Sync your Linux system files with rsync

Use rsync to back up your Linux system.

The scripts referenced on this page are available for download on my Gitlab page: (https://gitlab.com/LinuxExperienceXYZ/rsync.system).

The basic command to backup your home dir is:

rsync -aAvxXPn --exclude-from=/path/to/rsync.system.exclude.list --delete / /external/drive/destination/

Be sure to change `/path/to/rsync.system.exclude.list` to where you placed the rsync_ignore list file;

Be sure to change `/path/to/your/external/drive/destination/` to where you would like the destination of your synced files to be. Note the destination directory must have a trailing slash to function as expected.

I've used the following options:

Archive

-a, --archive

This is an important catch-all flag that includes the following options:

-r, --recursive recurse into directories

-l, --links copy symlinks as symlinks

-p, --perms preserve permissions

-t, --times preserve modification times

-g, --group preserve group

-o, --owner preserve owner (super-user only)

-D same as --devices --specials

--devices preserve device files (super-user only)

--specials preserve special files

Linux Access Control Lists

-A --acls

This option preserves ACLs (implies --perms). ACLs allow the application of a more specific set of permissions to a file or directory without (necessarily) changing the base ownership and permissions.

Verbose

-v --verbose

This option increases the amount of information you are given during the transfer.

One file system

-x, --one-file-system

This tells rsync to avoid crossing a file system boundary when recursing. So basically, it will not follow other mount points to other file systems or partitions.

Partial and progress

-P, --partial --progress

The -P option is equivalent to `--partial` and `--progress`:

--partial Keeps a partial file.
--progress Shows the progress of the transfer.

Delete

--delete

Deletes files in the destination directory if they don't exist in the source directory.

Dry run

-n, --dry-run

Perform a trial run with no changes made.

Exclude file

--exclude-from=FILE

The command utilizes `--exclude-from=/path/to/rsync.system.exclude.list` to read a list of directories from the rsync.system.exclude.list file.

This file lists each directory you would like to exclude on a separate line. You may comment and uncomment any line at will; and if an entry does not correspond to an existing directory, it will skip it and will not fail. When backing up your system, it is strongly recommended that you end each entry with a trailing slash and an asterisk.

The --exclude=PATTERN option can be passed to rsync on the command line, but I have found this to be less reliable than the exclude-file method. It is recommended.

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More information can be found on my blog post: https://linuxexperience.xyz/blog/200826.rsync2/