On 01/11/2013 02:33 PM m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
ken wrote:
On 01/11/2013 12:36 PM Les Mikesell wrote:
On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 11:29 AM, kengebser@mousecar.com wrote:
Considering using rsync on a couple systems for backup, I was wondering if it's possible, and if so how difficult is it, to delete files which have been backed up (in order to save space on the backup media).
Anyone with experience doing this?
<snip> > Les, thanks for replying. Yeah, I guess I need to clarify. > > I've got a system which is due for an upgrade and, at the same time, > would like to clean up (delete) files and, in some instances, entire > directories. Insurance against sudden disk failure is one other concern. > > If I delete files and entire directories on that (source) machine, will > rsync then subsequently automatically delete them on the destination > (backup) system? Or would I need also to run an rsync command to delete > the same on the destination system? And, if yes, what rsync command > would do that? > > I remember you speaking well of Backuppc previously and so am open to > using that in future. At the moment though, I'm looking for the > simplest possible solution for those three current concerns.
We use rsync here. Actually, we've got a home-rolled system. We created timestamped backups, which also removes them after a configuration file item of how many days or weeks. Note that we *heavily* use rsync's parm to use hard links, which saves a lot of space.
mark
Cool. Thanks for mentioning time-stamps. I've been assuming that rsync would maintain the source files' original permissions and timestamps. (Heck, even tar from decades past would do that.) I hope that wasn't an unwarranted assumption. It's good to hear too that I can configure how long to keep files on destination which have been deleted from the source (if that's what you meant).
Mark, maybe you could explain what a "parm" is and how using hard links saves space.
tia, ken