backup current whole directory including hidden files to a target position --target_dir with same name folder created; keep --n copies and delete oldest one automatically. Usage in first few lines.

backupdir.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Open the crontab file for editing:
# sudo crontab -e
# Add the following line to the crontab file:
# 0 0 * * * /dir/to/backupdir.sh --target_dir /dir/to/backups --n 24

TARGET_DIR="/media/yan"
MAX_BACKUPS=1

# Parse command line arguments
while (( "$#" )); do
  case "$1" in
    --target_dir)
      TARGET_DIR="$2"
      shift 2
      ;;
    --n)
      MAX_BACKUPS="$2"
      shift 2
      ;;
    --) # end argument parsing
      shift
      break
      ;;
    -*|--*=) # unsupported flags
      echo "Error: Unsupported flag $1" >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
    *) # preserve positional arguments
      PARAMS="$PARAMS $1"
      shift
      ;;
  esac
done



ROOT_DIR="$(cd $( dirname ${BASH_SOURCE[0]} ) && pwd)"
CURRENT_DIR_NAME=$(basename $(dirname "$0"))

# echo $ROOT_DIR
# echo $CURRENT_DIR_NAME

# # Variables
SOURCE_DIR="${ROOT_DIR}/."
BACKUP_DIR="${TARGET_DIR}/${CURRENT_DIR_NAME}"

mkdir -p ${BACKUP_DIR}

echo "Backing up ${SOURCE_DIR} to ${BACKUP_DIR} with $MAX_BACKUPS backups." >> "$BACKUP_DIR/$CURRENT_DIR_NAME.log"

# Create a new backup
NEW_BACKUP="${BACKUP_DIR}/backup_$(date +%Y%m%d%H)"
rsync -azr ${SOURCE_DIR} ${NEW_BACKUP} --exclude 'devel' --exclude 'build' --exclude 'logs' --exclude '.catkin_tools'

# Delete the oldest backup if there are too many backups
BACKUP_COUNT=$(ls -1 ${BACKUP_DIR}/ | grep backup_ | wc -l)
if (( BACKUP_COUNT > MAX_BACKUPS )); then
  OLDEST_BACKUP=$(ls -1 ${BACKUP_DIR}/ | grep backup_ | head -n 1)
  echo "deleting backup ${OLDEST_BACKUP}." >> "$BACKUP_DIR/$CURRENT_DIR_NAME.log"
  rm -rf ${OLDEST_BACKUP}gi
fi

echo "backup ${NEW_BACKUP} completed." >> "$BACKUP_DIR/$CURRENT_DIR_NAME.log"

change NEW_BACKUP to include min and sec if frequency higher than an hour