UNIX / Linux: Rsnapshot Restore Backups

Rsnapshot is a filesystem snapshot utility that uses rsync to take incremental backups of a system. It is possible to restore backups taken with Rsnapshot by copying the desired files from the backup directories to the original location on the file system. (canadianpharmacy365.net)

Here are the general steps to restore backups taken with Rsnapshot:

1. Identify the backup directory: The backups taken with Rsnapshot are stored in the directory specified in the snapshot_root configuration option in the rsnapshot.conf file.
2. Choose the backup to restore: Within the backup directory, backups are stored in subdirectories named after the intervals specified in the interval configuration option (e.g. hourly.0, daily.0, weekly.0, etc.). Choose the subdirectory that contains the version of the files you want to restore.
3. Copy the files to the original location: You can use the cp or rsync command to copy the files from the backup directory to the original location on the file system. For example, to restore the /etc directory from the daily.0 backup, you could run the following command:

Note that the -R option is used to copy the files recursively, and the -p option is used to preserve the permissions, timestamps, and other file attributes.

4. Verify the restored files: After restoring the files, you should verify that the restored files are complete and functioning as expected.

It’s important to make sure that the restored files are not owned by root, as this can cause problems if you try to access or modify them as a normal user. You can use the chown command to change the ownership of the restored files to the original user. For example:

This will change the ownership of the /etc directory and all its contents to the user user and the group group.