using rsync and tar
 

hello!
i''ve been working on a backup solution for my home computers and have been experimenting with rsync. i've gotten my system to back up to our network drive successfully but was wondering if i first tar my data first, then use rsync to back it up to another computer can i make incremental backups of the compressed info? i mean will rsync look for changes between the two tar files or will the compression screw that up?

i'm used to using retrospect on my w2k box - can rsync function similarly to retrospect?

thanks!
disorderly

If you try to rsync a tar file then it will rsync the entire archive regardless of what contents have changed.

i suspected as much... thank you for your reply david_ross

know of any program for linux like retrospect? (compresses incremental archives)

I don't know about retrospect but what you could do is have a compressed filesystem on the server you are backing up to and rsync onto that.

thanks for your thoughts i'll look into that :)