HUhughc·Feb 2, 2026
I've been using a bash encapsulation of this for a long time, works great.
https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup
In Time Machine-style backups with rsync (2018)laurent22
rsync-time-backup
Shell2013–2026
laurent22 / rsync-time-backup
rsync-time-backup
Time Machine style backup with rsync.
6Distinct people
7Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
3.6KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Time Machine style backup with rsync.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
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Also in these discussions
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This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year7 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2013-10-27 20:50:27 UTC to 2026-02-02 01:25:44 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
What Hacker News says
7 sourcesHi Hacker News,
I'm excited to share my project, where I took on the challenge of porting a popular but untested 600+ line Bash script to Python. The outcome is rsync-time-machine.py (https://github.com/basnijholt/rsync-time-machine.py), a Python implementation of the rsync-time-backup (https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup) script. It provides Time Machine-style backups using rsync and creates incremental backups of files and directories to the destination of your choice.
The tool is designed to work on Linux, macOS, and Windows (via WSL or Cygwin). Its advantage over Time Machine is its flexibility - it can backup from/to any filesystem and works on any platform. You can also backup to a Truecrypt drive without any issues.
Unlike the original Bash script, rsync-time-machine.py is fully tested. It has no external dependencies (o
Read the rest
nly requires Python ≥3.7), and it is fully compatible with rsync-time-backup (https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup). It offers pretty terminal output and is fully typed.
Key features include:
* Each backup is in its own folder named after the current timestamp.
* Backup to/from remote destinations over SSH.
* Files that haven't changed from one backup to the next are hard-linked to the previous backup, saving space.
* Safety check - the backup will only happen if the destination has explicitly been marked as a backup destination.
* Resume feature - if a backup has failed or was interrupted, the tool will resume from there on the next backup.
* Exclude file - support for pattern-based exclusion via the --exclude-from rsync parameter.
* Automatically purge old backups based on a configurable expiration strategy.
* "latest" symlink that points to the latest successful backup.
To learn more about how to use and install rsync-time-machine.py, check out the GitHub repo (https://github.com/basnijholt/rsync-time-machine.py).
I appreciate any feedback and contributions! Feel free to file an issue on the GitHub repository for any bugs, suggestions, or improvements. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Happy backing up!
Please, do let me know if you have any questions or need any further information.
Hi Hacker News,
I'm excited to share my recent project, where I took on the challenge of porting a popular but untested 600+ line Bash script to Python. The outcome is [`rsync-time-machine.py`](https://github.com/basnijholt/rsync-time-machine.py), a Python implementation of the [`rsync-time-backup`](https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup) script. It provides Time Machine-style backups using rsync and creates incremental backups of files and directories to the destination of your choice.
The tool is designed to work on Linux, macOS, and Windows (via WSL or Cygwin). Its advantage over Time Machine is its flexibility - it can backup from/to any filesystem and works on any platform. You can also backup to a Truecrypt drive without any issues.
Unlike the original Bash script, `rsync-time-machine.py` is fully tested. It has no external
Read the rest
dependencies (only requires Python ≥3.7), and it is fully compatible with [`rsync-time-backup`](https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup). It offers pretty terminal output and is fully typed.
Key features include:
* Each backup is in its own folder named after the current timestamp.
* Backup to/from remote destinations over SSH.
* Files that haven't changed from one backup to the next are hard-linked to the previous backup, saving space.
* Safety check - the backup will only happen if the destination has explicitly been marked as a backup destination.
* Resume feature - if a backup has failed or was interrupted, the tool will resume from there on the next backup.
* Exclude file - support for pattern-based exclusion via the `--exclude-from` rsync parameter.
* Automatically purge old backups based on a configurable expiration strategy.
* "latest" symlink that points to the latest successful backup.
To learn more about how to use and install `rsync-time-machine.py`, check out the [GitHub repo](https://github.com/basnijholt/rsync-time-machine.py).
I appreciate any feedback and contributions! Feel free to file an issue on the GitHub repository for any bugs, suggestions, or improvements. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Happy backing up!
Please, do let me know if you have any questions or need any further information.
Time Machine style backup with rsync in 540 lines of code
25 points · Open discussionExcellent rsync-time-backup for local machine, backing up etc and home to external disk:
https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup
Duply for servers, keeping backups on S3:
http://duply.net/
Cron does daily DB dumps so Duply stores everything needed to restore servers.
In Ask HN: How do you backup your linux system?Rsync time backup
This script offers Time Machine-style backup using rsync.
https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup
> What do you hope to build this month?
There are a few open issues, pull requests and todos. One example is an optimization to delete old backups faster. Another is to detect when a drive is FAT and adjust rsync parameters accordingly.
> What kind of skills do you need?
Good knowledge of Bash and Unix/Linux/Cygwin.
> Your license(s)
MIT
In Ask HN: Who needs contributors? (October 2016)Time-Machine-style backup with rsync
73 points · Open discussion