Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: David Relson <relson@×××××××××××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] rsync to a USB stick
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 12:00:01
Message-Id: 20100529075931.5e49c2ce@osage.osagesoftware.com
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] rsync to a USB stick by Mick
1 On Sat, 29 May 2010 10:01:39 +0100
2 Mick wrote:
3
4 > Hi All,
5 >
6 > I run:
7 >
8 > rsync -a -l --delete -v /mnt/Business_dir /media/sdf1
9 >
10 > to back up a directory from a PC to a USB stick. However, from a
11 > cursory look this *seems* to copy the complete directory (every time
12 > I run it) and overwrites the USB stick. Carrying on like this it
13 > will life-expire the USB stick in no time, plus it takes ages to
14 > complete as it copies over every single file again and again.
15 >
16 > Is there a cleverer option I can add to rsync so that it only copies
17 > new files, overwrites older versions of the same and only deletes any
18 > files or directories that have been deleted from the source directory?
19 > --
20 > Regards,
21 > Mick
22
23
24 For years I've used "rsync -Cavzu ..." to do updates. That's been my
25 mantra for so long I don't recall what each option does do know that it
26 updates (rather than copies everything).
27
28 Indeed flash drives _do_ have a lifetime. My recollection is that it's
29 in the thousands of writes if not the hundreds of thousands of writes.
30 Assuming a life of 1,000 writes and you backup once daily, that's 3
31 years of backups. 10,000 writes would be 30 years. Of course if you
32 backup every hour, 10,000 writes is a year (or so).
33
34 Honestly, I've stopped worrying about manual copies to flash drives.
35
36 Of course if you have a program that writes to a flash drive
37 frequently, that's a very different story ...
38
39 HTH,
40
41 David

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] rsync to a USB stick Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk>