If you are going to make a number of changes or just want to backup your own home directory as needed, I came across this utility (GPL) to do it. While it can be modified to do different types of backups, in its simpliest form, you run it and it creates a backup "snapshot" of your directory. Works great: http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/flashback/
I put the code here in case it should disappear. Please DOWNLOAD it from the link to ensure you have the most recent copy.
Also, do your sysadmin a favor, and do not backup things that get caught in the normal backup.
#! /bin/sh # # F L A S H B A C K # ----------------- # # by John Walker # http://www.fourmilab.ch/ # # Ever accidentally typed something like "rm * .o" after # a busy day's productive editing? FLASHBACK makes # snapshots of the directory you're working in (and any # subdirectories) to a common backup directory from which # you can restore clobbered files as required. FLASHBACK # reports the size of the backup directory after adding # the new backup so you'll know when it's time to get rid # of old backups. # # WHERE is the directory in which you want backups to be kept. # This should ideally be on an NFS (or whatever) mounted # location on a different machine than the one you usually # work on or, failing that, a file system stored on a # different physical device than the one you usually edit # within. # WHERE=$HOME/FLASHBACK # # Unless you want to fiddle with how flashback names its # files or creates backups, you shouldn't have to change # anything below this comment. # # Working directory translated to backup file name # WHAT=`echo $PWD | tr / - | sed s:-::` # # ISO 8601 date and time # WHEN=`date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S` # # Extension to append to backup archives to indicate file type # HOW='.tar.gz' # # Command used to back up files. If you don't want to back up # subdirectories, you'll need to create a list of non-directories # with find and feed that to tar (or whatever archive tool you use). # WHO="tar cfv - ." WHY=gzip # # If the backup directory doesn't exist, ask if the user # wants to create it. # if [ ! -d $WHERE ] then echo Backup directory $WHERE does not exist. echo -n "Would you like to create it (y/n) ? " read confirm if [ "$confirm" = "y" -o "$confirm" = "Y" ] then echo mkdir $WHERE mkdir $WHERE if [ ! -d $WHERE ] then echo Unable to create backup directory $WHERE -- exiting. exit 1 fi else echo Backup aborted. exit 1 fi fi # # Okay, let 'er rip # $WHO | $WHY >$WHERE/$WHAT-$WHEN$HOW if [ $? != 0 ] then echo $0: Error creating backup. exit 1 fi # # Make the backup read-only to prevent tragedy if you # fat-finger "c" for "v" when extracting with tar. # chmod 444 $WHERE/$WHAT-$WHEN$HOW # # Now obtain the size of the backup directory and let the # user know, just in case it's time for some housekeeping. # This command assumes a System V style "du" with the "-k" # option; if you're using a BSD-style system, such as SunOS # 4.x, you'll have to modify the following command. "du -s" # should work on most systems. # HOWMUCH=`du -sk $WHERE | cut -f1` echo $0: $HOWMUCH kbytes in $WHERE exit 0
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