Time Machine Alternative For Linux/Windows

Linux-Timemachine is a versatile backup solution that serves as an alternative to Time Machine on Linux, Windows, and MacOS. It utilizes rsync for efficient backup support and employs hardlinks for streamlined management of backups.

---

use test to check existance some manual created identity file to prove if the endpoint is connected

(really? does that check work for offline rclone samba drives?)

---

format the backup disk as xfs so we can do symlink on it (linux).

---

use flock (from util-linux) to prevent multiple backup instances from running.

alternative: run-one

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:run-one/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install run-one

---

linux-timemachine supports windows, linux, macOS, using rsync as backend, can use hardlink to make backup management very easy. can delete previous backup without losing data. need external controller to make “circular” or to only keep most recent backups on disk.

curated list of alternative time machine for OSes other than macOS

timeshift gui backup/restore tool for linux

duplicity incremental backup can store backup into encrypted tar files and support IMAP protocol as remote file server