Snapshots using rsync on Mac
I got fed up with Time Machine not backing up my iPhoto library. If I keep iPhoto running, it does not back up at all; if I quit iPhoto, it still will not make a full backup because I have a screen saver running with the Last Month smart folder, and this apparently locks out the last month of photos from being backed up. Also Time Machine will not back up from remote file systems.
So I looked around for a backup solution based on rsync. These solutions are around:
- A detailed walkthrough on creating backups using rsync UNIX
- HOWTO: Backup Your Mac With rsync
- Time Machine For Tiger
I mixed these together in my own script that can be called daily from crontab. It cycles through 7 daily backups and 8 weekly backups. Here is the script.