Mirror directory with mirrordir command

by Vivek Gite on November 29, 2007 · 5 comments

rsyn is the best tool for mirroring servers and data. However, there is also mirrordir tool. As name suggest it can mirror directories and do lots of other things. It offers lots of options for die hard shell scripting fans. It can copy, mirror directory trees via a minimal set of changes, locally or over FTP, or over a secure tcp connection.

From the man page:

mirrordir copies files that are different between the directories control and mirror to the directory mirror. Files whose modification times or sizes differ are copied. File permissions, ownerships, modification times, access times (only if --access-times is used), sticky bits, and device types are duplicated. Symlinks are duplicated without any translation. Symlink modification and access times (of the symlink itself, not the file it points to) are not preserved. Hard linked files are merely copied.

mirrordir command supports strong stream cipher encryption and Diffie-Hellman key exchanges with several possible key sizes.

Install mirrordir

Use apt-get or ports system command:
$ sudo apt-get install mirrordir

mirrordir examples

Mirror ~/scripts to ~/scripts.backup:
$ mkdir ~/scripts.backup
$ mirrordir -v ~/scripts ~/scripts.backup

If you rerun mirrordir again, only the updated files are copied.

You can mirroring FTP sites:
$ mirrordir -v ftp://ftp.nixcraft.in/pub /home/backup/nixcraft.in/ftp/pub

mirrordir offers tons of option, refer mirrordir man page for more examples and options:
$ man mirrordir

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 JF November 29, 2007

I am not sure I understand why I should use this over rsync?

Reply

2 vivek November 29, 2007

JF,

No need to make a switch. As I said earlier, rsync is the best. However, this is another tool with some additional options for die hard shell scripting fan.

Reply

3 letsnurture August 4, 2009

Hi,

Anybody knows that how can I reference multiple subdomains to same directory in linux? Yeah, I know that if I use virtual hosts and they all point to one common folder. Is there any other way to do so? i.e. I have a,b,c,d sub domains(basically directory) and then I run one website say ‘x’(source code) under ‘a’. Is that possible to use ‘x’ source code for sub-domains b,c,d without copying it? I mean in linux, there is symlink concept but dont know exactly.

Thanks in advance,
Web-Farmer,

Reply

4 alex June 12, 2010

no body knows a real time FS clonning tool ?

Reply

5 Vivek Gite June 13, 2010

define your requirements.

Reply

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