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Home/ Questions/Q 8970701
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Editorial Team
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Editorial Team
Asked: June 15, 20262026-06-15T17:46:20+00:00 2026-06-15T17:46:20+00:00

I am trying to make a simple backup script and i have problem creating

  • 0

I am trying to make a simple backup script and i have problem creating a folder with the curent date for name

My script is that and basically the problem is on the last line

drivers=$(ls /media/)

declare -i c=0
for word in $drivers
do
    echo "($c)$word"
    c=c+1
done

read -n 1 drive
echo

c=0
for word in $drivers
do
    if [ $c -eq $drive ]
    then
        backuppath="/media/$word/backup"
    fi
    c=c+1
done


echo "doing back up to $backuppath"

cp -r /home/stefanos/Programming $backuppath/$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%T)

Ouput:

(0)0362-BA96
(1)Data
(2)Windows
0
doing back up to /media/0362-BA96/backup
cp: cannot create directory `/media/0362-BA96/backup/2012-12-05-21:58:37': Invalid argument

The path is triply checked that is existing until /media/0362-BA96/

SOLVED:
Did what janisz said the final script looks like

drivers=$(ls /media/)

declare -i c=0
for word in $drivers
do
    echo "($c)$word"
    c=c+1
done

read -n 1 drive
echo

c=0
for word in $drivers
do
    if [ $c -eq $drive ]
    then
        backuppath="/media/$word/backup"
    fi
    c=c+1
done
echo "doing back up to $backuppath"

backup(){
  time_stamp=$(date +%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M_%S)
  mkdir -p "${backuppath}/${time_stamp}$1"
  cp -r "${1}" "${backuppath}/${time_stamp}$1"

  echo "backup complete in $1"
}

#####################The paths to backup####################

backup "/home/stefanos/Programming"
backup "/home/stefanos/Android/Projects"
backup "/home/stefanos/Dropbox"
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1 Answer

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  1. Editorial Team
    Editorial Team
    2026-06-15T17:46:21+00:00Added an answer on June 15, 2026 at 5:46 pm

    : is not valid on FAT (it is used to specify disk). Some of M$ invalid character works on GNU/Linux systems but it is safer to avoid them (just replace with .). Use following date format

    date +%Y_%m_%d_%H_%M_%S
    

    It should works on most file systems but it could be too long for MS DOS FAT. More info you will find here.

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