How to Backup using Rsync in Ubuntu

rsync is a software application for Unix systems which synchronizes files and directories from one location to another while minimizing data transfer using delta encoding when appropriate. An important feature of rsync not found in most similar programs/protocols is that the mirroring takes place with only one transmission in each direction. rsync can copy or display directory contents and copy files, optionally using compression and recursion.


In daemon mode, rsync listens to the default TCP port of 873, serving files in the native rsync protocol. rsync can also be used to synchronize local directories, or via a remote shell such as RSH or SSH. In the latter case, the rsync client executable must be installed on both the local and the remote host.

The rsync command

sudo rsync -av --progress --delete --log-file=/home/your-username/Desktop/$(date +%Y%m%d)_rsync.log --exclude "/home/your-username/.gvfs" /home /media/HomeBackup

the -av bit: 'a' means archive, or copy everything recursively preserving things like permissions, ownership and time stamps. The 'v' is verbose, so it tells you what its doing, either in the terminal, in in this case, in the log file. --progress gives you more specific info about progress.

--delete checks for changes between source and destination, and deletes any files at the destination that you've deleted at the source. --log-file saves a copy of the rsync result to a date-stamped file on my desktop.

--exclude leaves out any files or directories you don't want copied. In my case, the .gvfs directory in Hardy Heron was a pain as even with sudo it errored and wouldn't copy properly, so I excluded it (Its not necessary to copy it anyway) If you don't use Hardy yet, or any distro using the latest Gnome, skip this line, or upgrade!

/home is the directory I want copied. /home copies the directory and its contents, /home/ would just copy the contents

/media/HomeBackup is the separate drive. Change this to whatever your backup location is. You can actually have this drive off-site and use ssh, but that will be a tutorial for another day!


The bash script

I was just pasting this command into Terminal each day, but wanted something automatic, so step one was a bash script.

Very easy, just open a new document in your favourite text editor, and type #!bin/bash followed by the command itself on a new line. So:

#!/bin/bash
sudo rsync -av --progress --delete --log-file=/home/your-username/Desktop/$(date +%Y%m%d)_rsync.log --exclude "/home/your-username/.gvfs" /home /media/HomeBackup


Save that as rsync-shell.sh on your Desktop and make it executable by typing
sudo chmod +x /home/your-username/Desktop/rsync-shell.sh

or by right-clicking the file, select Properties, Permissions and then checking the Execute box


You can now double click that .sh file, choose 'Run in Terminal', it will ask you for your password and run, then leave a log file on your desktop.

or, you can make a cron job to do it for you!


The cron job

My biggest obstacle with this was the sudo bit. rsync won't be able to backup all files, or delete any, without root privileges. I didn't want to have to be there when it runs to type in my password, but after a bit of searching I found out how to make a root cron job.

Copy your .sh file to /root by typing
sudo cp /home/your-username/Desktop/rsync-shell.sh /root

Then type
sudo crontab -e

You'll see a line which reads: # m h dom mon dow command

Under that type
0 22 * * * /root/rsync-shell.sh

What this all means is:

1. The number of minutes after the hour (0 to 59)
2. The hour in military time (24 hour) format (0 to 23)
3. The day of the month (1 to 31)
4. The month (1 to 12)
5. The day of the week(0 or 7 is Sun, or use name)
6. The command to run

So at 22:00 (10pm) every day root will run the shell script, without prompting you for sudo password (because its running as root already)

Now press Control-X, then type Y, then press enter.

You'll see crontab: installing new crontab

Souce From here