In all this time (time enough to make a 30-something) of fretting about backing up, I’ve alternated between complacency (never lost anything that important) and paranoia (all backups all the time) and found it hard to strike a good balance between too much and too little. Call it the Goldilocks Dilemma.
A couple of months ago, I bought a Lexar USB stick with a back up program that is supposed automatically to keep you backed up. Before, however, I could decide how I liked the software, the laptop topped over on it bending the stick to a jaunty angle and rendering it hors de combat. The traditional thumb drive just ain’t meant to be left in a laptop permanently. Fortunately, however, they have another model about the size of a dime that they tout as plug and stay.
One problem solved. Unless I really abuse it, this little guy is going to sit there snugly without undue worry. But the software wasn’t all I could wish it and I didn’t really have confidence that it was working right. (Your mileage may vary; I’m not saying it doesn’t work, just that I didn’t get the requisite warm fuzzies.)
So, no remedy other than to finally tackle rsync. I’d already tried and rejected the fine applications Forklift, Transmit and Interarchy for various reasons, but I figured something I could cron should fit the bill.
$ rsync -avz stuff /Volumes/stuff
for Mac
$ rsync -avz stuff /media/stuff
for Ubuntu
where stuff is the directory you want to back up. There are all sorts of flags, options, switches, configuration geegaws to exclude files based on criteria, but I found it simpler to limit by directory “stuff” just to what I wanted backed up.
By the way, this works fine for remote machines that are mounted and, with advanced magic, over the net.
Two additional tricks make this work for me.
After my desktop gets too cluttered, I file these in subfolders under stuff, according to their extensions–txt for plain text, rb for ruby, etc. Creating those subfolders was the first part. The second part addresses the pain of moving files into the appropriate folder.
Python to the rescue (the reference to Ruby was a red herring; I could probably do it in Ruby, but I became a Pythonista instead).
#!/usr/bin/env python
# encoding: utf-8
"""
mv_by_ext.py: mv files from source directory to a directory based on filename
extension. Useful to move files off desktop into a directory of file types
Created on 2010-07-18
Copyright (c) 2010 __Richard Careaga__ All rights reserved
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided tstuff the following conditions are
met:
* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* Neither the name of the Richard Careaga nor the names of
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS
IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL RICHARD
CAREAGA BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY
OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
"""
import sys
import os
def main():
src = "/Users/YOURDIRECTORY/Desktop" #source directory
dst = '/Users/YOURDIRECTORY/stuff/' #target directory
ext = ['ai', 'comic', 'css', 'csv', 'doc', 'dot', 'gif', 'graffle', \
'hi', 'html', 'icons', 'indd', 'jpg', 'jpeg', 'js', 'license', 'nb', \
'numbers','ograph', 'pages', 'pdf', 'pl', 'png', 'ppt', 'psd', 'py', \
'rtfd', 'src', 'svg', 'txt', 'weblog', 'xml']
for item in os.listdir(src): # listdir returns a list that we can iterate
try: # see if file has an extension
if item.split('.')[1] in ext:
os.rename(item,dst+item.split('.')[1]+'/'+item) # if so, move
except:
pass # no extension or not one of desired types
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
