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From: bb@reef.cis.ufl.edu (Brian Bartholomew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: development suggestions for the NeXt
Summary: *Fastback* is *not* a backup option.
Message-ID: <25376@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Date: 12 Nov 90 01:59:50 GMT
References: <1990Nov8.151745.24393@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu> <1990Nov09.201239.29351@scion.CS.ORST.EDU>
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Sorry, Bruce.

In article <1990Nov09.201239.29351@scion.CS.ORST.EDU> you write:

> 11) backup software (a port of fastback would be nice.)

Grrrrrrr.  You have an OS containing a complete set of backup options.
You may backup by disk partitions (NeXT's ship with only one), in an
incremental fashion by file modification time, with dump / restore.
Or, over the with network with rdump.  You may backup by directory
tree with tar.  You may check and repair filesystems with fsck.  You
may reduce the storage requirements of any of these options with
compress / uncompress.  If you get tired of those alternatives, there
is always find / cpio (yuk).  Each of these options may be automated
to whatever extent is desired with a script or two run from cron.  The
simplest, and my favorite option, is just to *copy* the target
directory tree to a *floptical*, by dragging a folder icon with the
*mouse*.  In this case, you may browse the "backup" in a normal
fashion, and you don't have to do anything unusual to get the files
back.

Please understand that I have used several versions of Fastback
regularly on PC's, and I think that for the platform, it's wonderful.
However, the NeXT world does *not* need another port of a completely
un-portable, un-configurable, un-networkable, wheel-reinventing
product of PC think like Fastback.  Let's not forget that we are
dealing with a *workstation* here, which should be connected to a
world-wide network like the Internet (where are you reading this news
from?) for the greatest gain.

Of course, that is not to say that a NeXTStep front end to the above
utilities should not be written, with some simple, pre-configured
backup strategies designed for the stand-alone or almost stand-alone
system.  This could be a big win for a large percentage of users, who
do not have a centralized network management and filestore maintenance
organization in place.

Any takers?


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Bartholomew	UUCP:       ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb
University of Florida	Internet:   bb@math.ufl.edu
--
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Bartholomew	UUCP:       ...gatech!uflorida!mathlab.math.ufl.edu!bb
University of Florida	Internet:   bb@math.ufl.edu