[Box Backup] Backup File Order

[Ben Summers]

Martin Ebourne wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-09-13 at 08:18 +0000, Johann Glaser wrote:
>
>> I would like to generalize this. Probably somebody needs some files
>> backed up last, or even both. So, I propose to offer directives to
>> specify files/directories in a user-defined order which are then  
>> backed
>> up in the that order.
>>
>
> This all sounds like a considerable amount of complexity (not a good
> thing in backup software) for very little gain.
>
> I also doubt it really would be all that useful.

I totally agree. Backup utilities need to be as small as possible and  
be as easily verified as possible, which means writing automated  
tests for everything. Considering the proposal for file upload order,  
the automated test probably wouldn't be that pleasant to write, and  
take ages to run.

If file upload order is important, then I suspect you need to be  
running a specialised backup tool because you've obviously got some  
very special requirements.

If you want to use Box Backup for such a thing, write a pre-backup  
script which tars the files with a strict ordering into an  
uncompressed archive with a constant name. If it's uncompressed, the  
contents are ordered and the name never changes, Box Backup can back  
it up very efficiently.

This also has the advantage of moving the complexity outside the core  
and allowing it to be easily verified.

Ben