Re: Some Thoughts

[Nathan Clemons <nathan windsofstorm net>]

At 08:42 PM 6/7/99 -0600, you wrote:
>>         ** GBackup
>> 
>>         A GNOME based system that <snip>
>
>Sorry to quote so much.  This backup ought to be broken down into three
>main parts (yes, I have been thinking about this for about two weeks).
>
>Part 1:
>	This is the GUI element.  This would allow you to setup passwords for
>each system, select the files to be backed up.  It would allow for
>designing scheduled backups, manual "do it now" backups, and restores. 
>This would use Gnome, Corba, and GTK I suppose.
>

Integrity tests?

>Part 2:
>	This is the "cron" job of sorts.  This would be called by cron, or run
>and just let it decide what to do when.  These is also the master backup
>responsible for polling each machines files, authenticating itself, and
>doing any decryption or what not (if any) when pulling the files off the
>wire.Requires Corba and whatever Unix system/library calls as needed.
>

IMHO, a script called by cron. If they select on a file basis, you probably
want to use find to pipe the list of filenames to the actual program that
backs up. If it's a full file system, it's a lot easier. At some point I
will have
a partition for just muds running on my server, and I plan to filter out
all the
"*\.o$" files automagically. No sense backing up what a simple make can
re-create. That just wastes storage space, especially if you are going with
compression... text compresses so well.

>Part 3:
>	This is the Backup manager on each system.  It requires that the
>"server" authenticate itself before getting "root" access to the files. 
>It then encrypts (or allows a generic data filter) so that the files can
>be sent without sniffing to the "server" (part 2).  This would be
>responsible for all work on the local machines.  Requires Corba and
>whatever Unix system/library calls as needed.
>
>I hope this makes sense and would be useful for others.  I came up with
>this idea when I read about people asking for a GOOD backup
>program/system for Linux/Gnome on some news group.  Obviously, I haven't
>gotten beyond this, and it probably has some flaws, but I am sure this
>might help give someone some wonderful ideas for a great backup program.

This wasn't inteded to be a full suggestion... just an off the top of my
head few
thoughts of what I would like to see in a backup system. See, I just put in an
Adaptec 2940UW into my colocate and am even now recompiling the kernel to
take advantage of it...

But if someone does take it and run with it... well, doesn't that prove the
whole
idea of a wanted applications database?

--Nathan


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Nathan P. Clemons                       "Peace favor your code."
nathan@windsofstorm.net                 ICQ: 2810688
IN CONSTRUCTION:                        http://gnome.windsofstorm.net
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