Inspired by https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-create-incremental-backups-using-rsync-on-linux
This script will create incremental backups using rsync. This is achieved by using hard links support of the filesystem.
#!/bin/bash
set -o errexit
set -o nounset
set -o pipefail
readonly SOURCE_DIR="/home/vptr"
readonly BACKUP_DIR="/mnt/backup/vptr"
readonly DATETIME="$(date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M:%S')"
readonly BACKUP_PATH="${BACKUP_DIR}/${DATETIME}"
readonly LATEST_LINK="${BACKUP_DIR}/latest"
umount /mnt/backup || true
mount /mnt/backup
mkdir -p "${BACKUP_DIR}"
rsync -av --delete \
"${SOURCE_DIR}/" \
--link-dest "${LATEST_LINK}" \
--exclude=".cache" \
--exclude="*/node_modules/*" \
--exclude="Downloads*" \
"${BACKUP_PATH}"
rm -rf "${LATEST_LINK}"
ln -s "${BACKUP_PATH}" "${LATEST_LINK}"
umount /mnt/backup