PSYNC Install Instructions

INSTALLATION
To install this module, first make sure Developer kit is
installed. Then type the following:

--> cd to MacOSX-File-0.71
sudo chmod 777 Makefile.PL
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

here is a bash script that will run the backup and email you when it's done (kick it off with a cron job):

#! /bin/sh
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# 2005 Stuart Lawson
# Works in OS X 10.4.1
# This script uses PSYNC
# PSYNC - Copyright 2002 Dan Kogai
# MacOSX-File-0.71 download from CPAN
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------

#------- Edit variables here
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
# User path to be archived
MYFILES="/Users";

# Path to volume where files wil be backed up
MYBACKUP="/Volumes/externalDrive";

# Email address to send status report to after PSYNC is done
MYEMAIL="you@yourdomain.com";

# Message in email sent when PSYNC fails to run
FAILED="The PSYNC backup did not run because of an error.
Either the backup external drive is not mounted
or the file path names have been altered.";
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------

#------- Don't edit below here
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
/usr/local/bin/psync -d $MYFILES $MYBACKUP >/psyncOut.txt;
if grep -c "copying items" /psyncOut.txt
then
tr '\r' '\n' `date`" $MYEMAIL;
rm /psyncOut.txt;
else
echo "$FAILED" | mail -s "Warning: Your backup script FAILED on ----> `date`" $MYEMAIL;
rm /psyncOut.txt;
fi
#-------------------------------------------------------------------------

For now, I will say this: Migration Assistant kicks ass!

After re-initializing CPAN (a few times :-P), psync is yet again installed and working, so I've found my solution - stay with the same thing. I'll probably still buy SuperDuper if the developer can accommodate my wish to pay via PayPal (I have too much money there).

1. Although it does "smart" backups, it's only for saving time during the backup. That is, it backs up only changed files. However, it provides no versioning. I'd like my backup system to be like a source code repository (CVS, Subversion, etc), where I can go back in time to any previous version of an individual file or of the entire backup. As it is now, given that I do backups once per day, if something corrupts my system, or some app or document on my system, that corrupted version would overwrite the good version within a day (assuming the corruption itself didn't prevent the backup from running, of course). It appears as Time Machine in Leopard will offer this capability. But I'm unclear if Time Machine is going to allow complete system backups, or just user-level backups.

2. You have to leave your account logged in for SuperDuper to work. This is because of the GUI. And it sucks, because I would prefer to logout of my account when I'm not using it.

i have found it to be super fast and reliable to sync drives.
i also use it to sync my iphoto library (50k files) between my powerbook and g5, it does this over ethernet in

You could always post on the forums as Dave Nanian is always there and provdes outstanding support.