Easy backup script in bash

This easy backup script creates a .tar.gz for a certain folder. The script can be used to backup a full folder once or scheduled. The date the backup is made is added to the final file.

The script

#!/bin/bash
dir="xxx"
srcdir="/data/$dir/"
trgdir="/data/backup/$dir/"
date=$(date "+%Y-%m-%d %H;%M") #format: yyyy-mm-dd hh;mm
fn="$dir $date.tar"
tar -czf "$trgdir$fn" $srcdir
gzip "$trgdir$fn"

Save the script and store it wherever you want. You can add it to your crontab (crontab -e) to run on a schedule.

Note

Be aware: this script is limited, it backups the whole folder and doesn’t use an incremental backup. Usually you would use a full backup and incremental backup together.