Shell Programming and Scripting

Note that the command copies only files newer then the reference file.
To get the desired format of the date you can use this command:

Code:

CurrDate=$(date "+%d-%m-%Y %H-%M")

Have a read of the manpage of date.

Regards

I've often used

Code:

cp -Ru $source $destination

The -u flag only copies files if source is newer (ie 'update'), and you may already be familiar that -R means recursive (scans through subdirectories too).

I often include -v flag (verbos) too so you get a list of all the files being copied. thus, if you wanted the process logged, then you can redirect the output to a log file:

Code:

cp -Ruv $source $destination > /var/logs/userbackups.log

I must emphasise that I've not used this in a production environment though - only for controlled "offline" back ups. (I use ZFS snapshots on the production server). So there may be a number of disadvantages to cp -u compared with the suggestions earlier in this thread.

Thanks for the replies, I am indeed familiar with cp and its options, like recursive. Having the verbose options print all the copied files would be nice in my case.
Like you said it is maybe better to not use cp; but cpio instead.
The only problem I experience now is that it doesn't copy recursive. (but only the single file in /home ; not the folders) Is there a solution to this?

Thanks in advance

Are you shure you have newer files then the reference file?

Regards

After checking the man pages, the only advantage of CPIO that I can see is compression.
If compression isn't an issue, then perhaps you're over engineering a solution (I'm a firm believer of KISS - automate everything, but don't build a sports car when all you need is scooter).
If compression is an issue (which I suspect it is), then perhaps it might be better looking into tar (which i believe can also do an update as well as recursive)

I don't even need compression, or maybe files can be compressed but the backup'ed folders have to look like regular folders. I hope you can follow... But I'll leave it like that with cpio
@Franklin, idd, you were right the folders were older. Your script works perfect after all! Thx.
I just guessed it would first copy all the empty folders too (to have a basic structure), but in the end that's not really necessary.