Re: Why are you using rdiff-backup?

Hello,

thank you Patrick, for your advocacy work! I know we need more
developers to work on rdiff-backup and your work is surely helping
towards this goal.

I am adding my small contribution below.

On Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 01:03:20PM +0000, David Precious wrote:

> On Wed, 24 Mar 2021 08:44:15 -0400
> Patrik Dufresne <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> > Why are you using rdiff-backup ?
> 
> When I was looking for suitable backup software, I wanted:
> 
> * Something I could run easily on machines I control
> 
> * Incremental backups to restore previous versions if I needed to
> 
> * Ability to use the backup as it is for the current version, not
>   necessarily needing to use the backup software to be able to get
>   anything out of it - probably my most important requirement
> 
> * Something open-source so I could extend it if needed, and could
>   understand what it will actually do, not a black box
> 
> rdiff-backup fits the bill well for me, since it's trivial to install &
> configure, Just Works, and given an external HDD that I'd backed up to
> ages ago, I could just plug it in and access the current backup version
> as just a normal mirror, without having to install the backup software
> to get anything out of it.
> 
> In years to come, I could still do so, even if the backup software I'd
> originally used is no longer supported / actively developed / no longer
> runs on modern systems, I could still access the backup with no effort
> at all, which is very valuable.

I would like to add:

 * Multi-platform (I have used it on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD)

 * Easy to deploy and schedule, because all parameters are given on
   the command line

 * Command-line interfaces allows easy scheduling and execution on
   remote Unix machines

> The only time I wouldn't turn to rdiff-backup is if I was uploading
> backups to somewhere I didn't control and thus wanted encrypted backups
> - then I'd likely use duplicity - but I tend to back up to targets I
> control and can trust, so I'd rather the "plain mirror, but with diffs
> to get to previous versions" approach of rdiff-backup.

I think David did not reply to Patrick's second question explicitly:

> How does it compare to other backup software ?

So here I am.

I do not have any ``working experience'' on other backup software.
When I had to make a choice, that I considered long-term, I chose
rdiff-backup for the reasons pointed above: it is simple to configure
and just works, and as David wrote, its backup copies will be forever
accessible (at least the latest snapshot).

I hope this helps.

Best regards,
-- 
Arrigo

http://rigo.altervista.org