Bash rsync backup utility to grab files off my Mac

Mac.bak is a way to backup your Mac via copying settings files from various places on your Mac where apps store their configs.

This project is simply a tiny bash script that leverages rsync's --incude-from switch, and also runs custom backup.sh scripts for backups that aren't simply file copies.

The application instructions for backups started as modified .cfg files from the excellent Mackup project. Mac.bak doesn't need mackup, but its apps dir contains include-from.rsync files generated from that project.

Mac.bak runs an rsync command against your Mac's $HOME to backup whatever files were specified in the apps directory. That's it. Dirt simple, and no messy symlinking. No installation necessary.

No other part of Mackup is used except its configs. You can still use Mackup too if you want to, but Mac.bak only borrows the file locations from the Mackup project's configs, not any of the code.

To get started, have a look at the bash script file named mac.bak.sh - the code is well commented.

Many other backup products work by making symlinks of files from your system some other location (like Dropbox) for an easy cloud-sync of your important Mac files. While this may work well for some, symlinking all your files has some drawbacks.

• Some apps don't take too well to symlinks
• If you delete a file, you have to rely on Dropbox or whatever you synced to to recover it.
• Since your backed up files have to be symlinked, it's awkward for other symlinking strategies employed elsewhere (ie: dotfiles)
• Symlinking isn't so much a backup as it is a cloud-sync strategy. If you have to go back in time to get an older file version, you have to rely on Dropbox or git.
• Not all files on every system should be the exact same. Symlinking across machines forces that conformity.

Mac.bak instead is a classic file copy based backup.

Rsync is a powerful tool, but surprisingly underutilized for Mac backups. Mac.bak leverages the excellent work of Mackup contributors and the power of rsync to make an easy way to take backups of your important Mac files. Using only a small handful of lines of bash scripting, Mac.bak leverages a curated list of files and directories to make a file that rsync can use to backup your system. See the man page for rsync for more info.

Files are backed up to a location you specify when calling the script.

Mac.bak just gets you a current backup. Getting it offsite is your responsiblity. Having point-in-time recoverability is your responsibility. Dropbox or a private git repo are great solutions for this.

I recommend running a cron job to take a regular backup and check it into git automatically.

Mac.bak provides a custom directory where you can add your own .txt files in the same format rsync supports. Feel free to add your own customizations.

Mac.bak leverages the power of rsync. Restores are as easy as rsync-ing the other direction.

Running this command will show you what will be restored rsync -acv --dry-run "$BACKUP_DIR/" "$HOME/"

Once you are sure you are ready, remove --dry-run. Note that the trailing slashes are important to rsync.

rsync -acv "$BACKUP_DIR/" "$HOME/"

Mac.bak doesn't run restores, because it doesn't need to. Everything is ready for you to rsync restore however you see fit. All you have to do is get your backup files snapshotted to your new machine and run the restore.

Fork me on github!

Some things to note:

• Remember, your config files may contain PRIVATE information. Be careful where / how you store them. Mac.bak doesn't use cloud storage, but in order to have a backup you will probably chose to sync the backups from Mac.bak. Choose wisely.
• Don't run random scripts you got off the internet without reading them! Verify that this script does what you expect, that it is taking a thorough backup of all the files you expect, and be sure that it runs frequently before you rely on it for your backups.
• The rsync command in Mac.bak does use the --delete-excluded option of rsync by default, which means that missing files from your Mac will be removed from your backup directory. That may be what you want. It may not.
• The .cfg format for Mackup could change since we don't control that. If that happens, open an issue or submit a PR so the sed/awk processing done by Mac.bak can be modified to support other scenarios. If things go too haywire, Mac.bak may start maintaining its own configs. If that happens, they will just be in the rsync format.
• Remember, Mac.bak only keeps a current copy of your files. If you want history, I recommend checking your configs into a private git repo.
• Remember Mac.bak is not a real time backup. I recommend adding a regular run of Mac.bak to your crontab or when you log in.

• Provide --dry-run option to Mac.bak script
• Provide option to enable --delete-excluded option to Mac.bak script
• Add a cron/.bash_profile helper script for automating git backups

Mackup is a great project, and many props to Laurent Raufaste for all his work on it. I and many others prefer something different for Mac backups, but that doesn't diminish the great work done on that project.

Since this project leverages mackup ever so slightly, I want to abide by the terms of the Mackup licence, which is GPL 3.0. This software is distributed without warrenty of any kind. See LICENSE for details.