(:redirect rsync/usage:)
Rsync
Rsync is a very useful tool for backing up files. It can be used remotely.
WARNING: If your filesystem is being actively written to, data corruption may occur.
Rsync Primer
OpenBSD includes its own rewrite of rsync called openrsync. It seems to be a bit buggy so I am going to use rsync instead. The commands below, however, will work with either openrsync or rsync.
Here's how to back up the file /path/to/file on ircnow.org with username to the current directory:
$ rsync -a username@ircnow.org:/path/to/file ./
We add the option -a for archive mode.
If you have multiple files, you can use the shorthand of :/path/to/second/file:
$ rsync -a username@ircnow.org:/path/to/file :/path/to/second/file ./
This copies both /path/to/file and /path/to/second/file from ircnow.org to your current local directory.
$ rsync -a username@ircnow.org:/path/to/file :/path/to/second/file ./
We add -v options to turn on verbosity (it will display each file copied).
$ rsync username@ircnow.org:/path/to/file ./
Quick Check
Before you backup your files, make sure you have enough disk space. To see how much space it will take, and how much you have available, run:
$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/sd0a 1005M 111M 844M 12%25 /
/dev/sd0k 192G 28.7G 153G 16%25 /home
/dev/sd0d 3.9G 22.1M 3.7G 1%25 /tmp
/dev/sd0f 12.3G 7.3G 4.4G 63%25 /usr
/dev/sd0e 14.7G 41.2M 14.0G 0%25 /var
Backing up /home will require at least 28.7G of space.
$ rsync --rsync-path="doas rsync" -av jrmu@jrmu.coconut.ircnow.org:/home /dest/path/
This will copy everything in /home into /dest/path/. -a specifies this is an archive, -v tells rsync to be more verbose (show files).
Complete Functions
Put the following functions at the end of ~/.profile:
rsync-all () {
echo "Backing up in $PWD: type ctrl+c to abort, enter to continue"
read $cancel
ssh $1 "doas dump -0 -a -u -h 0 -f - /" > root.dmp
ssh $1 "doas dump -0 -a -u -h 0 -f - /home" > home.dmp
ssh $1 "doas dump -0 -a -u -h 0 -f - /home/vmm" > vmm.dmp
ssh $1 "doas dump -0 -a -u -h 0 -f - /mnt" > mnt.dmp
ssh $1 "doas dump -0 -a -u -h 0 -f - /var" > var.dmp
ssh $1 "doas dump -0 -a -u -h 0 -f - /var/www/htdocs" > htdocs.dmp
ssh $1 "doas dump -0 -a -u -h 0 -f - /usr" > usr.dmp
date > date
md5 root.dmp home.dmp vmm.dmp mnt.dmp var.dmp htdocs.dmp usr.dmp date > md5sum
}
`rsync-all` will make a complete backup of the remote system you specify.
Source it, then call it on the server:
$ . .profile
$ rsync-all example.ircnow.org