Good Morning,

I have been trying to get offsite backup to work from a linux box to a linux box. I'm stumbled on which method I should use. There is the following:
- rsync
- rdiff

I can't really make up my mind. Is one better than the other? Is there a method that I am missing?

It would be great if I could encypt the data stored. But that is not to crucial at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

Personally, I went out and bought two external hard drives (Firewire or USB2.0). I use simple copy commands to backup everything I want (typically just my /home directory - that gets all my personal files vs. the OS configuration) on a regular basis. I keep one of the hard drives off site and one on site, and each time I make a backup I rotate them. Hence, the most current backup is always the offsite one - this seems safest to me.

I have used this approach to backing up for years and have found it simple and repeatable. Backing up is a pain, and you won't do it unless it is easy. I like this approach because it is simple and effective. And unlike many, because it is based on copy commands, it is easy to recover individual files - many backup approaches use compressed or packed images, and that makes it impossible to recover individual files.

Just my 2 cents.