rsync-backups

The rsync script for macOS backups. All you need to get started is an inexpensive USB flash drive and about 15 minutes.

Getting Started

Format the Drive

If you only work on macOS then this is the most flexible option:

1. Open the macOS Disk Utility
2. highlight your device and
3. format with these options:

Name: storage
Format: APFS
Scheme: GUID Partition Map

Validate that the volume mounts on the system:

% mount | sort
/dev/disk1s1 on /System/Volumes/iSCPreboot (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s2 on /System/Volumes/xarts (apfs, local, noexec, journaled, noatime, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s3 on /System/Volumes/Hardware (apfs, local, journaled, nobrowse)
...
/dev/disk5s1 on /Volumes/storage (apfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners) <- success!

% ls -l /Volumes
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root    96 Jun 11  2022  Data
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root     1 Oct 31 07:59 'Macintosh HD' -> /
drwxrwxr-x 5 $USER  160 Oct 24 09:05  storage <- success!

There is a longer explanation on macOS Storage options if needed.

Install the Backup Script

Clone this repo and execute:

% ./install-backups.sh --macos

NOTE: This may support other OSs someday (but probably not).

The script places these files here:

% tree ~/.config/rsync
/Users/$USER/.config/rsync
├── backups
├── excludes
├── logs
│   └── backup-friday.log
└── special-backups.conf

2 directories, 4 files

NOTE: the files added to special-backups.conf will be included in backups while the excludes list will, of course, omit files/paths from backups; edit these files to suit your needs. There's a more in-depth description of exceptions elsewher.

Execute Backups

It's probably best to test everything first; execute:

% ~/.config/rsync/backups dry-run 2>&1 | tee /tmp/backups.log

After that you can drop the dry-run and it will backup your $HOME. If you don't have many files don't be alarmed - it likely flew right by and actually worked :-)

Schedule Backups

Edit the chrontab file to schedule the backups: crontab -e

Paste this into the crontab:

@daily "$HOME/.config/rsync/backups" > /dev/null 2>&1

If you don't change anything you'll be:

• backing-up 7 days a week at midnight

• the first one is full (current), subsequent back-ups are incremental (days of the week)

• The latest stuff is always in the 'current' directory; everything you need to recover will be there. Here are some helpful resources:

  • Editing the crontab file
  • Setting another schedule; one that's right for you.

It should look like this after a few runs:

% tree -d -L 1 /Volumes/storage/backups/$USER
/Volumes/storage/backups/$USER
├── current <- latest; restore from here
├── friday
├── monday
├── tuesday
└── wednesday

I generally just run it a few times per month.

Cheers,

TT