Linux.com brings us another Command-Line-Interface tutorial. This one is on rsync. If you only knew how easy it is to backup data, you would read this article. :)
More than one crusty old geek has suggested that we do a CLI Magic on using rsync. Ever attentive to COGs, we've finally acted on those suggestions. In particular, we'll use it and ssh to do secure backups over a LAN, just as someone with multiple machines on a LAN at home or in a small business might want to do. Remember, rsync runs from the command line, so bust open a console and let's get started.
There are eight different ways to use rsync, and far too much functionality to cover in a brief column. We're going to focus on just one usage of this fine tool: bringing a set of files on one machine into sync with the same set of files on another. Backing them up without the need to transfer anything but the differences between them. It's a modern-day version of rcp: but it's faster, smarter, and more secure.
For our purposes, we'll assume that there are only two machines on the LAN. We'll call the first one desktop and the second server. As you might expect, we'll be backing up data from the desktop to the server. Our goal is to have a recent backup -- no more than a day out of date at any time -- so that in the event of a hard drive failure, a clean install, or simply on a whim, we can quickly and easily restore a user's data from the server to the desktop.
