From: Dale Amon <amon@vnl.com>
To: debian-security@lists.debian.org 
Subject: Re: [OT} Need advice on rsync backups
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 16:52:43 +0000

On Mon, Feb 17, 2003 at 05:02:54PM +0100, Lars Ellenberg wrote:
> suppose you have a file list like generated by find $BASEDIR -print
> 
> pipe through
> # include all files with necessary paths
> sed -ne "s,^${BASEDIR//\\*/\\*}/,+ /,;"'
>       :l1;/+ ../{p;s,/$,,;s,[^/]*$,,;b l1;};' |   
> sort -u > tmp.rsync # sort and remove duplicates
> # exclude evrything not explicitly included...
> echo "- *" >> tmp.rsync
> 
> and do rsync -av --include-from tmp.rsync remote:$BASEDIR $LOCALTARGET

I've got it sorted. Ted gave me a useful comment (other than to re-read
what I'd re-read to death) that got my thinking out of a rut.

Just so it is on the record for the next poor googling SOB who tries to
decipher that man page without a Rosetta stone:

rsync --include-from /root/include --exclude-from /root/exclude -avz root@server:/ /Backups/

where the include and exclude files are:

include /var/www/somewebsite
        /var/www/andanotherone
        /var/www
        /var

exclude /*
        /var/*
        /var/web/*

does the trick. You can expand this same set to select any set of
particular files and directories. If anyone needs a more detailed
example, they may contact me off line as I'd rather not post my actual
backup sequence and user names.

> to understand whats happening:
> 
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2003 at 09:05:25PM -0800, Ted Deppner wrote:
>> Advice:  Read the man page.  Again.  Repeat as necessary.
> 
> ;)

The man pages are not very good unless you already know the answer. If
the author included the above example, I suggest many people would get
an immediate AHA! and there would be fewer queries floating about the
net.                                           

It does no good reading it over and over. The words stay the same on the
page and your interpretation stays the same in your head. That's why God
gave us the Internet and a world full of people to talk to. :-)

"Everything worth knowing is inside a human head somewhere"                     

As soon as my test run completes, I'm going to take some time out and
help someone else on this list who also has had problems, albeit a
different set. As they say, "Do unto others..."

--                                                                              
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       IN MY NAME:            Dale Amon, CEO/MD                                 
  No Mushrooms clouds over    Islandone Society
    London and New York.      www.islandone.org
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