[Duplicity-talk] Newbie/General Questions

[email builder]

Hello,

I'm in search of answers to a few general questions, but didn't see
much introductory info or backend notes on the website.  If I missed
something, please do just point me in the right direction.


1) The Ubuntu One backend - manpage says you have to be running
under X where you will be prompted for your credentials.


I'm trying to set up duplicity on a server to back up some critical data
from a cron, so can I take this to mean the Ubuntu One backend is
out of the question to me?


2) When run with simple default, umm, to what GPG recipient does
the data get encrypted??  I am confused by this missing info.  


a) I saw something about "symmetric encryption" and just learned for
the first time that GPG can do symmetric encryption.  In this case,
are you prompted for the passphrase interactively?  Can that be
automated (so it can be run from cron)?


b) Is using --encrypt-key the way I can make duplicity use Asymmetric
encryption?  In this case, does it use the public key from the current
user's keyring?


3) I'm a little confused by the concept of "sets" and the need to
remove sets of a certain age, etc.  My goal is to find a way to back
up some user data in its current state, no need to keep track of the
historical state of that data.... well, as long as it takes extra storage,
which I assume it does, yes?

a) Is there a way to do what I thought traditional rsync does - just
keep a mirror of my current data and no historical information?  What
options do I need to do this?

b) How much extra storage is required to keep incremental historical
backup data ("sets"?)?  I know this will probably be a question you
can't answer exactly, but I'd just like to understand the basics, say
for weekly backups of email data.



4) Tips on good backup locations... anyone used duplicity with
box.net or similar services?


Should I split this email into one for each question topic?

Thanks for any replies!