[Box Backup] Observations on Win32 client

[Jamie Neil]

Hi,

Firstly, thanks to Ben for developing this project - we've been looking 
for a decent online backup system for 12 months and Box Backup is the 
first one to really impress :)

We're doing a bit of testing with a Linux (Debian) server and the Win32 
client, and I've had a scan through the mailing list archives, but I 
still have a couple of questions/comments:

1) Is the native win32 client code going to be merged with the main 
branch? If so, is there any timescale for this? If not, is the source 
available?

2) I understand that there is currently a problem with using bbackupctl 
under Win32 related to sockets. Is anyone working on a fix?

3) File timestamps seem to be stored correctly (at least the query tool 
reports them correctly), but not restored. I assume this is a bug.

4) Is anyone actively working on a Win32 GUI interface? If so I would be 
very interested in helping out - even if it's just testing and debugging 
(I'm more of a hacker than a programmer). My wishlist for such an 
interface would be:

Config
======
  - Generation and installation of keys and certificates
  - Selection of backup targets

Status & Control
================
  - Trigger snapshot backup
  - Pause/stop backup
  - Bandwidth limiting
  - View logs

Query & Restore
===============
  - Browse and select files/directories
  - Show old versions as subtree of current version

5) The ability to backup and restore ACLs and DOS flags would be nice, 
but I gather from reading around that this is a much more complex 
problem that it appears.

6) From our testing, boxbackup seems to be able to saturate even fat 
pipes, which can cause problems when backups are done during the day. 
Some kind of scheduled bandwidth throttling would be invaluable (I know 
this could probably be done with another program in true *nix tradition, 
but in Windows environments this is not so simple).

-- 
Jamie Neil | <jamie@versado.net> | 0870 7777 454
Versado I.T. Services Ltd. | http://versado.net/ | 0845 450 1254