Backing up One Big Text file

Using emacs org-mode means I am living in one big text file. One of the great advantages of this is that you are not locked in to some proprietary format, and you can do anything you want with it, as the format is very simple. It also means you can read it with anything (less, more, vi, gedit, or even point a browser at it).

I back it up every night to a gmail account I have set up especially to archive my list (and, in fact, my emacs diary file as well). My thinking is that if I lose my laptop (physically or electronically) at least my lists are safe, and I can access and read them with a browser from anywhere.

So this is what I do - I have a crontab entry:

############################################################# 
###  Backup my TODO & Diary stuff each night to my archive account at gmail 
35 5 * * * /bin/echo "DIARY backup." | /usr/bin/mail -s "DIARY `/bin/date`"   -a /home/pete/diary archive.mail.account@gmail.com 
30 5 * * * /bin/echo "TODO list backup." | /usr/bin/mail -s "TODO.org `/bin/date`"   -a /home/pete/TODO/TODO.org archive.mail.account@gmail.com 
####### 

Every night it whizzes my TODO file to the gmail account, with a dated subject. I can retrieve any of these as necessary, but perhaps more importantly, I can access my gmail account from anywhere, so I can get at my TODO list anytime, anyplace.

Comments

Matthew Cornell 2005-10-10 12:49:34

Thanks for the pointer to org mode - pretty cool, and for the script. I hadn’t been thinking of using gmail for backups, but with a text file I guess there’s plenty of room for copies. I’ve been using a big emacs file for my diary; you can read about it here, if you’re interested: My Big-Arse Text File - a Poor Man’s Wiki+Blog+PIM I ususally have an ssh terminal open to it, which I remotely edit in emacs.”