From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eric Abrahamsen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: backing up hard drive with emacs? Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 11:17:50 +0800 Message-ID: <87lhu3pw69.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> References: <87d2ffg371.fsf@stevenarntson.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1400123710 28148 80.91.229.3 (15 May 2014 03:15:10 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 03:15:10 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Thu May 15 05:15:03 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 1Wkm8K-0007NJ-Ka for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Thu, 15 May 2014 05:15:00 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:55425 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wkm8K-0001ux-7N for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:15:00 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:54567) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wkm82-0001pf-Gf for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:14:48 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wkm7w-0007bu-9G for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:14:42 -0400 Original-Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:53054) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Wkm7w-0007bp-2g for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 14 May 2014 23:14:36 -0400 Original-Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Wkm7v-0006Fp-1G for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 15 May 2014 05:14:35 +0200 Original-Received: from 50.56.99.223 ([50.56.99.223]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 15 May 2014 05:14:35 +0200 Original-Received: from eric by 50.56.99.223 with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Thu, 15 May 2014 05:14:35 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ Original-Lines: 34 Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 50.56.99.223 User-Agent: Gnus/5.130012 (Ma Gnus v0.12) Emacs/24.4.50 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:d4oEHyJGPgPXyuwiVRq80PH6GWk= X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 80.91.229.3 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:97655 Archived-At: Steven Arntson writes: > Sorry if this question is poorly stated... 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. > > 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?) > > Does emacs have any simple utility to do this kind of thing, or > (slightly offtopic) is there a cli command that would make it happen? > > Lastly, should I be thinking about this whole issue differently than I > am? > > Thank you! > steven arntson Emacs itself probably isn't the right tool for this job: you could use it to invoke other commands, but by itself it doesn't do this sort of thing. There are a million different solutions for backing things up, but I think one of the simplest and most effective is rsync, which is likely already on your machine (provided it's not windows). If you google "rsync for backups" you'll get more information than you ever wanted. Eric