Re: backing up hard drive with emacs?

[Steven Arntson <steven@stevenarntson.com>]

Bob Proulx <bob@proulx.com> writes:

> 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


Haha, yes, emacs pretty much is my operating system, which is why I was
curious. :) That said, I'm using Ubuntu. I looked at a couple of rsync
examples, and I think that program looks pretty good--I'm going to try it.

Thank you!
steven