rsync creates an "intermediate" backup, how to delete it?

jvalzert

11/29/23, 11:47 PM

I use rsync to backup my personal files in an external drive, i.e. a SD card or an USB thumb, being careful to update any files and to avoid copying very large files, configuration files, or folders containing large amounts of files such as the /miniconda3 folder contents.

sudo rsync -avuP --delete --exclude=".*" --exclude="miniconda*" --exclude="*.iso" /home/<user>/ /media/<user>/Backup/

Recently, I found that whenever I insert my external media, it is recognized as /media/<user>/backup1/, while a /media/<user>/backup/ remains in /. This is an "intermediate" backup of my files that consume as much disk space as both the original files and the files backed up in the external drive.

Tried using the disk analyzer, but no luck. It returns an error: "Trashing on system internal mounts is not supported."

How can I delete this "intermediate" backup?

Thank you.

1 + 0

backup

rsync

hard-drive

Score:1

Ubuntu

vanadium

11/30/23, 10:31 AM

This is not related to rsync.

You are seeing an alternative mount point for your external disk. The system has created this because the "normal" mount pount, /media/<user>/backup/, was not properly removed, either because you unplugged the drive slightly early, or for another reason. If the system attempts to automatically mount the drive, but sees that a mount point it wants to use already exists, an alternative is created.

Unmount your drive correctly. The mountpoint ``/media//backup1/` should now disappear.
Remove the "faulty" mountpount:
```
sudo rmdir /media/<user>/backup
```
Reconnect your removable drive.

+ 3

jvalzert

11/30/23, 7:35 PM

Hello, and thank you! Tried this but it returns an error too: `rmdir: failed to delete /media/<user>backup/: Folder is not empty`

jvalzert

11/30/23, 7:46 PM

However, I did `sudo nemo` and once I had privileges, deleted all the contents of `/media/<user>/Backup/` through the file manager, before trying your method again. Now it worked. Thank you so much!

vanadium

12/1/23, 7:32 AM

`sudo nemo` is a good receipe to end up with an account wherre you cannot anymore log in.

Elon Musk

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EN: rsync creates an "intermediate" backup, how to delete it?

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