delta. So dont 
worry. Also, you might want to look at --delete and the related option. 
Based on what you want, you can delete files not in source, delete 
excluded files or certain patterns.

I never delete anything from my backup.

HTH
-b-

-- 
http://balajin.net/blog
http://www.flickr.com/photos/balajijegan/

Getting there is only half as far as getting there and back.