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rubo77
Asked: 2014-11-05 09:27:14 +0800 CST

Backup your home directory with rsync and skip useless folders

  • 772

You can easyly backup your home folder on an external harddrive with

rsync -a --exclude=.cache --progress /home/$USER /media/linuxbackup/home/$USER

I excluded the .cache folder cause I think I will never need it when I have to re-install from this backup.

I found this list of all folders that I could exclude in a normal backup here:
What files and directories can be excluded from a backup of the home directory?

I created a list of this answer that contains some coments in this form:

#These directories may be excluded:

.gvfs                           # contains mounted file systems?
.local/share/gvfs-metadata
.Private                        # contains the actual encrypted home directory
.dbus                           # session-specific
.cache
.Trash                          # do I need to say more?
.local/share/Trash
.cddb                           # cached info about audio CDs
.aptitude                       # cached packages lists

#Flash-specific:

.adobe                          # Cache for flash, maybe others?
.macromedia   # except for Flash persistence, there is no reason to keep this

#Files:

.xsession-errors            # contains errors from the current graphical session
.recently-used              # recently used files
.recently-used.xbel
.thumbnails

Here is the full list at gist

How can I add this list to my rsync command?

backup

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    The exclude list may only contain filenames, foldernames and lines starting with #. A comment behind the foldername is not allowed. I created a Git repository with all known files and folders that are superfluous:

    Download this ignorelist to /var/tmp/ignorelist

    wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rubo77/rsync-homedir-excludes/master/rsync-homedir-excludes.txt -O /var/tmp/ignorelist

    Then start the rsync with

    rsync -aP --exclude-from=/var/tmp/ignorelist /home/$USER/ /media/$USER/linuxbackup/home/

    Note:
    In the ignorelist there is a commented section at the start with folders, that are probably not worth a backup either. Uncomment those, you don't need.

    • 57

  2. From man rsync:

     --exclude-from=FILE     read exclude patterns from FILE
          This option is related to the --exclude option, but it specifies
          a FILE that contains exclude patterns  (one  per  line).   Blank
          lines  in  the  file  and  lines  starting  with  ’;’ or ’#’ are
          ignored.  If FILE is -, the list  will  be  read  from  standard
          input.
    • 5

  3. Could try this if directories and files within are all you want backing-up. Excludes all hidden directories.

    rsync -aP --exclude=.* /home/$USER/ /media/$USER/folder

    • 0

  4. Node modules are not mentioned, you can easily remove unwanted node module folders with the following

    npm i -g npkill

    then

    npkill

    Be careful to only section folders of your work

    • 0