2009/03/03

The power of rsync

Rsync is the most powerful command in Unix and Linux for backing up data. It uses checksums to compare local and remote files and only copy files that are different. This effective algorithm is highly efficient. That's why rysnc is used in many backup products.

For me, to back up a directory from one partition to another partition on a regular basis, I normally start a cron task to perform the following:

#rsync -av --delete /source /destination

The parameter --delete is to tell the destination directory to delete those files that are not longer present in the source directory.

Rsync can also be used for backing up between hosts. If ssh is used in conjunction, the transmission of data over Internet is secured.

No comments: