rsync keeps writing files over

[Simon Hobson]

perryh at pluto.rain.com (Perry Hutchison) wrote:

> Best choice for magtape is probably something like tar, cpio, or pax
> (for a file-oriented backup), or the appropriate variant of dump(8)
> (to back up an entire filesystem -- but not all FS formats have a
> dump/restore suite available).

I wouldn't have thought rsync a good choice either. I've used both tar and cpio in the past - I don't think there's much to choose between them, "personal comfort" with the tool is probably as big a factor as anything. Used them with QIC, DAT, DLT, and SLR over the years.

If you want "ease of use" and aren't averse to paid for/proprietary programs, then on a Mac I think Retrospect has a lot going for it. I've been using it for home and business use for something like 25 years - oh, that makes me feel old now ! It's exceedingly good for incremental/differential backups - I've tried a few others but always managed to find situations where they would miss copying files (not a good attribute for a backup system), an area Dantz has some patents on.