Recover files using rdiff-backup command

Question

I am trying to understand the rdiff-backup command which is already implemented to do backups.My question is What is the command to restore all files in one .gz backedup file using rdiff-backup command.Your comments have been very useful.

If i have files like

Available increments are:

   Time                       Size        Cumulative size
   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Sun Jul 25 23:31:34 2010         4.19 GB           4.19 GB   (current mirror)
  Sat Jul 24 23:31:34 2010         1.28 MB           4.19 GB
  Fri Jul 23 23:31:34 2010         0 bytes           4.19 GB
  Thu Jul 22 23:31:34 2010         1.26 MB           4.19 GB
  Wed Jul 21 23:31:37 2010         1.11 MB           4.19 GB
  Tue Jul 20 23:31:33 2010         1.23 MB           4.20 GB

There will be many .gz files so lets say iwant to recover all the data till Thu Jul 22 23:31:34 2010 .How do i do it.How to restore all the file in a .gz file

Answer 1

I take it you are backing up a tarball which lives in a directory? if so, you'll have to restore the full file at some point in time. It usually works like:

rdiff-backup -r time file /destination/directory

so, for example, say you are trying to recover what's in a directory called example from your rdiff root dir:

cd /dir/of/rdiff/backup

rdiff-backup -r 3D example /tmp/newcopy

and it'll get you the copy as from 3 days ago and put it in /tmp/newcopy

read the man page, section RESTORING.

Answer 2

More info on the time format can be found in the rdiff-backup man page under "TIME FORMATS".