Create and Restore incremental backup in Linux using tar ?

 

Let's start .

Step 1:

saurabh@server:~$ mkdir linux_file_backup
saurabh@server:~$ cd linux_file_backup/
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ mkdir -p backup restore
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ ls
backup  restore
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ cd backup/
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/backup$ touch file{1..5}
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/backup$ ls
file1  file2  file3  file4  file5
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/backup$

Step 2:

Create snapshot-file  :

1. If you want to take incremental backup so we have to create snapshot file .
2. It is used to incremental backup .
3. If snapshot file exists , it's incremental backup otherwise it's a full backup.
4. snapshot file is used to track what is changed ,It is keep record 
   

saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ tar -czvg snapshot-file -f 1-backup.tar.gz backup/
tar: backup: Directory is new
backup/
backup/file1
backup/file2
backup/file3
backup/file4
backup/file5
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ ls
1-backup.tar.gz  backup  restore  snapshot-file

Step 3: Add new files and takes incremental backup 

saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/backup$ ls
file1  file2  file3  file4  file5
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/backup$ touch file{6..10}
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/backup$ ls
file1  file10  file2  file3  file4  file5  file6  file7  file8  file9

saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ tar -czvg snapshot-file -f 2-backup.tar.gz backup/
backup/
backup/file10
backup/file6
backup/file7
backup/file8
backup/file9

Check out Backup only which file add after 1  incremental 

saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ tar -tvf 1-backup.tar.gz
drwxrwxr-x saurabh/saurabh  36 2020-12-22 12:39 backup/
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-22 12:39 backup/file1
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-22 12:39 backup/file2
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-22 12:39 backup/file3
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-22 12:39 backup/file4
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-22 12:39 backup/file5

saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ tar -tvf 2-backup.tar.gz
drwxrwxr-x saurabh/saurabh  72 2020-12-23 18:03 backup/
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-23 18:03 backup/file10
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-23 18:03 backup/file6
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-23 18:03 backup/file7
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-23 18:03 backup/file8
-rw-rw-r-- saurabh/saurabh   0 2020-12-23 18:03 backup/file9

Restore incremental backup

saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ ls
1-backup.tar.gz  2-backup.tar.gz  backup  restore  snapshot-file
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ tar -xvf 1-backup.tar.gz -C restore/
backup/
backup/file1
backup/file2
backup/file3
backup/file4
backup/file5 

saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/restore/backup$ ls
file1  file2  file3  file4  file5
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/restore/backup$ cd ..
saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup/restore$ cd .. saurabh@server:~/linux_file_backup$ tar -xvf 2-backup.tar.gz -C restore/
backup/
backup/file10
backup/file6
backup/file7
backup/file8
backup/file9