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 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > rdiff-backup-users mailing list at [email protected] > http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rdiff-backup-users > Wiki URL: http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki > $ -- Dr Martin Fisher Editor, Oryx - The International Journal of Conservation Fauna & Flora International, 4th Floor, Jupiter House Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2JD, UK e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel +44 (0)20 81238513 skype martin_pescador Oryx online http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=ORX Instructions for Contributors http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayMoreInfo?jid=ORX&type=ifc Online submissions http://www.epress.ac.uk/oryx/webforms/author.php Personal subscriptions http://www.fauna-flora.org/membership.php _______________________________________________ rdiff-backup-users mailing list at [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rdiff-backup-users Wiki URL: http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki
