rsnapshot

I've been using rsnapshot for a while, but I've noticed it needs some monitoring.

I am trying to think of a good way to script my backup process so that if an error occurs, I'll be notified. I have a couple ideas of how to do this, but I thought I'd see what the crowd thinks.

One idea is to check the log every so often with a script, and see if the last words are "completed successfully." If they are, then do nothing, if not send an email. That seems hackish though, so I was thinking about the postexec variable. It would be cool to be able to throw a script in there to check on the backup that just completed, but I can't think of any good way to do that.

One other option I saw was a script that runs to check if all the config files are set up properly, and to check the modification times of a file somewhere.

None of these sound like great strategies.

Does anybody else have any good ideas? I really need to know if a backup fails.