Thomas Birnthaler wrote at about 11:29:27 +0100 on Friday, January 9, 2009: > A lot of thank to everybody which answered my questions > which have been asked a lot of times, sorry :-(. > > I've learned from your answers that my model of BackupPC storage of full and > incremental backups was too weak and that it's too dangerous to delete > backups by hand. So we won't do that. > > The script http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net/How+to+delete+backups for > deleting you mentioned I already found. But it deleted full + all dependant > incremental backups which wasn't what we wanted. > > Some wanted to know, what were the reasons for my question. So here we are: > > 1. Problem: Accidential backup of huge files and directories (e.g. > DVD-Images, > backups done by a second tool we haven't been told) because some users do > things they shouldn't do. These fill up the BackupPC backup-Space and it > doesn't make any sense to keep them. In one case we reached the limit of 95% > and BackupPC didn't do any backups then (which is a good behaviour!). > > True, this is a configuration problem! But if you detect it after the backup > happened, how do you free the space then? My solution was to set the file > size to zero by hand, but keep all the hardlinks. This is manageable for > some > files, but not very easy for 100 or more. > I have written a program that allows you to delete individual files from 1 or more incremental or full backups -- it properly takes care of all the inheritance from level n to level n+1 etc. incremental backups. This should allow you to transparently delete just the offending files or directories/
The program has been posted to the mailing list -- it's called BackupPC_deleteFiles.pl It was written for exactly the scenario you envisioned -- mistaken backups of large files -- and it allows you to delete those without eliminating the entire backup (which would seem to me to be foolishly throwing out the baby with the bathwater). > 2. Problem: Incremental backups take much longer time than full backups > (weekly full and daily incremental) on two of the networks we manage. > > Some answered that this should not happen. But some answered that this could > happen depending on machine, memory, network and so on. So no real answer to > that, we have to investigate it further. If we find a reason for that > problem, I will post it. > I didn't see anyone confirming that the multi-X slowdown for incrementals vs. fulls is possible. At most, I saw someone saying that in certain circumstances an incremental could take as long as a full. (I'm just summarizing what I believe I saw in the thread unless you have had personal communications otherwise). > Again, answers from all of you were very helpful! > > Thomas Birnthaler > -- > OSTC Open Source Training and Consulting GmbH / HRB Nuernberg 20032 > tel +49 911-3474544 / fax +49 911-1806277 / http://www.ostc.de > Delsenbachweg 32 / D-90425 Nuernberg / Geschaeftsfuehrung: > Thomas Birnthaler / +49 171-3047465 / t...@ostc.de / pgp 0xFEE7EB4C > Hermann Gottschalk / +49 173-3600680 / h...@ostc.de / pgp 0x0B2D8EEA > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. > It is the best place to buy or sell services for > just about anything Open Source. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/Xq1LFB > _______________________________________________ > BackupPC-users mailing list > BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net > List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users > Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net > Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/ > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It is the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Xq1LFB _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net Project: http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
