[Box Backup] keeping files 28 days patch

[Torsten]

Hi Chris,

thanks for the answer.

Am Thursday 09 July 2009 21:08:33 schrieb Chris Wilson:
> Hi Torsten,
>
> On Thu, 9 Jul 2009, Torsten wrote:
> > i build a very little patch that only deletes files from store that are
> > old or deleted and more than 28 days old. So files less that 28 days old
> > are kept.
> >
> > I think such a feature is important for Box Backup but i do not
> > unterstand it completely.
>
> Yes, I think it's a good idea, at least in the mean time until snapshots
> are fully implemented and the client can control how much history is kept
> on the store.

Is there any documentation about this snapshot mode and how it will work? I 
did not find anything in the wiki about that.

> > - I think this patch generates a new class of file that i do not have a
> >   name for. Old and deleted but securely saved.
>
> I don't think it's really  anew class of file, it's just a change to how
> housekeeping removes old files.
>
> > The known old and deleted perhaps saved, because they are deleted if
> > soft limit reached. Should there be new names for the new files? I do
> > not know how other online backup solutions solve this.
>
> I don't know either, but I suspect that most of them use snapshots. E.g.
> rdiff-backup does.
>
> > - So the new soft limit should be calculated from actual data and secure
> >   old and deleted files. How could this be done?
>
> Why do we need a new soft limit? Either housekeeping can bring the store
> under the soft limit or it cannot (because all old files are newer than 28
> days). It makes no difference to the client, which will keep uploading
> files until it hits the hard limit and then stop.

I think there is a problem for the user. "bbackupquery usage" does not show me 
if i should increase backup store limit. Because i see that hard limit is 
reached but there are many old and deleted files. So i think housekeeping 
will delete them. But the 28 day patch can produce the following situation. 
Old and deleted files < 28 day are not deleted, but new files cannot be 
uploaded. What do you think?

> > - Is there a way for the client to tell the server how long to keep the
> >   files?
>
> Not at the moment, only to mark files to be deleted immediately.
>
> > Any annotations or ideas?
>
> As this patch is implemented, it's a global option at compile time, and
> can't be set per account. Making it configurable at runtime would be
> useful. Making it configurable per account would probably require a change
> to the account info file format, and I'm reluctant to do that as it would
> break forwards compatibility at least, and I think snapshots are a better
> way to implement this in the long run. But I'm seriously considering
> applying your patch.

Making it configurable at runtime should be possible. Per account settings is 
not as important i think. If this patch is applied it could be disabled in 
default configuration, so nobody should have a problem i think.

have a nice weekend
  torsten