Time Machine-style Backups with rsync (2018)

Seems similar to https://rsnapshot.org/

The original post that introduced this idea into general public: http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

I’m sure others will chime in that they used hard links like this before then, however as noted in that page, it’s the one that made it popular enough that rsync was updated to support the idea natively.

If we spoke about a Linux box, one that prudently ran ZFS, or XFS on top of LVM, it would be possible to make a snapshot before the diffing and sending, so that the snapshot would be indeed point-in-time. IDK if whatever macOS uses for the filesystem supports snapshots.

Otherwise, I think, restic or kopia are better for proper backups, and Syncthing for keeping a mirror copy. But the simplicity of this script in charming.

I've been using a bash encapsulation of this for a long time, works great.

https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup

Isn’t restic better for backups overall?

Anyone have a good script for macOS triggered by launchd, ideally something that uses FSEvents to check for directory changes?

Why make hard links when you can use rsync or syncthing to just make an actual copy on an external hard drive eg via wifi or just remotely?