Backup Central

If I were to use rdiff-backup to make daily backups, keeping a maximum
of 7 days worth of backups, how is the "base" backup updated?

For example, my first backup is made on the 10th - so that backup has
all the files in their entirety. On the 11th through 16th only minor
changes are made and saved as incremental backups. So on the 17th, the
backup from the 10th is updated with the changes from the 11th and then
deleted.

How does rdiff-backup handle this? What I'd expect is that the changes
from the 11th are merged with the backup from the 10th, which would then
happen on a daily basis as the 11th merges with the 12th and so on.

Is that what happens?

I've been wanting to setup a backup system for quite a while, and I
don't really need more than 7 days worth. I'd like to burn the weekly
archive to CD as well.

Thanks,

-- Matt.

On 23 May 2004, Duke <list_usr < at > spacebox.net> wrote:
If I were to use rdiff-backup to make daily backups, keeping a maximum
of 7 days worth of backups, how is the "base" backup updated?

For example, my first backup is made on the 10th - so that backup has
all the files in their entirety. On the 11th through 16th only minor
changes are made and saved as incremental backups. So on the 17th, the
backup from the 10th is updated with the changes from the 11th and then
deleted.

It works backwards from what you describe. The full backup is the
most recent one, then there are increments going back through history.
So it is easy to delete the oldest ones and keep the last 7 days. It
is impossible(?) to delete from the middle of the series.

I've been wanting to setup a backup system for quite a while, and I
don't really need more than 7 days worth. I'd like to burn the weekly
archive to CD as well.

You should just burn the most recent archive to CD.

If you have enough room, you should burn the full + rdiff-backup-data,
so then you can recover any day in the week.

--
Martin

It is impossible(?) to delete from the middle of the series.

it's not impossible, it just hasn't been implemented... in theory it's as
"easy" as generating appropriate new deltas which fold in diffs for 2 or
more deltas, and some other modifications in rdiff-backup-data/increments
(i.e. handling .missing, and some other file types).

the sort of thing which is a pain to get right :)

-dean

On 23 May 2004, dean gaudet <dean-list-rdiff-backup < at > arctic.org> wrote:
It is impossible(?) to delete from the middle of the series.

it's not impossible, it just hasn't been implemented... in theory it's as
"easy" as generating appropriate new deltas which fold in diffs for 2 or
more deltas, and some other modifications in rdiff-backup-data/increments
(i.e. handling .missing, and some other file types).

the sort of thing which is a pain to get right :)

Right, I meant "not possible to do at the moment", rather than
"impossible to ever implement".

--
Martin