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I have my home folder with a few GB.

Is it possible to run tar on it, create a home.tar.gz, and then for changed files, it creates home1.tar.gz only with modified files from previous tar (thus being an incremental backup)?

I would like to check the resulting checksum files and export them as well like home.md5, home1.md5, etc. (I know this could be another process, but interesting as well).

Somebody still uses you MS-DOS
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2 Answers2

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Yes you can, here is a tutorial to do just that.

Kyle Brandt
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What you describe is very similar to the way backup2l operates. You declare a home directory to backup and the 'backup scheme' (basically, the levels of backups).

The end result is a set of tar.gz files with incremental backups. You don't even need the backup2l tool to restore files (although is very convenient).

Optionally it can generate md5 checksums (option -m).

backup2l is a bash script, so you can make it fit your needs.

chmeee
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  • I was looking for JUST the tar utility, but since this backup2l is just a bunch of bash scripts, it's still simple. And this way I can learn from it's source, it looks like it's design is very clean. Thanks for this suggestion! – Somebody still uses you MS-DOS May 13 '10 at 13:44