Linux Format

Backups in depth

Hardcore terminal users may prefer to back up using the command line tool Rsync. This can be automated via cron (see p54) jobs (or systemd timers), and encryption can be added into the mix. Rsync is an efficient protocol (so only changed chunks within files get updated) and all it needs to work remotely is an SSH connection. It’s a tad complex for the novice user, but do check out the manual page if you’re interested.

MAKE USE OF ALL YOUR OPTIONS “Modern filesystems such as ZFS and Btrfs provide features that can assist or augment your backing-up schemes.”

A common gotcha is that it’s easy to get one’s slashes wrong when passing, which during backup will be inconvenient and during recovery could turn one problem into two. Enter the popular command line tool , which uses the library (but has a much nicer syntax) and can connect to all kinds of third-party storage (including Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive) as well as sending your backups over SSH or locally.

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