[Box Backup] Current status 0.11

[Chris Wilson]

Hi Dnk,

On Wed, 25 Feb 2009, dnk wrote:

>> > I was curious, as to the current status of 0.11. I have been 
>> > following the list, and waiting to have a go. I am building a new 
>> > backup server and was hoping to have a crack at box backup. Now I 
>> > read the disclaimers about windows and such on the website and wiki. 
>> > Is there any sort of eta when this version may become stable? I know 
>> > that is probably an annoying and broad question.
>> 
>> I'm afraid I can't answer that question just yet. 0.11rc2 is as close 
>> as we have got to a stable release of 0.11. Due to lack of time, I have 
>> not yet been able to analyse the changes made to trunk since then and 
>> merge them onto 0.11rc2 to produce a new release candidate 0.11rc3, 
>> which I would hope would become 0.11 after a short delay. So the best I 
>> can say is around 2 months from now, but without making any promises.
>
> Ok, That is doable providing the upgrade path is relatively simple.

There should be no problems with upgrading from 0.10. bbackupd does not 
require any of the new commands implemented by the new bbstored, and nor 
does bbstored require anything new of bbackupd. The only exceptions are 
that bbackupquery 0.11 offers some new commands such as delete which won't 
work with an old 0.10 bbstored (but these are optional for the 
administrator to use or not), and that the bug with backing up files over 
2 GB requires that both bbackupd and bbstored be upgraded to 0.11 to fix 
it (but does not specify the order that the upgrade must happen in).

>> > Also, is there any plans for an os x client? I wish I could code to 
>> > help out with that one. Unfortunately I am no programmer.
>> 
>> It does already run on OS X as far as I know. Several people use it 
>> there and I spent a lot of time last year fixing the minor issues that 
>> causes problems with the unit tests until they all passed. 0.11rc2 
>> includes all of that work.
>
> Where can one download the other clients? I saw below that you sent a 
> link for the win client. Are the linux/OS X clients just included with 
> the main download?

The source code to them all is included in the standard source download. 
Binary packages exist for a few different Unixes and for Windows, but not 
for OS X as far as I know, so you'll have to compile it yourself.

>> > Any plans for deduplication?
>> 
>> No, sorry. Box Backup is intended for backing up user data, not whole 
>> filesystems, and as such deduplication should not even be necessary as 
>> far as I can see.
>
> Ah ok.... I was just curious, as in my case (only user data), I have a 
> file server which has files on it, which some (probably multiple) users 
> probably also have on their desktops... all of which would be backed up, 
> hence multiple instances of the same files. Might still not be a bad 
> idea....
>
> Just a suggestion.

Thanks, suggestion taken. You can add it to the Feature Requests page on 
the wiki as well to make sure it doesn't get forgotten. 
(http://www.boxbackup.org/trac/wiki/FeatureRequests)

>> > Due to my clients and the curret status, would I be better off to 
>> > bypass box backup at this time?
>> 
>> We would be very happy if you would try 0.11rc2, which should work on 
>> these platforms, and let us know if you encounter any issues. Please 
>> use the temporary client release at 
>> http://www.boxbackup.org/releases/temporary/ on Windows clients, as it 
>> fixes an important bug.
>
> I will do some testing. And see what comes of it.

OK, thanks. Please let us know if you have any issues. I am happy to help 
as much as my time permits.

Cheers, Chris.
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