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@DrHyde
DrHyde committed Jun 9, 2022
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76 changes: 42 additions & 34 deletions docs/HOWTOs/rsnapshot-HOWTO.en.html
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"rsnapshot is a filesystem backup utility based on rsync. Using rsnapshot, it is possible to take snapshots of your filesystems at different points in time. Using hard links, rsnapshot creates the illusion of multiple full backups, while only taking up the space of one full backup plus differences. When coupled with ssh, it is possible to take snapshots of remote filesystems as well. This document is a tutorial in the installation and configuration of rsnapshot." />
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Expand Down Expand Up @@ -637,8 +642,8 @@ <h3 class="title"><a name=
<p>In this example, we will be using the <tt class=
"filename">/.snapshots/</tt> directory to hold the
filesystem snapshots. This is referred to as the
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class="quote">snapshot
root</span>&#226;&#8364;. Feel free to put this anywhere
<span class="quote">snapshot
root</span>. Feel free to put this anywhere
you have lots of free disk space. However, the examples in
this document assume you have not changed this parameter,
so you will have to substitute this in your commands if you
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<p>What makes GNU <tt class="filename">cp</tt> so special
is that unlike the traditional UNIX <tt class=
"filename">cp</tt>, it has the ability to make recursive
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class=
"quote">copies</span>&#226;&#8364; of directories as hard
<span class=
"quote">copies</span> of directories as hard
links.</p>
<p>If you don't have GNU <tt class="filename">cp</tt>,
there is a subroutine in rsnapshot that somewhat
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<p>Please note that if you are using IRIX, there is
another program named <tt class="filename">rsync</tt>
that is different than the
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class="quote">real</span>&#226;&#8364;
<span class="quote">real</span>
<tt class="filename">rsync</tt> most people know of. If
you're on an IRIX machine, you should double check
this.</p>
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<div>
<div>
<h4 class="title"><a name=
"interval"></a>4.3.7.&nbsp;interval</h4>
"retain"></a>4.3.7.&nbsp;retain</h4>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>rsnapshot has no idea how often you want to take
snapshots. Everyone's backup scheme may be different. In
order to specify how much data to save, you need to tell
rsnapshot which &#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class=
"quote">intervals</span>&#226;&#8364; to keep, and how
many of each. An interval, in the context of the
rsnapshot config file, is a unit of time measurement.
rsnapshot which backups
to keep, and how
many of each. A backup, in the context of the
rsnapshot config file, is just a name.
These can actually be named anything (as long as it's
alphanumeric, and not a reserved word), but by convention
we will call ours <i class="emphasis">hourly</i> and
<i class="emphasis">daily</i>. In this example, we want
alphanumeric, and not a reserved word), but a very common
convention is to use names like <i class="emphasis">hourly</i> and
<i class="emphasis">daily</i> and so on. In this example, we want
to take a snapshot every four hours, or six times a day
(these are the <i class="emphasis">hourly</i> intervals).
(these are the <i class="emphasis">hourly</i> backups).
We also want to keep a second set, which are taken once a
day, and stored for a week (or seven days). This happens
to be the default, so as you can see the config file
reads:</p>
day, and stored for a week (or seven days). The relevant
section of the config file would, in this case, look like:</p>
<pre class="screen">
interval hourly 6
interval daily 7
retain hourly 6
retain daily 7
</pre>
<p>We use the <span class="quote">retain</span>
keyword to describe how many of which level of backup to keep.
<span class="quote">interval</span>
is a deprecated synonym.
<p>It also has some other entries, but you can either
ignore them or comment them out for now.</p>
<p>Please note that the <i class="emphasis">hourly</i>
interval is specified first. This is very important. The
first <i class="emphasis">interval</i> line is assumed to
backup is specified first. This is very important. The
first <i class="emphasis">retain</i> line is assumed to
be the smallest unit of time, with each additional line
getting successively larger. Thus, if you add a <i class=
"emphasis">yearly</i> interval, it should go at the
"emphasis">yearly</i> backup, it should go at the
bottom, and if you add a <i class="emphasis">minutes</i>
interval, it should go before hourly. It's also worth
backup, it should go before hourly. It's also worth
noting that the snapshots get
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class="quote">pulled
up</span>&#226;&#8364; from the smallest interval to the
largest. In this example, the daily snapshots get pulled
<span class="quote">promoted</span>
from the most first-mentioned to the
later ones in sequence. In this example, the daily snapshots get pulled
from the oldest hourly snapshot, not directly from the
main filesystem.</p>
</div>
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with the source distribution for more information.</p>
<p>This is the section where you tell rsnapshot what
files you actually want to back up. You put a
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class=
"quote">backup</span>&#226;&#8364; parameter first,
<span class=
"quote">backup</span> parameter first,
followed by the full path to the directory or network
path you're backing up. The third column is the relative
path you want to back up to inside the snapshot root.
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drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Dec 28 04:00 hourly.5
</pre>
<p>Inside each of these directories is a
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class=
"quote">full</span>&#226;&#8364; backup of that point in
<span class=
"quote">full</span> backup of that point in
time. The destination directory paths you specified under the
<i class="emphasis">backup</i> and <i class=
"emphasis">backup_script</i> parameters get stuck directly
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<p>Each subsequent time rsnapshot is run with the <i class=
"emphasis">hourly</i> command, it will rotate the <tt class=
"filename">hourly.X</tt> directories, and then
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class=
"quote">copy</span>&#226;&#8364; the contents of the
<span class=
"quote">copy</span> the contents of the
<tt class="filename">hourly.0</tt> directory (using hard
links) into <tt class="filename">hourly.1</tt>.</p>
<p>When <span><b class="command">rsnapshot daily</b></span>
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most recent snapshot, and <tt class="filename">daily.6</tt>
will always contain a snapshot from a week ago. Unless the
files change between snapshots, the
&#226;&#8364;&#339;<span class=
"quote">full</span>&#226;&#8364; backups are really just
<span class=
"quote">full</span> backups are really just
multiple hard links to the same files. Thus, if your
<tt class="filename">/etc/passwd</tt> file doesn't change in
a week, <tt class=
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