my rdiff-backup script. I'm no bash expert :-/

#!/bin/bash

# for debuging stop script on error
# set -e

GLOBIGNORE=*:?

# as I call this from cron, I like to know how long backups took
# NICECMD="time -p ionice -c 3 nice -n 19"
NICECMD=nice

# Backup destination
# over ssh on remote host
# DSTBASE=root@remote.host::/home/backups/myserver

# not good practice to backup to local
# but this can be a NFS mount
DSTBASE=/home/backups/

RDIFF="rdiff-backup"

# RDIFFARGS="-v5 --print-statistics --exclude **/*nobackup*"
# RDIFFARGS="-v5 --print-statistics --exclude **/*nobackup* --exclude-special-files"
RDIFFARGS="--exclude **/*nobackup* --exclude-sockets --exclude-device-files --exclude-fifos"
RDIFFRMOLD="--remove-older-than 1W --force"

LOCKFILE=/var/run/backup-rdiff.pid

# remove lock file if older then 2 days
# todo: would probably be smarter to check if pid is still runing
if test -e $LOCKFILE
then
    if test `find $LOCKFILE -mtime 2 -type f`;
    then
        echo "$LOCKFILE older then 2 days!  Deleting it."
        rm -f $LOCKFILE
    fi
fi

if test -e $LOCKFILE;
then
    echo "Backup is already running!"
    echo "If it isn't, remove $LOCKFILE and try again."
    exit 1
else
    echo $$ > $LOCKFILE
fi


BACKUPDIR=/var/www
# this is adapted to my local site (no need to backup cache and sessions)
BACKUPARGS="--exclude /var/www/vhosts/*/log/* --exclude **/smarty/cache/* --exclude **/smarty/compile/* --exclude **/wp-content/cache/* --exclude **/cache/cachefs/* --exclude **/cache*/*cache* --exclude /var/www/php5-fpm --exclude **/sites/default --exclude **/sessions/sess_* "

echo /*
echo ** Backing up $BACKUPDIR
echo */
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFARGS $BACKUPARGS $BACKUPDIR $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFRMOLD $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR


# du to drupal saving it's settings in a readonly dir, this gave issues packing up over ovh NFS
# as I don't have root access on my NFS backup space
# so I will make a local backup
#$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFARGS --include "**/sites/default" --exclude "*" $BACKUPDIR /home/backups/serv01$BACKUPDIR
#$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFRMOLD /home/backups.local/serv01$BACKUPDIR


BACKUPDIR=/root
BACKUPARGS=""

echo /*
echo ** Backing up $BACKUPDIR
echo */
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFARGS $BACKUPARGS $BACKUPDIR $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFRMOLD $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR

BACKUPDIR=/home
BACKUPARGS="--include /home/backups/database --exclude /home/backups --exclude /home/antony/downloads --exclude /home/antony/tmp --exclude /home/archives"

echo /*
echo ** Backing up $BACKUPDIR
echo */
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFARGS $BACKUPARGS $BACKUPDIR $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFRMOLD $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR

BACKUPDIR=/etc
BACKUPARGS=""

echo /*
echo ** Backing up $BACKUPDIR
echo */
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFARGS $BACKUPARGS $BACKUPDIR $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFRMOLD $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR

BACKUPDIR=/usr/local
BACKUPARGS=""

echo /*
echo ** Backing up $BACKUPDIR
echo */
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFARGS $BACKUPARGS $BACKUPDIR $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFRMOLD $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR

BACKUPDIR=/opt
BACKUPARGS=""

echo /*
echo ** Backing up $BACKUPDIR
echo */
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFARGS $BACKUPARGS $BACKUPDIR $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR
$NICECMD $RDIFF $RDIFFRMOLD $DSTBASE$BACKUPDIR


# Remove lock file and end script
#
if test -e $LOCKFILE; then
    rm $LOCKFILE;
else
    echo "Could not remove lock file!";
fi