Re: [rdiff-backup-users] viewing rdiff-backup stores from Windows

[Dominic]

Rodney Schuler wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 2:23 PM, Dominic <address@hidden 
> <mailto:address@hidden>> wrote:
>
>     Rodney Schuler wrote:
>
>         I have looked for a nice windows GUI for doing exactly this.
>          I have not found anything.  Does nobody else know of such a
>         project?  If not, I will see if I can work up the gumption to
>         start such a project.
>
>         On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 1:30 AM, Pieter Donche
>         <address@hidden <mailto:address@hidden>
>         <mailto:address@hidden
>         <mailto:address@hidden>>> wrote:
>
>            Does there exist a WinXP program to browse a backup store
>         made on a
>            remote server via rdiff-backup
>            and select and restore specific directories and/or files ?
>
> I was unaware of archfs.  Thanks for pointing in out.  If it can be 
> made to work in the windows world I will have the solution I have been 
> looking for.
On the linux server: install fuse and build and install archfs - for 
instance, see my instructions (for Ubuntu) at 
http://www.timedicer.info/. Make sure the linux user is a member of the 
'fuse' group. Now on the linux server you can create an archfs 
mountpoint. You then use WinSCP in Windows to connect to the linux 
server and view the mountpoint.

archfs can show the rdiff-backup repository either on a date-first or 
file-first basis. In the latter case, each file is shown as a directory 
and inside this are separate files for the dates on which the file was 
backed up; unfortunately a separate entry is shown even when the file 
has not changed between backups, so it can be hard to find when a file 
changed (rdiffweb is better for this) - I wish this could be fixed!

I think the archfs view is static, so that it is not updated if the 
underlying repository changes; you need to unmount and remount to update 
the archfs view. I guess this could be done as a cron job.

Dominic