[Box Backup] Client Processing?

[Chris Hane]

After using boxbackup for a while now I really like the program.  I have 
a couple of questions/suggestions.

Once the initial backup has been completed, I am noticing quite a bit of 
communication between the client and server.  It appears that the client 
is requesting a directory listing for every directory.  At least that is 
what I'm guessing based on these entries in the server box.log:

Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Receive 
ListDirectory(0x6c,0xffffffff,0xc,true)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Receive 
ListDirectory(0x6c,0xffffffff,0xc,true)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Send Success(0x6c)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Send Success(0x6c)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Sending stream, size 89
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Receive 
ListDirectory(0x6d,0xffffffff,0xc,true)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Receive 
ListDirectory(0x6d,0xffffffff,0xc,true)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Send Success(0x6d)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Send Success(0x6d)
Apr 10 22:12:33 hutz bbstored[3419]: Sending stream, size 89

Question: Would it be possible to streamline this communication (or 
maybe even maintain some state on the client).  Right now with my test 
backup machine (e.g., my laptop), I am seeing long connection times.  I 
have around 20,000 files in hundreds of directories and just to do an 
incremental backup takes hours (each directory listing is being 
downloaded and compared?) even though very few files have been modified. 
  As a note: I'm running the client on Windows XP in lazy mode with a 
default config setup (except of course for my path/account/key info)

Second question, I have noticed that if there is a connection error 
between client/server that the client keeps retrying once every minute 
or so to reestablish the connection.  Our configuration is a bit unique 
in that during the day I have to limit our bandwidth consumption for 
non-client services and hence turn off the backup server (just shutdown 
the process).  Is it possible to configure the retry connection?  Or 
maybe even have the time between retries gradual extend (say 1 minute 
increments for 5 minutes, then once every 5 minutes for an hour than 
once an hour - just a suggestion).

Third, what is the best way to shutdown the backup server.  I currently 
send a signal for the command line; but it seems that established 
connections will not shutdown until the current backup it is performing 
is completed.  This is how I even noticed my first question....

Also, I now the windows port is being worked on separately from the unix 
client/server.  Has it been integrated/released yet?  Although it's been 
a while since I've hacked on C code.....

Thanks in advance,
Chris....


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