🛡️ Automated Backup Script with Retention Policy

This Bash script automatically creates a compressed (.zip) backup of a given source directory and retains only the latest 5 backups by deleting older ones.

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📂 Features

• ✅ Zip compression of a source folder
• 🕒 Timestamp-based backup naming
• 🧹 Rotation policy: keeps only the latest 5 backups
• 🔁 Suitable for automation via cron jobs

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🛠️ Usage

./backup.sh <path to your source directory> <path to your backup folder>

Example:

./backup.sh /home/ubuntu/devops /home/ubuntu/backups

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📦 Backup Output

Backups are stored in the format:

backups_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.zip

e.g., backups_2025-06-20_10-45-30.zip

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🔄 Rotation Logic

If there are more than 5 backups in the backup folder, the oldest ones are automatically deleted to retain only the 5 most recent.

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🕰️ Setup Automated Backups via Crontab

1. Open crontab:

crontab -e

2. Add the following line to schedule daily backups at every minute:

* * * * * /bin/bash /path/to/backup.sh /path/to/source /path/to/backup_folder

3. Save and exit.

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📝 Notes

• Make sure the script has execution permission:

chmod 764 backup.sh

• Ensure zip is installed:

sudo apt install zip -y   # Debian/Ubuntu systems

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📁 Example Directory Structure

.
├── backup.sh
└── backups/
    ├── backups_2025-06-20_10-45-30.zip
    ├── backups_2025-06-19_10-45-30.zip
    └── ...

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👨‍💻 Author

Ajay Mall — Automated backup shell script for Linux