On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 08:44:45PM +0200, Buchan Milne wrote:
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> andre wrote:
> > On Thursday 26 June 2003 17:56, Buchan Milne wrote:
> >
> >>This can be done with rsync in backup mode with hard links. I haven't
> >>tried it yet though.
> >
> > This should be done in the filesystem. A rm shouldn't remove the file
> but move
> > it to the backup dir
> >
> 
> So where is the patch adding this feature to all the filesystems
> supported? (if it is feasible to have this any time in the near future,
> it will be something like rsync).

I think this can be done with a shared library, that instead of removing
a file, moves the inode to a specific directory per file system, ala 
lost+found and renames it in some way so you have the data and time (a
version stamp) and the owner rights etc available. This should not be
file system specific code, but something that is available on all file
systems with normal POSIX file system semantics. Libshred probably does
it this way. And then some garbage collection, that can be run
periodically or triggered by low availablilty of space. A lot like MS is
doing it for their trash basket. And something that probably should be
standard for MDK desktops, both KDE and Gnome have a trash basket.

> Once a file is older than about 5 revisions, keeping it on fast-access
> media is a waste of money.
> 
> rsync + amanda is what we use in production. 1 day interval for rysnc,
> if you want anything else, we'll pull it off tape. If users have a
> problem with that, they can write their copies to CD on our webCDwriter
> installation.

I am not really trying to target big organisations with well developed
backup strategies. These people know what they are doing and would
probably not be satisfied with a standard solution anyway. I am more
thinking of small businesses, smaller web servers, home and hobby
systems. The ones that forget to set up backup. I think there are many
of these users around that are actual or potential MDK customers.

> I much prefer having users educated than to have to backup every single
> little change to a file.

They don't do it. And if I have to bother every time I make a change,
that would lower my productivity. And Murphys law says that I will
forget to backup the very file that I really should not have deleted.

> We have over 130GB of data at the moment, and
> it starts getting very expensive to start keeping 5-10 copies of that
> all compared to the 2 we have on disk (on-site and a rysnc'ed copy
> off-site) with daily differential amanda backups.

130 GB of data is next to nothing these days, a standard 120 GB disk
costs 80 EUR + tax nowadays. But of cause there should be some policy on
when and how to do garbage collection.

Best regards
Keld

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