tar archival backups

arbis · 10-20-2008, 09:08 AM

I'm currently using rsync to sync two directories together for backup purposes. Along with this, I would like to create a tar archive every few days. Running this in a crontab is preferred. How do I create this tar automatically with a new date everytime it is ran? Thanks!

shakezilla · 10-20-2008, 01:25 PM

Sounds like you know how to use cron, so I guess you're asking how to get date/time info from command line?

man date

jlinkels · 10-20-2008, 09:24 PM

Yeah but the trick is how to get a decent filename for tar. This is the command line:
/bin/tar -cf mybackup_$(/bin/date +%Y%m%d).tar /dir_to_backup

The filename part is mybackup_$(/bin/date +%Y%m%d).tar. Check the correct tar syntax, not sure without trying.

jlinkels