[Box Backup] Long path names, open files, etc

dnk boxbackup@boxbackup.org
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:39:45 -0700


On 28-Mar-09, at 11:24 PM, Chris Wilson wrote:

> Hi Dnk,
>
> On Sat, 28 Mar 2009, Dnk wrote:
>
>> Will box backup fail if there is a long file /path name?
>>
>> I had run into that with rsync on windows in the past. Does the box  
>> backup windows client rely on cygwin? If so, I suspect of will fail  
>> if it is a version less than cygwin 1.7.
>
> Box should support file names as long as Windows can. If not, please  
> let us know. We don't use Cygwin apart from the build process, so  
> Cygwin limitations should not apply.

Oh really? That is a major plus! That is cool that box backup has zero  
reliance on cygwin after the build process. So does box backup not use  
rsync under the hood?

>
>> Also, how does it deal with open files?
>
> On Windows, open files which are exclusively locked cannot be  
> opened, even for backup, so they are skipped with a warning. See  
> this ticket for a workaround: http://www.boxbackup.org/trac/ticket/13


Ok, cool. I guess i will have to get some testing done.

>
> On other platforms, open files can be opened again (file locking is  
> discretionary), so we just back them up as they are, and hope for  
> crash consistency in the application (or to get a better copy  
> later). We try not to back up files that were modified too recently  
> to reduce the risk of backing up while the file is inconsistent.
>


I have been dabbling in this software, but have not had anything to  
test and really understand it on. My VM machine is in next week, so  
looking forward to trying to understand it all.

d