[rdiff-backup-users] Updating mirror more often than incremental backups?

[Randy Orrison]

Hi,

I suppose this is a strange request.  I used to use rsync to create and update a mirror of my /home directory (on /backup/home, where /backup is an external USB drive).  This is my home PC, used just by my family, so updating the mirror only takes a few minutes, and I've had cron running it every hour.  I've just switched over to rdiff-backup, which is working like a charm.  However...I like the idea of having the mirror as up-to-date as possible, but really don't need the hourly incremental history.  Is there any way to update the mirror (in /backup/home) on an hourly basis, but only create incremental backups daily?

I have come up with a way to do it, but it's a bit ... hacky.
    rdiff-backup /home to /backup/home.rdiff, daily
    rsync --link-dest=/backup/home.rdiff /home /backup/home.rsync, hourly
If I'm right about how things work, that'll give me a rdiff-backup mirror in /backup/home.rdiff with daily incremental backup history, and a mirror in /backup/home.rsync that's updated hourly, and any files that are identical between the daily and hourly mirrors will be hard-linked so as not to waste space.

Does that sound right, and is there an easier way? It would be nice to be able to run rdiff-backup hourly, with a parameter telling it to only generate incremental history daily.

Thanks, and thanks for a great tool!

Randy