Re: LUG: tar command ??? - Sat, 04 Dec 2004 18:55:46 -0500

Subject : Re: LUG: tar command ???

From : Chris Tatman <ctatman@nc.rr.[redacted]>

Date : Sat, 04 Dec 2004 18:55:46 -0500

My thoughts exactly, Tim. I use rsync -avz for that and it works quite
nicely. Added bonus is there's no need to write a script. Just set a
cron job to execute on a regular basis. You can even use ssh to pipe it
over the network to another system.

On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 18:32 -0500, Tim O'Shea wrote:
> Maybe instead you should consider rsync'ing to a mirror directory on the
> external harddrive ?
>
>
> On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 18:14 -0500, Greg McGowan wrote:
> > All,
> >
> > I'm trying to write a simple script to backup my home directory, and
> > I've come upon a question with the tar command.
> >
> > I see now the easiest way to backup the directory is using:
> >
> > %tar -cf /mnt/externalharddrive/backup.tar /home
> >
> > and later on when I want to backup again I'd use:
> >
> > %tar -uf /mnt/externalharddrive/backup.tar /home
> >
> >
> > The problem is when using the update option with the tar command the
> > file gets larger and larger (because update appends the newer files).
> > Is there a way to get the tar command to delete the older files in the
> > existing backup.tar file?
> >
> > I understand that it would probably be easier to just re-tar the
> > entire directory each time rather than update. However, my /home
> > directory has some pretty large files that don't change very often.
> > As a result it seems to me that it would be more efficient to just
> > back up the files that have been modified since the last back up.
> >
> > Any help with this is greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Greg