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A different way to back up.

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    #1

    A different way to back up.

    It seems that there has been a lot of talk about backing up your apps or data. I see that several use sys_shell(). But why do you have to do that? Why cant you do what I have listed down below. This is a scaled down version. You could have it copy the files somwhere else and rename them.EX: lets say I have main.dbf and I want to back it up every day and keep a week of backups always handy. Have it copy the files once a day renaming the file file.rename(filename,date()+filename)(I havent tested this, I am just suggesting it). That way you would get 08/14/00main.dbf + 08/15/00main.dbf + etc..... You could have the app delete anything anything older than 7 days. Just a thought. Let me know what you think.

    Of course this "|" is actually a back slash since this board eats them.

    'These 3 lines can be whatever directories you want
    source_dir = "||server1|c|visioneer docs"+chr(92)
    old_dir=dir_get()
    destination_dir="c:|Visioneer Backup"+chr(92)
    dir_put(source_dir)

    'I use *.max. You can set it to whatever you want. I believe you can use .AND. also.
    'Read up on filefind. There are other options with it.
    files=filefind.first("*.max")
    WHILE .not. files.eof()
    'The next three lines check the size of the file to be copied and store them in var->Filebytes
    file_pointer=file.open(files.name(),FILE_RO_SHARED)
    Filebytes=file_pointer.bytes_get()
    file_pointer.close()

    'Stores the name of the file in var->filenames
    filenames=files.name()
    file_copy(source_dir+var->filenames,destination_dir+var->filenames)

    'The next lines check to see if the copy was successful
    if file.exists(var->destination_dir+var->filenames)
    file_pointer=file.open(files.name(),FILE_RO_SHARED)
    Filebytecheck=file_pointer.bytes_get()
    file_pointer.close()
    if var->filebytecheck=var->filebytes
    'Place what ever you want. In my App I have it write to a log file.
    'Basically the above file check for corruption too. I figured
    'if the bytes were off then something must of happened. I havent had
    ' a problem yet.
    else
    'Send it back to try and copy again. If it still doesnt match up have
    'it terminate the script or skip that file
    end if
    End If
    files.next()
    END WHILE
    dir_put(old_dir)
    END
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: A different way to back up.

    Is this a bad way ????

    Comment

      #3
      RE: A different way to back up.

      Bad (at least in this context) is a relative term. If your approach provides a safe easy to use way of duplicating your work, then I don't think it's bad at all.

      In my own work I opt for a different approach for these reasons:

      1) I do not want to *backup* to the same hard drive my data is on to begin with. If I have a drive crash I lose both my real data and my backup. It's also very hard to keep an archive copy offsite if it resides on my working pc! So this means that I need to send the files to an external device, either tape or floppy or zip... the choices are many. Heck, there are even services available now which will let up upload your backups to their server over the internet, though I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet!

      2) Having decided to send my files to an external device what's the most efficient and safe way to do it? I prefer the zip utilities because they're fast, efficient, and can automatically *span* more than one diskette. I figure writing it to diskette is best since it's the least common denominator... all potential users of my application will have a diskette drive (I hope), even though diskettes themselves can be problematic. I also like having an entire backup session in one file. This makes it easy to move and archive yet again.

      In part the choices here depend on whether you're writing for personal use, or for distribution to others. I'm doing the latter.

      -- tom

      Comment

        #4
        RE: A different way to back up.

        I agree with you Tom. Some use sys_shell without zipping the files and it has been stated that they are looking for a way to find out when the backup has completed. I think this is the way to do it without zipping. I was mainly concerned why the preferred way(seems that way to me) is to use the dos commands and not using xbasic in the manner I use it. If there is a problem with this way , believe me, I want to know.

        Thanks for the philosophy lesson and input. :)
        Jamin

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