Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Where did the restored folder go to?

[Martin Fisher]

G'day again Eric

Thank you, and I believe I have a greater understanding now. Therefore
when my laptop is repaired, I can, as I understand it, attach the usb
drive that has my backup and use, for example,

rdiff-backup -r
now /media/ext32backup/home/martin/Documents /home/martin/Documents

where the first path is the backup and the latter is the destination.

Correct?

As I have four folders in /home/martin that are being backed up and must
be restored (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music) perhaps I could simply
do

rdiff-backup -r now /media/ext32backup/home/martin /home/martin

Yes?

Finally a subsidiary question. The repaired laptop will already have
some of the files that I am going to restore, but not all. I could clean
out my home folder before doing restore, or I could do the restore on
top of what is already there. Would it make a difference?

This query comes of course with my usual disclaimer regarding my
ignorance in these matters...

Thanks, as always, for your time and patience! Martin

On Wed, 2007-12-19 at 10:35 -0500, Eric Jensen wrote: 
> Hello again Martin,
> 
> > How can I do a full restore from my rdiff-backup backup directory that
> > will reflect my home folder as it is now on my temporary laptop (and
> > as it is in my rdiff-backup backup dir but obviously split over the  
> > first
> > backup plus increments).
> 
> The key thing to realize here is that rdiff-backup stores files as  
> just a regular mirror of your current filesystem.  Thus, a full  
> restore of the current state of a directory is one of the easiest  
> things you can do with rdiff-backup - it's just a straight copy of  
> the files in the rdiff-backup directory into the intended destination  
> directory.  You can do this with 'rdiff-backup -r now', but you can  
> also just do it with 'cp -a' to recursively copy the whole  
> directory.  (If you do a regular copy with 'cp' you can omit the  
> 'rdiff-backup-data' subdirectory of the backup repository, which  
> contains the incremental information to roll back to earlier dates.)
> 
> When you say
> 
> >  This event has caused me to consolidate all of my chaotic file  
> > systems and
> > backups into one home folder on the temporary laptop, and into an
> > rdiff-backup backup folder of this on an external usb drive. I did  
> > this
> > yesterday, and not all in one go, and thus the folders and files  
> > are as
> > per the first time rdiff-backup ran plus the increments (I have set
> > rdiff-backup to run hourly).
> 
> it appears that you may be thinking of the rdiff-backup repository in  
> a different way.  That's not surprising; most incremental backup  
> systems (say, 'dump') store an initial full backup that doesn't get  
> touched later, and then store incremental changes going forward in  
> time.  What rdiff-backup does is (sort of) the reverse - the main  
> backup repository actually reflects a full mirror of the *current*  
> state of the source filesystem (well, current as of the time rdiff- 
> backup was run), while the increments contain the information you  
> would need to go *backward* in time from that point, i.e. to restore  
> the destination to an earlier state.   This takes a little getting  
> used to, but for many types of restores it is much easier - you often  
> want the recent data, not something far in the paste, and with this  
> system you can always find the most recent version of a file by just  
> browsing through the backup to the same location you would browse to  
> in your regular filesystem, and copying it directly from there.
> 
> Hope this clarifies things,
> 
> Eric
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> $
-- 
Dr Martin Fisher
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