Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Where did the restored folder go to?

[Martin Fisher]

I am working on a temporary laptop whilst my usual is being mended. This
event has caused me to consolidate all of my chaotic file systems and
backups into one home folder on the temporary laptop, and into an
rdiff-backup backup folder of this on an external usb drive. I did this
yesterday, and not all in one go, and thus the folders and files are as
per the first time rdiff-backup ran plus the increments (I have set
rdiff-backup to run hourly). 

I am confident that all of the folders and files that I have on my
temporary laptop now, and as backed up on rdiff-backup, are what I will
need to restore to my mended laptop (i.e. I am not concerned with any
files that have been deleted over the course of yesterday and today but
may be present in my rdiff-backup backup directory). How can I do a full
restore from my rdiff-backup backup directory that will reflect my home
folder as it is now on my temporary laptop (and as it is in my
rdiff-backup backup dir but obviously split over the first backup plus
increments).

With thanks! Martin

On Tue, 2007-12-18 at 16:51 -0500, Eric Jensen wrote:
> Martin,
> 
> I think the problem is in the time specification.  Specifying 'now'  
> says to restore the directory to the state it was in 'now' - and  
> right now, it doesn't have the folder in it, and so it has been  
> 'restored to' (i.e. left in) that state.  More specifically, I  
> believe that in practice 'now' really means 'as of the most recent  
> backup' (since that's the best it can do); it must be the case that  
> your hourly backup job ran at least once between the time you deleted  
> the folder and the time you tried to do the restore, so the deletion  
> of the folder was mirrored to the backup directory (but the folder  
> still exists in the incrementals subdirectories of the backup  
> directory, which is the beauty of rdiff-backup).  If you have an  
> hourly cron job running, that may have happened even between the time  
> you checked that it was there and the time that you actually figured  
> out the syntax to run the restore command!
> 
> What you probably want instead is to specify a time in the past when  
> you know the folder existed, so something like
> 
> rdiff-backup -r 3D
> 
> if you know it was there three days ago (and hasn't been modified  
> since), or '-r 4h' for four hours ago.  You probably want to specify  
> the smallest amount of time back to before you deleted it, so that  
> any changes will be reflected in the restored directory.
> 
> 'rdiff-backup -l  backup-dir'  will list the different backup sets  
> you have, to help you choose the time frame here.
> 
> Good luck restoring - on the plus side, you now have a real test of  
> your backup system!
> 
> Best,
> 
> Eric
> 
> On Dec 18, 2007, at 4:21 PM, Martin Fisher wrote:
> 
> > Dear All
> >
> > I have just used my rdiff-backup for the first time, to restore the
> > contents of a folder (in Ubuntu 7.10) that I accidentally deleted,  
> > i.e.
> > not in trash). The folder is named 'Harris 2007-48[frmtd]'. I checked
> > that the folder was in the backup, and read the documentation and  
> > used:
> >
> > rdiff-backup -r now
> > '/media/ext3backup/rdiff-backup/Documents/Oryx/42(1)/Harris
> > 2007_48[frmtd]' '/home/martin/Documents/Oryx/42(1)/Harris 2007_48
> > [frmtd]'
> >
> > It ran without any comment, and now the folder no longer exists in
> > either the backup or in the restore directory. Could anybody kindly  
> > tell
> > me (1) what I have done wrong, and (2) whether there is yet anyway of
> > finding the file?
> >
> �
-- 
Dr Martin Fisher
Editor, Oryx - The International Journal of Conservation
Fauna & Flora International, 4th Floor, Jupiter House
Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2JD, UK

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