Home Backup Script for macOS

This project contains a shell script for backing up a macOS home directory. It is designed to be run on a personal macOS laptop.

Features

Dynamic Date Handling: Automatically names backup files with the current date and time to avoid overwrites.
Configurable Exclusions: Uses an external configuration file for specifying directories to exclude from the backup.
Detailed Logging: Outputs a detailed log file for each backup operation.
Error Handling: Catches errors during the backup process and logs them.
Backup Verification: Verifies the integrity of the backup after creation.

Usage

To use this script:

Clone this repository to your local machine.
Copy the backup_exclude.conf.example into backup_exclude.conf
Customize the backup_exclude.conf with paths you want to exclude from the backup.
Set the backup_dest variable in the script to your desired backup location.
Run the script manually with ./backup_script.sh, or set it up as a cron job for automatic execution.

Prerequisites

macOS environment.
Sufficient permissions to access and create files in the backup and log directories.
tar utility (should be pre-installed on macOS).

Configuration

Create backup_exclude.conf in the same directory as the script, or in a location of your choice (updating the config_file variable in the script accordingly), with contents like the following:

/Users/yourusername/.Trash
/Users/yourusername/projects/big_project
/Users/yourusername/Downloads
# Add more lines as needed

Replace /Users/yourusername with the appropriate path to your home directory.

Script Output

The backup archive will be saved to the path specified in backup_dest. A log file for each backup operation will be saved to the same directory as the backup file.

Contributing

Contributions to this project are welcome! Please fork the repository, make your changes, and submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

fpaupier / TimeCapsule