In the 90's I remember using various backup tools that had their own custom format. I decided that I wanted my backup to be just wanted files on a normal filesystem without being stored in some kind of special format. I realize that this means compression and block level deduplication is harder but those are tradeoffs that I can accept.
I've been using rsnapshot (or it's predecessor script) for 20 years now. It's a wrapper around rsync that gives you snapshots that save space by using hard links. I can compare versions with diff. I can restore files with cp -a
Yes rsnapshot is fantastic. Plus with some simple configuration you can make your "rsnapshots" appear as legitimate snapshots from your Samba server to Windows clients.
I've been using rsnapshot (or it's predecessor script) for 20 years now. It's a wrapper around rsync that gives you snapshots that save space by using hard links. I can compare versions with diff. I can restore files with cp -a
https://rsnapshot.org/