backup system rsync <-> dump

[Philip Hallstrom]

> I have two disks; one is the fbsd system drive, the other is for backup
> purposes.
>
> I'm in doubt about what to use: dump or rsync
>
> I guess I can do something like:
> mount /dev/ad1s3a /backup/root
> mount /dev/ad1s3d /backup/var
> mount /dev/ad1s3f /backup/usr
> /usr/local/bin/rsync -avHxS --delete /usr /backup/usr
> for /usr / and var

If you do go with rsync, watch the "-delete".  If for some reason you blow 
away /usr/local/etc and then run your backup you'll blow away your backed 
up /usr/local/etc as well.  Probably not what you want :)

With the right settings of --backup --backup-dir you can easily create a 
week (or two or three or whatever) archive of the "daily" changed files. 
So, for example..

/backup/usr - contains identical copy
/backup/dailys/usr/Mon - contains files that changed on /usr on Monday.

Then just set things up to rotate/expire the old copies and you have an 
easy way to get files back you deleted that you didn't mean to.

I can post the whole script if you're interested...

-philip