This little script creates incremental rsync backups from my external Lightroom Library (but could be anything) to another external harddrive. Backups are important, you know.

guard_lightroom.sh

#!/bin/bash

# This little script creates incremental rsync backups from my
# external Lightroom Library (but could be anything) to another
# external harddrive. Backups are important, you know.

# The result looks like this:
#
#     20120105-1759
#     20120107-1928
#     20120107-2000
#     20120323-1859
#     current -> /Volumes/Phobos/Lightroom/20120323-1859

# These rotating backups are possible with rsync's `--link-dest`
# parameter. Look here for more:
# http://www.sanitarium.net/golug/rsync_backups_2010.html


# Settings
# -------------------------------------------
# misc
label=$(date "+%Y%m%d-%H%M")

# backup paths
backup_path="/Volumes/Phobos/Lightroom"
source_path="/Volumes/Vault/Lightroom"
inc_backup="${backup_path}/inc_backup-${label}"
full_backup="${backup_path}/${label}"
current_backup="${backup_path}/current"


# Checks
# -------------------------------------------
if [[ ! -e $source_path ]]; then
  echo "Lightroom source not available"
  echo "this should be here:"
  echo $source_path
  exit 1
fi


# Backup
# -------------------------------------------
# We exclude the Lightroom Previews file (that's
# the `--exclude` line) to reduce backup size.
time rsync -avz \
  --progress \
  --stats \
  --exclude='*.lrdata' \
  --link-dest=${current_backup} \
  ${source_path}/ \
  $inc_backup

if [[ $? == 0 ]]; then
  echo "syncing successful"
else
  echo "syncing error; abort"
  exit 2
fi

echo "renaming backup folder"
mv -v $inc_backup $full_backup

echo "linking to current backup"
rm $current_backup
ln -sv $full_backup $current_backup

echo "total backup size"
du -sh $backup_path

echo 
echo "your stuff is safe now,"
echo "enjoy this warm and fuzzy feeling"