Tool for purging unneeded backups

Posted by Dana the Sane on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Dana the Sane
Published on 2011-03-03T22:58:27Z Indexed on 2011/03/03 23:26 UTC
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linux

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backup

I'm in the common situation where the one of the linux servers I use for storing backups is filling up. I'm wondering what tools are available for doing this.

Ideally, what I would like is something that keeps nightlies for the previous month, weeklies for the 2nd to 5th preceding months and retains monthlies (well, every 3rd week) for an indefinite period. Everything that falls outside of that would be deleted after the backups are run.

I could write a script to do this, but I feel like there must be a standard tool for this task.

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