How To Install rdiff-backup on Ubuntu 18.04
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install rdiff-backup on Ubuntu 18.04.
What is rdiff-backup
rdiff-backup is:
rdiff-backup backs up one directory to another, possibly over a network. The target directory ends up a copy of the source directory, but extra reverse diffs are stored in a special subdirectory of that target directory, so you can still recover files lost some time ago. The idea is to combine the best features of a mirror and an incremental backup. rdiff-backup also preserves subdirectories, hard links, dev files, permissions, uid/gid ownership, modification times, extended attributes, acls, and resource forks.
Also, rdiff-backup can operate in a bandwidth efficient manner over a pipe, like rsync. Thus you can use rdiff-backup and ssh to securely back a hard drive up to a remote location, and only the differences will be transmitted. Finally, rdiff-backup is easy to use and settings have sensible defaults.
There are three methods to install rdiff-backup on Ubuntu 18.04. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install rdiff-backup Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install rdiff-backup using apt-get by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install rdiff-backup
Install rdiff-backup Using apt
Update apt database with apt using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install rdiff-backup using apt by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install rdiff-backup
Install rdiff-backup Using aptitude
If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Ubuntu. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install rdiff-backup using aptitude by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install rdiff-backup
How To Uninstall rdiff-backup on Ubuntu 18.04
To uninstall only the rdiff-backup package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove rdiff-backup
Uninstall rdiff-backup And Its Dependencies
To uninstall rdiff-backup and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Ubuntu 18.04, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove rdiff-backup
Remove rdiff-backup Configurations and Data
To remove rdiff-backup configuration and data from Ubuntu 18.04 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge rdiff-backup
Remove rdiff-backup configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove rdiff-backup configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge rdiff-backup
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install rdiff-backup package on Ubuntu 18.04 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.
