Re: [rdiff-backup-users] "In Place Backup" same source and destination folder

[Daniel Miller]

> I would like to "mis-use" rdiff-backup as a sort of "revisioned home dir".
> My first trivial test with "rdiff-backup -b test/ test/" indicate that it 
> should be possible to do "in place" backups, using the same folder as source 
> and destination.

Nope, that won't work. The rsync algorithm used by rdiff-backup calculates 
differences by comparing files in the source and the destination. If they are 
both the same then there will never be any changes and you'll never accumulate 
any meaningful history. I'm surprised that you're test worked at all...did you 
try running that command more than once?

> I'm fully aware that this is not a backup but more of a history-keeper. Are 
> there any dangers in doing this (e.g will this still work with 1000's of 
> files and bigger files)? Is anybody else doing something similar, what are 
> your experiences?
> many thanks in advance for any feedback

I would recommend using it in the conventional way (backup to some other 
location outside of the source, preferably on another physical drive). 
Rdiff-backup is very efficient in terms of space, and having another copy of 
your data around can be very handy. Just remember to NEVER modify the files in 
the rdiff-backup repository--if you do you will invalidate the diff history for 
any files that you modify.

~ Daniel