Backing up a directory to a remote file system

[Brian Densmore]

What version of tar are you using?

[brian at dunsmuir brian]$ tar --version                                         
tar (GNU tar) 1.13.11                                                         
...

[brian at dunsmuir brian]$ tar --help                                            
GNU `tar' saves many files together into a single tape or disk archive, and   
can restore individual files from the archive.                                
                                                                              
Usage: tar [OPTION]... [FILE]...                                              
                                                                              
If a long option shows an argument as mandatory, then it is mandatory         
for the equivalent short option also.  Similarly for optional arguments.      
                                                                              
Main operation mode:                                                          
  -t, --list              list the contents of an archive                     
  -x, --extract, --get    extract files from an archive                       
  -c, --create            create a new archive                                
  -d, --diff, --compare   find differences between archive and file system    
  -r, --append            append files to the end of an archive               
  -u, --update            only append files newer than copy in archive        
  -A, --catenate          append tar files to an archive                      
      --concatenate       same as -A                                          
      --delete            delete from the archive (not on mag tapes!)         
                                                                              
Operation modifiers:                                                          
  -W, --verify               attempt to verify the archive after writing it   
      --remove-files         remove files after adding them to the archive    
  -k, --keep-old-files       don't overwrite existing files when extracting   
  -U, --unlink-first         remove each file prior to extracting over it     
      --recursive-unlink     empty hierarchies prior to extracting directory  
  -S, --sparse               handle sparse files efficiently                  
  -O, --to-stdout            extract files to standard output                 
  -G, --incremental          handle old GNU-format incremental backup         
  -g, --listed-incremental   handle new GNU-format incremental backup         
      --ignore-failed-read   do not exit with nonzero on unreadable files     
 ...                                                                            

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jason Clinton [mailto:me at jasonclinton.com]
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 10:50 AM
> To: Brian Densmore
> Cc: Jason Clinton; kclug
> Subject: Re: Backing up a directory to a remote file system
> 
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> Brian Densmore wrote:
> 
> | Well I don't see why tar can't do everything you need.
> | If you have a copy of the full archive you could use
> | the -g (aka --listed-incremental) incremental flag
> | to get an incremental backup.
> 
> I cannot find any reference to this option in the 'tar' info 
> page so I'm
> not sure what it might accomplish.
> 
> | If you don't have a copy of the full archive available
> | then use the -N <somedate> option to grab only the files
> | newer than <somedate>. Thus you get an incremental backup.
> | There are also commercial Linux backup programs that can
> | do all this for you. But then maybe I'm missing something.
> 
> Per the clarification I just fired off, I want the list of 
> changes to be
> added to the preexisting tarball for that week. I don't think you can
> pipe --append and --update over stdout over ssh which would 
> be required
> to add the changes to the remote file.
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (MingW32)
> Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
> 
> iD8DBQFAGTmrtSqjk42zvwkRAt+3AKDIoZwKvJIcqluPysSjs7XlnYd9LACg14ON
> TysTA+YV+nBHgraKLgt7jUE=
> =Mu+y
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>