Backup automation script in Bash Scripting - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Backup automation script

📖 Scenario: You work as a system assistant and want to automate backing up important files from a folder to a backup location. This helps keep your data safe without manual copying every time.

🎯 Goal: Create a bash script that copies files from a source directory to a backup directory, only backing up files larger than a certain size.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable for the source directory with the exact path /home/user/documents

Create a variable for the backup directory with the exact path /home/user/backup

Create a variable called min_size with the value 1000 (bytes)

Use a for loop to check each file in the source directory

Copy only files larger than min_size to the backup directory

Print the name of each file copied

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Automating backups saves time and prevents data loss by regularly copying important files without manual effort.

💼 Career

System administrators and IT support staff often write scripts like this to maintain data safety and automate routine tasks.

1

Set up source and backup directories

Create two variables called source_dir and backup_dir. Set source_dir to /home/user/documents and backup_dir to /home/user/backup.

Bash Scripting

# Create variables source_dir and backup_dir with exact paths
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use = to assign the paths as strings with quotes.

2

Set minimum file size for backup

Create a variable called min_size and set it to 1000 (this means 1000 bytes).

Bash Scripting

source_dir="/home/user/documents"
backup_dir="/home/user/backup"
# Create variable min_size and set to 1000
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just assign the number 1000 without quotes.

3

Write loop to check files and copy large ones

Write a for loop using file as the variable to go through all files in $source_dir. Inside the loop, use if to check if the file size is greater than $min_size bytes. If yes, copy the file to $backup_dir.

Bash Scripting

source_dir="/home/user/documents"
backup_dir="/home/user/backup"
min_size=1000

# Loop through files and copy if size > min_size
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use stat -c%s "$file" to get file size in bytes.

4

Print copied files

Add a echo statement inside the if block to print Copied followed by the file name only (not full path). Use basename to get the file name.

Bash Scripting

source_dir="/home/user/documents"
backup_dir="/home/user/backup"
min_size=1000

for file in "$source_dir"/*; do
    if [ -f "$file" ] && [ $(stat -c%s "$file") -gt $min_size ]; then
        cp "$file" "$backup_dir"
        # Print copied file name
        # Your code here
    fi
done

Need a hint?

Use echo "Copied $(basename \"$file\")" to print the file name.