semi-automatic backup to USB drive

[Dan Ritter]

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 01:14:57PM -0400, Seth Gordon wrote:
> OK, I???m a little more optimistic about getting a solution to this problem:
> 
> I have two terabyte USB drives, so that I can back up files from my 
> desktop without having to stuff gigabytes of data up a 128 Mbps pipe. 

A 128 Mbps pipe is sufficient for most people. You mean Kbps?

> In my dream world, a backup happens like this:
> 
> (1) I plug the USB drive into the desktop.
> 
> (2) The desktop, recognizing the UUID of the drive it just mounted, runs 
> a backup script (perhaps throwing up a confirmation dialog box to 
> whoever is logged in).

Recognize plug events: udev

> (3) When the script completes, one of those little flashing GNOME 
> notification-thingies appears on my screen: ???Backup completed; you may 
> unmount the drive??? or ???Backup failed: see /var/log/mumble for details???.

Gnome notification from tiny Python script: 
http://blogs.divisibleprime.com/ronin/articles/2008/03/10/command-line-gnome-notification

> (4) I unmount the drive, unplug it, and put it in a safe place.

If it succeeded, might as well have it unmount automatically,
too.

-dsr-