Re: [rdiff-backup-users] instrument data backup

[Marian 'VooDooMan' Meravy]

Greetings,

On 30. 7. 2012 1:58, Z F wrote:
> Hello Again
> 
> 
> 
> 
>>>  I need to backup data from a scientific instrument. The problem is that 
>>> the 
>> instrument has limited space, so
>>>
>>>  data has to be moved from the instrument onto other drive. From time to 
>> time, the old data needs to be copied
>>>  back to the instrument. Rdiff-backup is handy because regular 
>> "cp" command will restore the latest version of the datafile.
>>>  Thus users can be given read-access to the backup and they can restore 
>>> data 
>> they need by themselves.
>>
>> The above confuses me. You say the old data needs to copied back, but 
>> then you say rdiff-backup is handy because it allows the latest version 
>> to be copied back. Not sure I am following the logic:)
> 
> Sorry for not being clear about what I would like to do.
> 
> Basically, I need an easy access to files which are deleted from the system.
> The files which are present on the system at the backup time and were deleted
> before a subsequent backup can be easily found (using find) and restored with 
> a cp command.
> Files which were deleted from the source directory before the last backup are
> also deleted from the "mirror" but are present in the rdiff-backup history.

I would use plaid old "rsync"[1] in this case. Or even better, a shell
script that creates destination directory for "rsync" generated from
current date and time[2]. You can easily delete old (say older than 7
days) directories (maybe via script[2]).

[1]$ man rsync
[2]$ man date

best,
vdm
.

> 
> I do not see an easy way to browse or search the deleted files by creation 
> date or file name. 
> I see
> 
> rdiff-backup --list-at-time ??D
> out-dir/subdir 
> 
> which will work if I know the date when the file was created. Is this my only 
> option?
> 
>>
>> Still not sure I am following correctly. Still, why not move the data 
>> from the instrument to a directory on the hard drive and then 
>> rdiff-backup from that directory to another directory?
> 
> Ideally, old data do not change only new data are created. But uses sometime 
> do stuff
> to old data and I have to keep track in backup of what they do. It is 
> possible that they 
> changed old data by mistake or on purpose. thus, moving data to a different 
> drive does not
> always work. If old data gets modified, I need to create a "revision". It is 
> rare, but might happen.
> I thught rdiff-backup will keep the revision history for me.
> 
> Should I consider CVS revision control system as a backup tool? it works well 
> on text files, not sure
> if it good for binary data. in this scenario, new data will be simply added 
> to the repository. The old data
> gets revisions (if it happens) and I backup the CVS repository . CVS 
> repository can be searched for filenames
> so the old deleted files can be found...
> 
> The CVS route does not sound correct to me, though.
> 
> Do you have any thoughts or suggestions? Am I talking nonsense again? 
> 
> Thanks
> 
> ZF
> 
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