I used a cli program once for backup, then through so many self-induced crashes--my current Solus has had more lives that a cat---I want to understand rsync---I am confessing I don't do this enough anymore.
Objective: backup /home and valuables to external media for the purpose of having them in case I get one FUBAR over the line. If this happens I can begin again and at least copy necessities from that external drive. Also I suspect my hardware will perish sooner than later.

**Also @SOLUSfiddler remarked (yes I did search an hour here about it😉) remarked he took everything but /.dot-prefixed-files. Rationale? Pitfalls?
Here we go quickly--

For my objective, are the basic defaults OK? Do I need to consider/preserve permissions?

What's this for? Other functions/backups I'm guessing?

As for my objective, I understand most of these settings.. Just asking about recursion, symlinks, and hardlinks. How should I think about these?

Considering my simple objective, recommendations for this tab?

I don't want to put myself in the position of hitting "make a full run"--as the grsync people call it--
without a little more mental context. Thank you.

    Offtopic but I've just started using Vorta (uses borg as backend) and it's fantastic.

      brent I've used Grsync for years, rather liked it for it's simplicity and reliability and my backup settings are rather simple. I just back up my Documents, Music, Pictures, etc folders and call it a day. The settings I use below work basically that once I've backed it up, if I go back lets say and edit or change a file, it'll backup that file again with the newer version the next time I backup. So I always have an up to date backup that mirrors my current laptop essentially. I always run the "test button" (the button that's tooltip says 'show what would have happened, but do nothing') to get a quick picture of what the backup will look like. This is rather quick, depending on your system size of course, but it takes a few seconds usually unless it's your first time it'll take a lot longer. Once I'm satisfied with the dry test run, I'll 'make a full run' and I generally back up every Friday sync as a good habit. Hope this helps! Just keep it mind for my use case, I keep it simple and just mirror my source and destination locations.

      You'll noticed I didn't select Ignore existing. IF I select that, any file that is already on my backup, will be skipped and not get updated. So if I were to edit my resume on my laptop and backup with this setting checked, it will not backup to the new resume becasuse the resume file is already on the backup. So leave that option unchecked if you want it to sync newer files as you edit them. Also, this one backup every file again, it'll still only backup files that aren't already on the backup, so backups can still be done very quickly.


      I've not adjusted the last two tabbed settings from their default values as I don't need these features for my simple backup needs, but hope this was a bit helpful to answer your question! Good luck backing up!

          Justin I checked that out, too. Nice. Restic interesting as well.

            Scotty-Trees You'll noticed I didn't select Ignore existing. IF I select that, any file that is already on my backup, will be skipped and not get updated. So if I were to edit my resume on my laptop and backup with this setting checked, it will not backup to the new resume becasuse the resume file is already on the backup. So leave that option unchecked if you want it to sync newer files as you edit them. Also, this one backup every file again, it'll still only backup files that aren't already on the backup, so backups can still be done very quickly.

            This is valuable information and your POV in how you do your Friday sync is, too. Thank you for taking the time to walk me through it. Syncing after the Solus updates seems a good habit, too.
            I especially like edit/changes over-riding (or carried over) into newer backup.
            Why just the /Documents folder, if I may ask?

                brent Why just the /Documents folder, if I may ask?

                You're very welcome mate. I backup about half a dozen different folders on a 2TB external SSD. And I assume you mean why don't I backup my /home directory? I guess I'm a bit backwards or old fashioned, but if my laptop were to get borked, I just like starting over fresh, whether it be using Budgie, Gnome, or Plasma, so I don't really require having everything on my laptop backed up absolutely. I don't mind taking the time again to reconfigure and adjust everything because I can always get those back. I can't always get back photos and music if my laptop were to die. Essentially, I don't need a carbon copy of everything on my system, just certain bits and bytes! Simple solutions for simple people I suppose.