Is there a good GUI tool on linux for backups? What do YOU use?

Question

Hi all,
I feel Linux lacks a good and simple graphical tool to do desktop backups for regular users. I'm thinking of writing one myself (probably a front-end to a good command line tool), but before I get started, I want to make sure I'm not reinventing the wheel.
So:
- Is there a good graphical tool available already? It should be: simple (minimalist interface, sane defaults), fast and incremental.
- What do YOU currently use for your desktop backups?
EDIT: rsync alone is not great, because a good backup solution keeps multiple snapshots. Imagine you deleted a file by accident 15 days ago, and realize only today: rsync won't save you.
EDIT2 : I have tried backintime, I think it's a step in the right direction, but it's not that great. Maybe I should improve on it instead of starting something new, though.
EDIT3 : Has anyone tried PyBackPack (http://andrewprice.me.uk/projects/pybackpack/) ? I'm trying it at the moment and it seems to be getting it right. I'd like to hear some success stories before getting my hopes to high
Last edited by lardon (2010-05-11 13:33:55)

Answer 1

It doesn't snapshot -- I occasionally back-up my back-ups and don't need that -- but it does its job well.
#!/bin/bash
### System Backup ##############
# Version 0.5 by Scott Garrett #
# Wintervenom [(at)] gmail.com #
backup_label="demonpit"
exclude="/dev/shm/rsync-excludes.rc"
excludes=(
'tmp/*' # Temp files.
'tmp/.*' # Hidden temp files.
'.mozilla/firefox/*/Cache' # Firefox caches...
'cookies.sqlite' # Mozilla-based cookies.
'formhistory.sqlite' # Mozilla-based form history.
'.thumbnails' # Thumbnail cache.
'.recently-used.xbel' # Recent-open history.
'.ccache' # Compiler caches
'sessionstore.js' # Firefox session-saves.
'.gvfs' # GNOME virtual filesystem.
'.local/share/Trash' # XDG trash.
'.local/share/user-places*' # Recent-open history.
'.purple/logs' # Pidgin/Finch logs.
'.cache/Thunar/thumbnailers.cache' # Thumbnailer cache.
'.cache/chromium' # Chrome cache.
'*~' # Backup/temp files.
out () {
echo ">> $*"
stat_done () {
echo ">> ...done."
stat_fail () {
echo ">> ...failed!"
if [ $UID != '0' ]; then
echo "Must be executed as root user."
exit 1
fi
out "Mouting backup device ('$backup_label')..."
backup_dev=`readlink -f "/dev/disk/by-label/$backup_label"`
if mount | grep -qF "$backup_dev on"; then
backup_root=`mount | grep -F "$backup_dev on" | cut -d' ' -f3`
echo " - This device seems to already be mounted at '$backup_root'."
echo ' Do you want to use this, instead (y/N)?'
echo -n ' << '
read -n1 confirm
echo
[ "$confirm" != 'y' ] && exit 1
else
backup_root="/mnt/$backup_label"
mkdir -p "$backup_root"
if ! mount -o noatime,user "$backup_dev" "$backup_root"; then
echo ' - Failed to mount device.'
exit 1
fi
echo ' - Device mounted successfully.'
fi
out "Backing up system..."
echo > /tmp/rsync-excludes.rc
for file in ${excludes[@]}; do
echo "$file" >> "$exclude"
done
rsync -axl -h --progress --delete --delete-excluded --exclude-from="$exclude" /{home,usr,opt,var,*bin,lib*,etc,boot,root,srv} "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME"
mkdir -p "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME/"{dev,sys,proc,tmp,mnt,media}
mkdir -p "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME/var/"{tmp,lock}
chmod 1777 "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME/tmp" "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME/var/"{tmp,lock}
stat_done
out "Backing up package list..."
pacman -Qqe | grep -v "$(pacman -Qmq)" > "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME/pacman.list"
pacman -Qmq > "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME/aur.list"
stat_done
out "Unmouting backup partition..."
if umount "$backup_dev"; then
rmdir "$backup_root/$HOSTNAME"
rmdir "$backup_root"
else
echo ' - Could not unmount.';
fi