How does incremental backups handle file deletion?

Support
1

Hi! I am new to the backup scenario in linux and looking for backup solutions of my photos from a 3.5 inch HDD to an external drive (almost always connected).

What I am a bit confused is the following.

Lets say,

  1. I have 5 files in the backup folder.
  2. I run a backup
  3. I delete 2 files from the backup folder so I have 3 files now.
  4. I run another backup

10 days later, if I lose my backup folder and want to restore, will it restore the 3 files or all the 5 files from the intial backup?

2

Depends on if you select snapshot from step #2 or the one created when you run step #4 in your list. The first will give you 5 files, the second will only have 3 files in the list so it will only give you those back.

3

Thanks! This was helpful.