This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
A snapshot-style rsync keeps older trees by hard links or by a dated directory. The generator drafts the script. It does not connect. --delete removes files on the destination that are not on the source. That is not the first run.
Source and destination are hosts or paths you administer. Do not pull data from a host you do not run. A password does not go in the script. The first draft is a dry run.
192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the source and the destination.
- Confirm you administer both.
- Draft a dry run without --delete.
- Keep the password out.
- Do not run it during the reading.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Linux Backups with rsync Snapshots goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- --delete on the first run.
- A host you do not administer.
- A password in the script.
- The only copy rotated away.
- The script run during the reading.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Linux Backups with rsync Snapshots: Both ends are yours. The first draft is a dry run. --delete is absent. No password is in the script. And nothing was run.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: Source and destination are written. Dry run is in the draft. --delete is absent. Nothing was run. And both ends are yours. If one of those fails, stop.
# Dry run first.
# No --delete on the first run.
# Both ends are yours.
# Do not run during the reading.Before you leave the host
Linux Backups with rsync Snapshots ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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