Re: [rdiff-backup-users] [ANN] SafeKeep

[Dimi Paun]

On Wed, February 7, 2007 11:57, Kurt Yoder wrote:
> Looks like SafeKeep is a wrapper script to run rdiff-backup?

Yes, it is.

> If you don't like its XML config files, you can do what I do: make a
> separate backup script for each rdiff-backup like so:

The problem with hand-written scripts is the error handling.

Writing a script to do a few steps before and after the backup
is not complicated, and gives you full control, I agree.

However, if you look at SafeKeep, a lot of the code is there
to handle the error conditions properly:
  - check for them
  - report them in a useful way back to the user
  - downgrade the functionality gracefully where possible
  - bail out where you have to
  - cleanup after yourself

Once you do all that (and I claim that it's a good idea to do all that
when you work with stuff as important as your data), you need to:
  - thoroughly test your scripts
  - package them nicely so you can deploy easily across your network
  - make the behave similarly across distros
  - write scripts to ease deployment
  - maintain compatibility with previous releases
  - write documentation of how it works

Once you do all that, you end up with SafeKeep :)

-- 
Dimi Paun <address@hidden>
Lattica, Inc.