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Backup Helpers

Rsync facilitates the making of backups in which unchanged files are simply hard-linked instead of copied.

Usage

Produce a backup.mk file in the same directory where the Makefile is stored and specify the SOURCE variable therein.

# Example backup.mk
SOURCE=/something/i/need/to/backup

Produce a .ignore file in the root directory which contains the directories within SOURCE to be ignored.

All of the following commands use the current working directory as the working context:

  • make .init initializes a backup tree
  • make backup creates a backup, use the SOURCE variable to specify a non-$HOME directory to be archived such as demonstrated in SOURCE=/directory/to/be/archived make backup
  • make nuke destroys a backup tree. Use with caution! 💥 (has been commented to avoid accidental nukes 😉)

To get started, clone this respository unto the root of the path that you intent to use as a backup destination.

Start a backup tree by running make .init. This should produce a .init. symlink and produce a backup directory with a name that contains a representation of the time at which this operation was triggered.

Perform subsequent backups by running make backup.

The provided Makefile accepts a SOURCE variable upon calling the make rules, which defaults to the user's $HOME directory when unspecified, in order to produce a backup. In case you need another directory backed-up please remember to specify the SOURCE as in SOURCE=/to/be/archived make init or SOURCE=/to/be/archived make backup.

The benefit of using backup.mk is that one no longer needs to think about the source of the backup upon calling make backup. However; mind you that thinking about the source of the backup is only really necessary if the backup source isn't the home directory of the current user. Since many users, generally work from their home directories and probably want to backup that home directory anyways, just sticking to the defaults will suffice. 😉

Tree Layout

A backup tree will consist of a .init symlink which points to the initial archive, a .latest symlink which points to the last archive and a number of backup directories depending on how often the user has produced a backup. You may simply change into any of the directories and start copying files to your liking back into your home directory for mutation.