this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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When I researched this previously I concluded that there are two very good options for regular backups: Borg and Restic. These are especially efficient at backing up a diff of what has changed since the last backup. So you get snapshots of your filesystem state at each backup point without using a huge amount of space. You can mount any snapshot as a virtual directory. After the initial backup, incremental backups take a minute or two.
I use Borg, and I back up to cloud storage on Borgbase. I use Vorta as a GUI for Borg. I have Vorta start automatically when I start my window manager, and I have it set up for daily backups. I set up the same thing on my kid's computer.
I back up my home directory. I have some excluded directories like
~/.cache, and Steam's data directory. I use Baobab to find large directories that I don't want backed up.I use the "exclude caches" option in the Borg "create archive" settings. That automatically excludes Rust
target/directories because they follow the Cache Directory Tagging Specification. Not all programming languages' tooling follows that spec so I also use directory name pattern excludes. For example I have an exclude pattern for.*/node_modules/.*I use NixOS, and I keep my system config in a git repo so I don't need backups for anything outside my home directory.