> oops. The -z option doesn't compress the data at the destination, but is > used for compressing the data during transmission over a network. Thanks > for pointing out it not necessary here.
Ah, well clearly I didn't understand it either, but now I do. > > I am doing this operation as root, with nobody logged on to the laptop. > > Then I know that no files are open or otherwise being messed with. I > > still have to make a list of files that I *don't* want to back up, like a > > lot of the files beginning with '.', but that can be added later. <snip> > I am considering learning subversion as a possible solution to guard > against accidental edits and deletes. Or am I on the wrong track there? By all accounts it is a Good Thing. My previous employer used SVN for source code, and it was a great feeling to check code in and know that a) it was safe, and b) if it was broken it was easy to look at differences or revert to previous versions. I think it can be easily applied to one's regular day-to-day hard drive, but I'd suggest trawling the web to find instructions from someone who's done it. Disclaimer: I did not set up the SVN server, and I used a Windows SVN client (sorry). In my case, I ought to have some kind of historical backup of the system files too. I'm only mirroring /home, so if the laptop is borked then I'll have to set it all up again, however a Mepis installation is very easy these days, and the important thing is my *data*. Anyway, since I don't know enough yet I am thinking that my combination of Keep and rsync mirror is (or will be) adequate[1]. Time will tell. A [1] It still freaks me out when rsync decides to delete stuff from the backup, even though I know it's files that I just deleted on the main drive. It also messes with a bunch of .files and mail directories, which are always changing I suppose.
