rsnapshot
=========

rsnapshot is a tool capable of taking incremental rotating backups in a local directory. It also can apply any backup.
rsnapshot can push/pull a backup to/from a remote location.


Installation
============

For examble in a debian system we make sure we have rsync

 # aptitude install rsync

In order to run the script from root, we put the script in a directory already in PATH. We prefer /usr/local/sbin/

 # mv rsnapshot /usr/local/sbin/rsnapshot
 # chown root:root /usr/local/sbin/rsnapshot
 # chmod 700 /usr/local/sbin/rsnapshot

Configuration
=============
 
rsnapshot can read a configuration file(/etc/rsnapshot.conf) if exist. The format is:

 VAR=VALUE
 #comment

The user can select:
MAX_BACKUP_NUMBER
The maximum number if incremental backup rsnapshot keep in the local directory.

SOURCE_DIR
The source directory from which rsnapshot takes backup

BACKUP_DIR
The destination directory in which rsnapshot keeps backups.

EXCLUDE_FILE
rsnapshot exclude file and directory list. For example

LOG_FILE
Log file name

RSYNC_USER
Select the user who runs rsync to the remote location when invoking push/pull.
The full path is $RSYNC_USER@$REMOTE_HOST:$REMOTE_DIR

REMOTE_HOST
Select the host for rsync when invoking push/pull.
The full path is $RSYNC_USER@$REMOTE_HOST:$REMOTE_DIR

REMOTE_DIR
Select the remote directory in the $REMOTE_HOST.
The full path is $RSYNC_USER@$REMOTE_HOST:$REMOTE_DIR

ROTATION_STRING
Select the string.<number> for the incremental backups

An example of configuration file:
```
MAX_BACKUP_NUMBER=14
SOURCE_DIR=/
BACKUP_DIR=/root/Backup/
EXCLUDE_FILE=/etc/rsnapshot.exclude
LOG_FILE=/var/log/rsnapshot.log

RSYNC_USER=root
REMOTE_HOST=name.host.net
REMOTE_DIR=/home/mybackup/

ROTATION_STRING=backup
```


Operation
=========

snapshots and mirroring
-----------------------

User can run rsnapshot manually  to take a backup before a posible disaster
 # rsnapshot commit -d /root/Backup/before_the_disaster/

Or can cron it with a configuration file 

 # rsnapshot commit
 # rsnapshot push

If somethig goes wrong
----------------------

The user can apply a backup by 
 # rsnapshot checkout -s /root/Backup/before_the_disaster/

If we don't have a manually taken backup we can use the last one from the incremental list
 # rsnapshot checkout

If this is not enough user can use an older one from the list, for ex:
 # rsnapshot checkout -s /root/Backup/backup.3/

Or even a small part of it, for ex:
 # rsnapshot checkout -s /root/Backup/backup.3/lala/tata/ -d /lala/tata/