How do I backup a directory using bash script

Question

I am having difficulty trying to backup my 'my_work' directory into my destination 'Backup' directory. I tried running the script, but it does not seem to work. This is the script that I have written :

#!/bin/bash

SRCDIR="/home/student/Documents/my_work/"
DESTDIR="/home/student/Backups/"
FILENAME=backup1-$(date +%-Y%-m%-d)-$(date +%-T).tgz 
tar --create --gzip --file=$DESTDIR $FILENAME $SRCDIR

This is the output I received :

tar: backup1-201576-10\:24\:17.tgz: Cannot stat: No such file or directory
tar: Removing leading '/' from member names
tar (child): /home/student/Backups/: Cannot open: Is a directory
tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now
tar: Child returned status 2
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

I can't seem to find a solution to this, please help

possibly related: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/46969/… — NightShadeQueen
– NightShadeQueen, Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 2:40

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 12:36:30Z

2

Just make a subtle change in your script:

Change

tar --create --gzip --file=$DESTDIR $FILENAME $SRCDIR

to

tar --create --gzip --file=$DESTDIR$FILENAME $SRCDIR

Notice there is no space between $DESTDIR and $FILENAME. To suppress tar: Removing leading '/' from member names, you may use the -P flag cautiously.

Also, it'd be nice to replace colons in the filename with underscores or dashes. Colon is a reserved character that is also used in PATH and may cause confusion.

edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:36

CommunityBot

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answered Jul 6, 2015 at 2:56

zedfoxus

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1 Comment

Etan Reisner Over a year ago

Suggesting quotes around the variable expansions would also be a good idea.

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