> Here you go. I can¹t think of any way that this script would be harmful, but
> feel free to make a manual backup before you use this script to automate your
> backups!
I can.
By not quitting E'rage before making the copy, this script makes it
theoretically possible to end up with a backup copy that is in an
inconsistent state.
Imagine that E'rage downloads new messages, part of which is stored at
position "1012" in the database and part of which is stored at position
"12".
The Finder begins copying and copies the original position 12 (then empty),
E'rage downloads and writes the new positions "1012" and "12" into its
database, the Finder eventually gets around to copying position "1012" but
the backup now points to the old, empty position "12" which is now invalid.
For whatever reason, the user has to actually use their backup (this is, of
course, the entire point of having a backup).
You launch E'rage, and attempt to access the aforementioned message. It
pulls up position "1012" just fine; however, when it goes to grab the next
block, it finds that "12" is empty.
Tada! Your backup database is corrupted. Of course, it was corrupted by
the backup itself, not by the application.
mikel
PS: I first encountered this "non quiescent backup" problem sometime in the
very late 1970s. And I'm paid to think of ways that things can break. So
I've got an advantage. ;-)
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