I duckduckgo but I will for sure take you up on your advice and search and search some more, you've given me some homework it seems

Stop doing "rm -r backupdir" followed by "cp -R sourcedir backupdir" and instead use rsync with --delete (and whatever other options are needed), and then:

1) you don't need to deal with two tasks.
2) you're not wasting time deleting files that are about to get re-created.

1 members found this post helpful.

Ok let's see if I got this right is it ?or is it Which one is it , is it the --delete-after or --delete-before switch ? And also did I even get the right commands ? This is the first time I am using rsync and I don't want to end up deleting the source directory, rather I want to delete the directory in /media/tuxthegreat/Backup/transmission so it can replace the dir from thesource dir? AM I in the right track guys ?

Well, you did a rm -r first.
That speaks for --delete-before

Or just --delete if it doesn't matter when to delete the extraneous files.

1 members found this post helpful.

So the proper command is ???? ?? This is too confusing, I think I will stick to my 2 simple cron job commands guys. Sorry to have waisted your time.

...

Which part of my post suggests using --delete-after or --delete-before ?

As MadeInGermany said, the latter is closer to what you're doing already, but it is unnecessary unless space is limited. (If space is limited, get a bigger backup device.)

If you're unfamiliar with rsync, read the example usage. As you'll see, the -a (--archive) option is used frequently, as is -v (--verbose), and - as with any destructive action - doing a dry-run is a really good idea.

Additionally, creating a copy of the destination folder and testing independently (whilst keeping your existing tasks in place) might make sense.

1 members found this post helpful.

Ok I understand where you are going with this, I need to man rsync and start reading up on it. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will my Debian 12. I have plenty of storge space, 200TB in raid6 and counting for my movie and music collection but that's another thread. I will look into rsync and I will post back my results on what I have learned, I wll mark this thread as Solved for the time being but I will post my results on it in case you are still interested in what if anything I have accomplished. So thank you for your time and patience, I know it is a virtue that is needed when it comes to me and Linux Anyway back to the drawing board. Wish me luck.

(deleted)

But if systemd is going to replace or *absorb* some of the traditional services what's there to stop it from going all the way and being number one ?

As a user you can chose a distro that avoids systemd - like Devuan.
Other distros, other policies.
E.g. RedHat(and CentOS,Rocky,Alma) goes for systemd but still prefers chrony to systemd-timesyncd and nmcli/nmtui to systemd-networkd.

Actually recently I got some free time saved up ( a couple of weeks ) and I have decided to bite the bullet and make my own *distro* and I will start with LFS *Linux From Scratch* I will start off with a stage 3 tarball and see where it takes me from there. I have 100% complete control over what goes where and I can avoid systemd altogether. What do you think @MadeInGermany, do you think that it would be a wise move and how hard do you think this venture would be for someone who has been using Linux from Ubuntu 6.06LTS, I know how to compile a kernel, how to add modules to it, I know how to compile my own software with some success. And I have more than one computers around me so I can prepare the LFS on one computer while I DDG answers on another one and bug you guys if it comes to that. I don't need some sophisticated workstation, I need it to have 2 browsers, Firefox and a second one, perhaps konqueror browser, see this shows the direction I am headed in, a KDE build, how hard would that be compared to a LFS Mate desktop ? Any pointers are welcome, I am just so sick of these issues that pop up that I have to ask help for because I didn't compile it so I don't know the inner workings for the software in question. I want to keep it KISS ( keep it stupid simple ) I also need a music player that plays FLAC cause I have a huge collection of FLAC music, I need it to have a Kodi media center and I need it to be able to mount inner HDDs cause I have a lot of those in m oversized tower. The computer in my signature is not the one I will be building the LFS on, I will be building it on another i9 9900KS rig that has a Nvidia card. So what do you think, go or no go ? I can always try and give up if it gets too hard, but I am a stubborn man who doesn't give up the second something doesn't go his way.