Rdiff-backup by Examples

Rdiff-backup is a python script that backs up one directory  to  another. Some features of rdiff-backup as claimed in its official site are: easy to use, creating mirror, keeping increments, and preserving all information. Here are some examples of its usage.

1. simple backing up (backup local directory foo to local directory bar):

rdiff-backup foo bar

2. simple remote backing up (backup local directory /some/local_dir to directory /whatever/remote_dir on machine hostname.net):

rdiff-backup /some/local_dir  hostname.net:://whatever/remote_dir

Ssh will be used to open the necessary pipe for remote backing up.

3. simple restoring from previous backup (restore from bar/dir to foo/dir):

cp -a bar/dir foo/dir

4. simple restoring from the latest remote backup (restore from hostname.net:://whatever/remote_dir to local directory /some/local_dir):

rdiff-backup -r now hostname.net:://whatever/remote_dir /some/local_dir

5. restoring from a certain version of a remote backup (restore from backup done 15 days ago):

rdiff-backup -r 15D hostname.net:://whatever/remote_dir /some/local_dir

6. restoring from an increment file (restore file pg.py to its version dated 2011-11-30T00:28:38+08:00)

rdiff-backup hostname.net:://remote-dir/rdiff-backup-data/increments/pg.py.2011-11-30T00:28:38+08:00.diff.gz  /local_dir/pg.py