Retro-Put Backup Directories to git as Historical Commits

Xah Lee, 2012-10-02

This page shows you how to put your backup directories into a git repository as historical commits.

Problem

Suppose you have several backup dirs like this:

web_backup_2012-03-07
web_backup_2012-06-03
web_backup_2012-06-21
web_backup_2012-06-25
web_backup_2012-07-02
web_backup_2012-07-15
web_backup_2012-07-21

Now you want to put them on git, where each backup is a history commit. What's the best way? (each backup is about 1.1 G, 20k files.)

Solution

① cd to the oldest dir.

② then do:

git init
git add -A
git commit -m "Backup ‹date›."
git tag "‹date›"

Now, it'll create a 〔.git〕 dir in it.

③ Move the 〔.git〕 dir to the second dir. cd to it. Then do:

git add -A
git commit -m "Backup ‹date›."
git tag "‹date›"

④ Repeat.

Here's a bash script to do it:

#!/bin/bash
git init
GIT_DIR=$(pwd)
for dir in $(find . -maxdepth 1 -name web_backup_\* | sort); do
  pushd $dir
  git add -A
  git commit -m "Backup for $dir."
  git tag $dir
  popd
done

This answer is provided by Jeff Bowman. Thanks Jeff.

Reference: 〔retro create a git repository from backup dirs 2012-10-02 By Jeff Bowman. @ stackoverflow.com…〕