From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Bob Proulx Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: backing up hard drive with emacs? Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 21:21:44 -0600 Message-ID: <20140515032144.GA16409@hysteria.proulx.com> References: <87d2ffg371.fsf@stevenarntson.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1400124265 2193 80.91.229.3 (15 May 2014 03:24:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 03:24:25 +0000 (UTC) Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org To: Steven Arntson Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu May 15 05:24:20 2014 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1WkmHL-0006Oy-Ug for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 15 May 2014 05:24:20 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:55467 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WkmHL-0000Lk-9D for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:24:19 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:58355) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WkmEw-0004uq-OB for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:21:55 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WkmEs-0002M0-AV for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:21:50 -0400 Original-Received: from joseki.proulx.com ([216.17.153.58]:52965) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1WkmEs-0002Lp-1S for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:21:46 -0400 Original-Received: from hysteria.proulx.com (hysteria.proulx.com [192.168.230.119]) by joseki.proulx.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D23021229; Wed, 14 May 2014 21:21:45 -0600 (MDT) Original-Received: by hysteria.proulx.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 13E182DC27; Wed, 14 May 2014 21:21:44 -0600 (MDT) Mail-Followup-To: Steven Arntson , help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <87d2ffg371.fsf@stevenarntson.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 216.17.153.58 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:97656 Archived-At: Steven Arntson wrote: > Sorry if this question is poorly stated... You didn't say what operating system you were using. (You did say emacs and we all know the joke that emacs is a pretty good operating system but...) In order to really help we will need to know the OS you are running first. > I'm a beginning emacs user who's trying to be more responsible about > backing up the hard drive of my computer. A friend gave me a USB > drive with the same amount of space as my laptop's hard drive, and > I'd like to figure out how to back up the data. This is one of those topics that has a zillion different possible ways. Everyone will have a different opinion. > I've read some info online, and am primarily confused by it. I'd like a > simple way to make a copy of my home folder on this drive. I don't need > compressed archives or anything--this is just in case a boulder falls on > my laptop--but it would be nice if it had the ability to see what I'd > changed since last time and just recopy that, rather than doing it all > from scratch. (Is it called "cloning" the drive?) This would be a good question in a general utility mailing list. > Does emacs have any simple utility to do this kind of thing, or I use emacs for a lot of things but I haven't yet run into a backup utility written in emacs! :-) > (slightly offtopic) is there a cli command that would make it happen? Many. Lots. Zillions! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backup_software > Lastly, should I be thinking about this whole issue differently than I > am? IMNHO you should be looking at backup software. You can always do the brute force technique (brute force and ignorance will always triumph over elegance and finesse) such as using rsync and one of these: https://rsync.samba.org/examples.html For many people that is sufficient. But after a point it definitely makes sense to use software that is designed to do the task of making backups. Something like rdiff-backup. Or Obnam. Or one of the others. Everyone will have an opinion. I have used rsync directly for a very long time. I have used BackupPC but it takes some setup. I personally wouldn't be thinking of backup from within the context of emacs. Bob