[Box Backup] Attributes not backed up correctly, also request to add ACL support

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Achim,

On Wed, 5 Aug 2009, Achim wrote:

> Hello Roy:
>
> On Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:57:50 +0200, Roy <boxbackup@hostingbrothers.nl>
> wrote:
>> Local file xxx has different attributes to store file yyy.
>> Is that a problem? Or is this a problem in the way that file attributes
>> work under Windows?
>
> At the moment, it appears that some Windows attributes (hidden, archive,
> system) are not backed up correctly by Box Backup R2549:
>
> Before backup
> =============
> D:\install\AJL\BACKUPTEST\CASES\Set_5-file-attributes>attrib
> A  SHR     D:\install\AJL\BACKUPTEST\CASES\Set_5-file-attributes\all
>           D:\install\AJL\BACKUPTEST\CASES\Set_5-file-attributes\archive
> A   H      D:\install\AJL\BACKUPTEST\CASES\Set_5-file-attributes\hidden
> A    R     D:\install\AJL\BACKUPTEST\CASES\Set_5-file-attributes\readonly
> A  S       D:\install\AJL\BACKUPTEST\CASES\Set_5-file-attributes\system
>
> After restore
> =============
> D:\restore\Set_5-file-attributes>attrib
> A    R     D:\restore\Set_5-file-attributes\all
> A          D:\restore\Set_5-file-attributes\archive
> A          D:\restore\Set_5-file-attributes\hidden
> A    R     D:\restore\Set_5-file-attributes\readonly
> A          D:\restore\Set_5-file-attributes\system
>
> It appears that Read-Only works, but Hidden and System do not get backed
> up/restored correctly.

You are correct about that. Box Backup was designed to support Unix 
attributes, not Windows, and they are quite different.

So how important are these attributes? If we ignored them entirely and 
didn't report compare errors if they differed, would that be satisfactory? 
(given that you got your data back anyway).

> In addition, as I wrote in my e-mail "ACL support" from 11/04/2009 at 
> 18:33, I wonder if it would be possible to add support for additional 
> information on top of the POSIX ACL (which I haven't tested either, 
> BTW).

I have started work on Windows ACL support but it is not checked in, it 
causes backwards incompatibility for different client versions, and has 
several bugs that I have not had time to fix. At least one Windows user of 
Box Backup threatened to stop using it if I implemented full restore of 
Windows ACLs.

Cheers, Chris.
-- 
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