[Box Backup] Following Symbolic Links

[Peter Porter]

After reading comments from Martin and Ben, the associated problems 
caused by an option like this are rather obvious.  I'm still not keen on 
having to add two or three separate backup locations just to capture a 
few files, but it makes sense.

I like the idea of having a mode that captures the related locations, 
but that would involve something of an architecture change in how files 
are organized.  The store would need to have a common root, or some 
common naming structure to add the new locations.  This sounds like 
overkill to solve this sort of problem.

>
> I don't think I would. Users should do things correctly or not at all. 
> I do think the option of logging when there are symlinks pointing 
> outside the store might be useful, so I'd be happy to add that. But 
> then, do people look at their logs enough?
>
> Perhaps bbackupctl should have an option to show the status of all 
> locations:
>
>   $ bbackupctl status
>   etc: OK, 2006-06-15T00:13:02 (5 hours ago), symlinks pointing 
> outside store
>   home: In progress, 2006-06-14T00:13:02 (1 day ago)
>   old_stuff: Due for removal

This seems like the best answer -- provide a warning message that 
external symlinks exist, or potentially list the external symlinked 
locations if requested.  I am assuming that, to solve my problem, 
writing a script that does this periodically will keep me from future 
problems along these lines.  Run as part of a daily status report would 
be ideal.

I appreciate everyone's input,
Peter