I had to buy a new computer but Time Machine couldn’t restore my userfolder because it was on another partition. I’m quitting Time Machine, its an Apple failure.
Is there an rsync out there that does OSX complete with all the extended attributes, resource files, Finder Tags, Spotlight comments and labels? I mean everything? I used rsync up until a few years ago but it was unpredictable with these newfangled Finder features.
Please advise.
Easy way: Carbon Copy Cloner
Recompile rsync to support those features.
http://www.bombich.com/mactips/rsync.html
Setup rsnapshot for backup rotation.
Notice how Mr. Bombich of bombich.com also makes Carbon Copy Cloner & follow Tony T1's advice 🙂
I have an old script lying around for rsync installation, I need to test 10.9 with the patches, but post back if you want to see it.
OK I feel pretty good now. I installed the latest rsync 3.1.1 and using these options got what I want:
rsync -vaAEHSWX
This way it copies Finder icon previews, Spotlight comments, Tags and attempts to copy ACLs but can’t for system owned files. That is good enough for me, and its free. And hugely faster than the clunky Time Machine.
You should also patch with: patches/hfs-compression.diff
and consider using the flag: —hfs-compression
You should also consider using: —file flags and -N
And Time Machine and rsync serves different purposes. Time Machine will keep an incremental backup, so if you want version 2 of a Work.txt that you wrote last week, you can restore it. With rsync, you only get the latest backup saved. Best to use both.
Rsnapshot allows you to rotate in similar ways to Time Machine…
It will link unchanged files and copy changed files & store history for as long as you specify. It isn't auto cleaning like TM, It does purge based on what quantity of backups you specify - not via free disk space like TM.
P.S. don't forget to run backup bouncer on the backup job - that should tell you what file system features are being preserved. Backup bouncer is getting old now http://www.n8gray.org/code/backup-bouncer/
You should search github for any newer versions if you want a way to check for what is being preserved.
Doesn't file-flags require the 'file flags patch'? I get several errors during make if I don't apply the patch…
flist.c:1551:8: error: use of undeclared identifier 'preserve_fileflags'; did you mean 'preserve_specials'?
if (preserve_fileflags)
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
preserve_specials
It builds & installs with the errors, but I haven't tested if the file flags are preserved in this state.
For what it is worth here are the patches I use…
fileflags.diff
crtimes.diff
hfs-compression.diff
These two are not in the rsync source patches, copy them into the patches folder to apply.
crtimes-64bit.diff --> https://attachments.samba.org/attachment.cgi?id=5288
crtimes-hfs+.diff --> https://attachments.samba.org/attachment.cgi?id=5966
Yes, I use these those 3 patches also.
(I wasn't aware of crtimes-64bit.diff and crtimes-hfs+.diff )
Effective rsync backup to replace Time Machine?
