On Sun, 12 Aug 2018 11:45:03 +0100, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:

> Which leaves a tiny window for data loss, if the source drive goes
> down between the old file being deleted and the directory contents
> getting across you have lost both. If you're not making multiple backups
> then a history preserving filesystem at both ends can be a data saver.
>
Agreed.

I use two generations of backup disk and leave as little running as
possible on a host while it is being backed up. For a laptop this means
only system processes are running and I'm not using the machine for
anything except to control backups. The backup disk is mounted on my
house server and I control backups and updates from a laptop downstairs
while listening to Radio 4 or some music.

For my house server, its normal servers are running but nothing else
except a copy of rsync and I KNOW the databases etc aren't being updated
because their regular update runs happen overnight. I initiate offline
backups manually, immediately before Linux system updates and I don't use
any interactive clients (including mail, web, nntp or Google Earth) while
backups are running.

I'm confident that this is safe because the only 'file changed while
being backed up' reports I ever see from rsync are for Linux system logs.


--
Martin    | martin at
Gregorie  | gregorie dot org

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