rsync --link-dest won't link even if existing file is out of date

[Henri Shustak]

Hi Ken,

You may wish to take a quick look at LBackup (disclaimer I am a developer on this project) which is a wrapper to rsync ; designed for reliable user data backups. 

LBackup always starts a new backup snapshot with an empty directory. I have been looking at extending --link-dest options to scan beyond just the previous successful backup to (failed backups / older backups). However, there are all kinds of edge cases which are worth considering with such a changes. At present LBackup is focused on reliability as such, this R&D is quite slow given limited resources. The current version of LBackup offers IMHO reliable backups of user data and the scripting sub-system offers a high degree of flxibility.

Yes, every time you start a backup snapshot, a directory is re-populated from scratch and this takes time with LBackup. However, if you are seeking reliability then you may wish to check out the following URL : http://www.lbackup.org

If you are looking to speed up performance, then investing in faster hardware, additional file system caching or considering various file systems is well worth while.

Ideas and patches are welcome to improve the LBackup project.

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