How do I Set Up *.XLS/Subfolder Mirroring Between Two Unix Servers?

January 13, 2004 11:24 AM

I need to set up a mirror between two Unix servers. Basically, there a specific folder and all its sub-folders on one server I want mirrored on the other, but I only want files of a certainl type (.xls) to be mirrored. I also want to make sure that any changes made to the original (new subfolders or .xls files) show up on the mirror. Can anyone recommend any utilities or other methods to accomplish this?
posted by emptybowl to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

rsync

Or pipe tar into ssh and pipe it back out to untar on the other end.
posted by cmonkey at 11:31 AM on January 13, 2004

Yeah, rsync.

If you want two filesystems to be kept in sync regardless of which one was edited (eg, no master>mirror relationship - just going on last modified dates) then Unison is good too.
posted by holloway at 11:37 AM on January 13, 2004

If not rsync, or some tar+ssh combo, wget. (Read the man page, I think it may even have examples for exactly what you want.)
posted by thebabelfish at 11:40 AM on January 13, 2004

Example using tar/ftp

GNU Tar version 1.13 with NcFTPPut ver 3.0

Copy /home directory to the server my.server.net

/bin/tar --create --to-stdout /home | /usr/bin/ncftpput -u myname -p mypass -c my.server.net /backup/home.tar

Then add it to cron however often you need. I run this behind a firewall so don't need anything secure YMMV.
posted by stbalbach at 8:37 PM on January 13, 2004

Rsync. If it's a LAN, use tar|ftp; across the internet tar|ssh.
posted by squirrel at 11:16 PM on January 13, 2004

There are tons of clever ways to do what you want. Hell, you could probably set up a procmail filter on the mirror and have the master mail a tarball over. It's easy to get silly with this stuff, but if you're serious, just use rsync.
posted by majick at 11:22 PM on January 13, 2004

Might as well toss this in here, a tar/ssh combo:

tar --gzip --preserve --same-owner --atime-preserve -cvf - | ssh user@host "cd /; tar --ungzip --preserve --same-owner
--atime-preserve -xvf -"
posted by cmonkey at 7:43 AM on January 14, 2004