Sep 15th, 2009
rsnapshot filesystem backup utility
rsnapshot is a filesystem backup utility based on rsync.
Using rsnapshot, it is possible to take snapshots of your filesystems at different points in time. Using hard links, rsnapshot creates the illusion of multiple full backups, while only taking up the space of one full backup plus differences. When coupled with ssh, it is possible to take snapshots of remote filesystems as well.
rsnapshot is written in Perl, and depends on rsync. OpenSSH, GNU cp, GNU du, and the BSD logger program are also recommended, but not required.
All of these should be present on most Linux systems.
By default, the installation procedure will install all files under /usr/local. If you’ve followed these instructions so far, you will have configured rsnapshot to be installed under /usr/local, with the config file in /etc.
Under these circumstances, it will be necessary to become root to install the program. Now is the time to do so. You will, of course, need the root password to do this:
This will prompt you for the root password.
Now, to install rsnapshot, run the following command:
This will install rsnapshot with all the settings you specified in the ./configure stage. If all goes well, you will have the following files on your system:
/usr/local/man/man1/rsnapshot.1 Man page
/etc/rsnapshot.conf.default The example config file
The latest version of the program and this document can always be found at http://www.rsnapshot.org/.
