[snapper, snapshot] I want to copy only the snapshot, nothing more

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

I have been using rclone for a good while now with good results. I use google as the backend. The point is, that I want to copy a snapshot I made with snapper, but I do not want copy to do anything from a different snapshot. For example, many directories and soft links that go directly to a separate partition, i.e. outside of the snapshot.

I search the man page but copy does not mention anything about snapshots. If I missed it, please tell me, and I will reread it.

With regular copy I might say -P or --no-dereference (from memory), but I don't see that one. Maybe it is called differently, but I have to be sure it will not copy anything outside of the snapshot (that would be a waste).

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

ยดยดยด gbonnema ๎‚ฐ ~ ๎‚ฐ rclone version ๎‚ฒ 1
rclone 1.60.1

  • os/version: fedora 38 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 6.6.2-101.fc38.x86_64 (x86_64)
  • os/type: linux
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.19.3
  • go/linking: dynamic
  • go/tags: none
    gbonnema ๎‚ฐ ~ ๎‚ฐ
    ยดยดยด
    Are you on the latest version of rclone? You can validate by checking the version listed here: Rclone downloads
    --> no. It is the distro's version.

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Google drive

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

No command, just a query.

Please run 'rclone config redacted' and share the full output. If you get command not found, please make sure to update rclone.

My intention is to get the new version of everything by upgrade the distro to 39, after I make a backup. And that is what this question is for. If you really need my config, I will download the newest version and print it, but I would prefer not to tamper with an existing distro.

Sorry but could you explain this a bit further? Are you talking about some filesystem snapshots? ZFS? BTRFS? Is snapper some software?

Yes, the filesystem snapshot is btrfs and I use the tool snapper to create a snapshot. The property of snapshots is that it bounds on any other snapshot. So for example I have a snapshot for home which is on its own. The directory containing games within my home directory, I declared a different snapshot, which prevents the snapshot for home to contain these games. unfortunately I also have soft links to a different partition, which is another snapshot. However, if I use rclone to copy home, I fear that the games or the softlinks will be copied too, which would be a waste.

Let me know if you understand, or not.

Links are not followed by default. To silence warnings about skipped links provide:

--skip-links Don't warn about skipped symlinks

If you would like to follow all links provide:

-L, --copy-links Follow symlinks and copy the pointed to item

Thank you for your response. I realize that I ask for links but apparantly that does something different. Let me show you the command I use at the moment:

ยดยดยด61:rclone copy /home/.snapshots/$snapshot/snapshot/gbonnema ggl:"$host"/home/gbonnema --links --progress --log-file $tmpfile --drive-acknowledge-abuse -vv $dryrun
ยดยดยด
the var ยดยดยด$dryrunยดยดยด is empty for a real run, or ยดยดยด-nยดยดยด for a dryrun.

The definition of links is something like a specific rclone link. I hope this does not walk the link. Could you confirm this would still work?

Simply test it...

Again - links are not followed by default.

You use --links flag:

-l, --links Translate symlinks to/from regular files with a '.rclonelink' extension

which is something different. You can use it if you want to preserve links in the cloud (where links are not supported).

Thank you very much. I suddenly remember why I use --links. That way, the contents will not be copied, but the link itself stays in existence. Very much ideal. Thank you!

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