Re: [Duplicity-talk] duplicity and deleted files

[Steven Willoughby]

Martin Kaffanke wrote:
> Hi there!
>
> I'm using duplicity to backup server data to a second hard disk which is
> built in into the server.
>
> There is one question:  How does duplicity deal with deleted files?
> What if a user deletes his own files, then the nightly duplicity run
> works and the day after he checks that he would like to have that files
> back.  Is that possible?
>   

Yes.  The first time that duplicity is run it creates a "full" backup of 
all the data.  The second time it is run it will create a partial or 
"incremental" backup, which only includes the parts of the files that 
have changed.  If a file is deleted and then duplicity runs, it will 
merely record the fact that it was deleted.

> And a second Question:  How do we check if my two harddisks work
> correctly?  Will that be checked automatically somehow or do I also have
> to run fsck every night (which needs fs to be mountet readonly I think)?
>   

There are a couple of ways to check a physical disk while it is 
otherwise in use.  One method is with SMART.  You need the tool called 
smartctl (in debian it is in the smartmontools package) and your hard 
drives need to support SMART.

If you are using LVM and have enough free space available, you should be 
about to create a snapshot and run fsck on it.

Steven