problem with rsync. forgot the ending dot and can't find beackupfiles now

Question

I am new with linux and tried to backu my files doing this:

rsync -arvu /home /etc /opt /var

I was in the desired directory (on an external hard-disk drive) and logged in as su. but no files where in my directory after that. And Ubuntu told me that my hard-dsik is full ... absolutely full... 0 Bytes left.

then I did (with the dot in the end) this:

rsync -arvu /home /etc /opt /var .

and all worked fine... BUT

my hard space (not the external one) is absolutely full now.

WHERE did rsync put the files of the first try? how can I remove them? ... HEELP! :-)

Answer 1

The last argument is the destination. So your first command copied /home/SOMETHING to /var/home/SOMETHING, and so on.¹ Most Ubuntu systems don't have a /var/home, a /var/etc or a /var/opt, so you should be fine just deleting those directories.