Creates a backup of a directory, with incremental hard-link copies up to any number of times.
- Fast incremental backups using Rsync.
- Multiple backups with the same command (cronjob-friendly).
- Preserves disk space using hard links from older backups.
rsync-backup.sh <src> <dst> <num_recycle>- src the source directory to backup;
- dst the destination directory to store the backups;
- num_recycle the maximum number of copies to store.
One run will only create one backup. Consecutive runs with the same command will create new copies and recycle old copies with hard links, not exceeding the maximum number of copies.
The backup copies will be stored in the destination directory as backup.<number>, starting with <number> is 0.
Each backup directory contains a date.txt file with the backup date and a copy of the source directory.
Example: running rsync-backup.sh source target 3 3+ times will result in the following directory structure:
target
backup.0
source
date.txt
backup.1
source
date.txt
backup.2
source
date.txt
All following runs of the same command will recycle these directories and shift them 'up', meaning the most recent
backup is always in backup.0.