Incremental snapshot archives

Level-based incremental backups: snapshot.snar tracks state so only changed files are archived

tar -czg snapshot.snar -f backup-$(date +%F).tgz /data
tool
tar3 commands
tags
tardiskperformance

More tar commands

  • Stream directory over SSH
    tar c -C /src . | ssh user@<host> 'tar x -C /dst'

    Copy a tree without intermediate file, preserving perms; add zstd in pipe for slow links

  • Archive with live progress
    tar cf - /data | pv -s $(du -sb /data | awk '{print $1}') | zstd -T0 > data.tar.zst

    Show bytes/ETA via pv while streaming into zstd; du -sb supplies total size for the bar

all 3 tar commands