This pages describes a number of policies I use for backing up files on a number of Mac OSX and Linux systems I use. All files are backed up to another machine that has itself got robust backing up facilities (i.e., periodic offsite and physical backups). I have an account on that machine and a home directory under /home/lorcan. (Remember, for Mac OSX the home directory would be /Users/lorcan)

• Rsync - a fast, versatile, remote (and local) file-copying tool.
• Unison file synchroniser - An open source file synchronisation facility.
• Subclipse Eclipse plugin - I use Eclipse for all my coding, Latex writing, etc. The Subclipse plugin provides subversion facilities.

There's a document here showing how to snapshot your homedirectory automatically to a local backup directory. This behaves somewhat like Apple's Time Machine.

• Snapshotting your Home Directory(s) with rsync

This document describes how to synchronise multiple workspaces (in this case, much of a user's home directory) to a single server running unison. If each client is synchronised to the server then they are effectively synchronised to each other.

• Synchronising with Unison

This document describes how to backup an SVN repository to a remote server using rsync.

• Backing up an SVN Repository