A simple configurable backup script in Bash

Create a file named “paths”, add an absolute path in it. For starters:

echo "$PWD/.ssh" > paths

Create another file named “exclude”, add a path or pattern that tar –exclude would accept.

echo "$PWD/backup-*.tar" > exclude

In the same directory, copy the below script to a file, let’s name it backup.sh.

#!/bin/bash
SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname -- "$(readlink -e -- "$BASH_SOURCE")")
timestamp=$(date +"%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S")
archive="$SCRIPT_DIR/backup-$timestamp.tar"
target=""
exclude=""
while IFS='' read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]]
do
  if [[ $line != "#"* ]]; then
	target="$target $line"
  fi
done < $SCRIPT_DIR/paths
while IFS='' read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]]
do
  if [[ $line != "#"* ]]; then
	exclude="$exclude --exclude=\"$line\""
  fi
done < $SCRIPT_DIR/exclude
eval "tar -czvf $archive $target $exclude"
exit 0

Make sure you give it execute permissions (chmod +x backup.sh). Depending on the paths you configure it to backup, you may need to run it with sudo.