backup BACKUP_FOLDER
backup -add FOLDER_TO_BACKUP
The backup script uses the rsync utility to maintain a backup of specified files in BACKUP_FOLDER. This list of files is maintained in ~/.backupinfo and can be added to by using the -add option.
~/.backupinfo maintains a list of relative paths (take note - paths are relative!) from your home folder (specified by ~ or $HOME) to various folders you want to backup. Suppose you want to backup all files in the directory ~/Documents/MyImportantDocuments. This can be done by executing:
backup -add Documents/MyImportantDocuments/**
Again, the relative (not the absolute!) path from your home directory must be specified. Unless you are familiar with the rsync utility, please do not manually edit ~/.backupinfo, as the format and order of the file list is important and changing it may cause the script to fail.
If you want to backup to a folder, for example "~/Google Drive/backup", simply run:
backup "~/Google Drive/backup"
Note: the quotes are necessary if there is a space in the name (alternatively you can use '\ '). The script by default logs output to stdout. If you wish to create a log instead, simply redirect the output like so:
backup "~/Google Drive/backup" > "~/Google Drive/backup/log.txt"
One excellent way of utilizing this script is by adding it to your crontab. The crontab executes the script at regular intervals which you can specify. To edit the crontab execute:
crontab -e
This should open an editor, where you can add:
MAILTO=''
0 * * * * /<path to script>/backup BACKUP_FOLDER > BACKUP_FOLDER/log.txt
This will execute the script every hour. The MAILTO='' suppresses the mail sent by the cron daemon upon execution of the script.
For more information on rsync or crontab, see their man pages.