Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Feature requests questions/discussion

[Ben Escoto]

>>>>> Wiebe Cazemier <address@hidden>
>>>>> wrote the following on Fri, 21 Oct 2005 17:48:47 +0200

> First, I would really like an option like --store-checksums so that
> rdiff-backup calculates md5 hashes when doing a backup, and that
> that checksum it used for integrity checks upon restoration. But at
> restoration time, the check should not be an option, it should
> always be done, if the file being restored has hash info. This to
> prevent user-mistake. I once severly corrupted a partition on an
> external HD because of USB2 transfer errors (which I haven't been
> able to solve BTW). A lot was damaged, but of every file that
> resided in compressed files I was told about the corruption,
> beceause of the hashing usually done in zips/gzips/etc. The
> rdiff-backup repository became useless, because it had no idea the
> files were damaged. Such an option would of course be annoying to
> most people, because it's quite slow, but most of my backups are
> done through cron, so it doesn't matter for me. I think as an
> option, this could be very valuable. It doesn't even have to be that
> slow, if it's cleverly integrated with the copy routine.

It's a good idea, and one that someone else has suggested before.  The
checksums would be stored in the mirror-metadata file.  I don't even
think it would be hard to implement.  And there could be a --verify
switch to go through the repository and make sure everything checksums
correctly.

> Summarized, --store-checksums would calculate checksum info for
> integrity checks, and --checksum-diffs would use checksums for
> change-detections, instead of mtime+size.

Another good suggestion I think, which has come up before.  You
mentioned ctime before, I was going to add in ctime checking but there
was some complication (I forget what) and it never got in.

Does anyone else think they would use Wiebe's --checksum-diff option?


-- 
Ben Escoto

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