working with rsync for backup and copy

Working with rsync:

First, make sure your machine has it..

If not, install it from ports. It's in: Category net. Might as well update your ports tree if you haven't.

cd /usr/ports/net/rsync

make install && make clean

Basic command to test it. 

prompt% rsync -v -e ssh user@remote_server.com:~/testfile.txt newfile.txt
Password:   <-- prompted me for a password for that local user.
testfile.txt

sent 42 bytes  received 120 bytes  29.45 bytes/sec
total size is 23  speedup is 0.14
prompt%

How to use rsync to copy folders from main server to a backup machine?

You can use the following command to copy the content of a folder on the server to a backup directory on another computer:

rsync -e "ssh -p 18765" -aHz YOUR_SERVER_IP:/home/USERNAME/folder/ /home/LOCAL_USER/BACKUP/folder/

rsync -v -e "ssh -p 18765" -aHz user@192.168.1.10:/usr/home/user/folder/ /usr/home/user/folder/

Make sure you have the syntax right.. Including the "". Change -p 18765 to the ssh port you use. YOUR_SERVER_IP with the IP addr of your server, USERNAME with the username of the account you want to copy from, and LOCAL_USER/BACKUP/folder/ with the path on your computer where you want the home folder to be copied.

Note: Don't forget to add the trailing slashes after the folder names otherwise data can be lost!

happy rsync'n