· 1 min read
Back Up Your Dev Folder on macOS with rsync
Use rsync on your Mac to efficiently back up your project folder while skipping unnecessary files like node_modules, vendor, logs, and caches.
As a PHP developer, I use rsync on my Mac to efficiently back up project folders while skipping unnecessary files like node_modules, vendor, logs, and caches. I try to follow the 1-2-3 rule for backups: Github/cloud (1), local development machine (2), and external hard drive (3).
Here’s how I back up to an external hard drive in a single command (you might want to modify the command if you plan to keep files like .env or a folder like .git):
bash
rsync -avh --progress \
--exclude '.git/' \
--exclude '.env' \
--exclude '.env.*' \
--exclude '.DS_Store' \
--exclude 'node_modules/' \
--exclude 'vendor/' \
--exclude 'composer.lock' \
--exclude 'package-lock.json' \
--exclude 'yarn.lock' \
--exclude 'logs/' \
--exclude '*.log' \
--exclude 'cache/' \
--exclude 'tmp/' \
--exclude 'temp/' \
--exclude 'build/' \
--exclude 'dist/' \
--exclude 'public/build/' \
--exclude 'public/assets/' \
--exclude '.vscode/' \
--exclude '.idea/' \
--exclude 'npm-debug.log' \
--exclude 'yarn-error.log' \
--exclude 'coverage/' \
--exclude 'tests/_output/' \
--exclude 'storage/framework/' \
--exclude 'storage/logs/' \
--exclude 'storage/cache/' \
--exclude '.phpunit.result.cache' \
--exclude 'bower_components/' \
--exclude '*.bak' \
--exclude '*.swp' \
--exclude '*.swo' \
--exclude 'Thumbs.db' \
~/Projects/my-app/ /Volumes/Backups/