BackupPC

I just released BackupPC version 2.1.0beta0 on SourceForge.
This is the first beta release for 2.1.0.  The mirroring
on SF is not complete, so downloading might be unreliable
for the next few hours.

There are quite a few significant new features.  I have attached
the ChangeLog.

If you use rsync you will also need to upgrade to the latest version
of File::RsyncP (0.50).

Please send feedback.  For one, the documentation still needs some
work for all the new features and the Spanish translation (es.pm)
needs updating.  I'm traveling Asia this week, but I should have
some email access.

Craig

#------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Version 2.1.0beta0, 20 Mar 2004
#------------------------------------------------------------------------

* A failed full dump is now saved as a partial (incomplete) dump,
  provided it includes some files.  This can be used for browsing,
  restoring etc, and will also form the basis of resuming full
  dumps.  Only one partial is kept, and it is removed as soon
  as a successful full (or a new partial) is done.

* Added support for resuming a full dump for rsync.  The partial
  full is kept, and to resume an incremental is done against the
  partial, and a full is done for the rest.

* Added support for Rsync checksum caching.  Rsync checksum are
  appended to the compressed pool files.  This means that block
  and file checksums do not need to be recomputed on the server
  when using rsync.  Requires a patch to rsync to support fixed
  checksum seeds.  This patch is included in the cygwin-rsyncd
  release on http://backuppc.sourceforge.net.

* Major addition of Archive feature from Josh Marshall.  Special
  clients can be configured to be archive targets (eg: tape drives,
  CD-R).  Any subset of the backup clients can be selected and tar
  archives are created, optionally compressed and split and written
  to the output device.  Logs are maintained and are browsable.

* Major changes from Ryan Kucera to add style sheets to the CGI
  interface, allowing easy customization.  Added new icons and
  BackupPC logo.  Numerous navigation improvements.

* Added directory history display to BackupPC_Admin, allowing the
  user to quickly see which files changed between backups on a
  per-directory basis.

* Added exponential expiry option for full dumps.  This allows you
  to specify
  
   - how many fulls to keep at intervals of $Conf{FullPeriod}, followed by
   - how many fulls to keep at intervals of 2 * $Conf{FullPeriod},
   - how many fulls to keep at intervals of 4 * $Conf{FullPeriod},
   - how many fulls to keep at intervals of 8 * $Conf{FullPeriod},
   - how many fulls to keep at intervals of 16 * $Conf{FullPeriod},

  and so on.  This allows you, for example, to keep 4 weekly fulls,
  followed by 6 fulls every 4 weeks (approx 1 month) and 2 fulls at
  16 weeks, for roughly 1 year of history.  This works by deleting
  every other full as each expiry boundary is crossed.  Suggested
  by David Cramblett.

* Added Italian language translation it.pm from Lorenzo Cappelletti.

* Major updates to language files for new features and tags changes.
  Updated makeDist to do pedantic consistency checking of language
  files.

* Addition of administration options from Paul Lukins.  Initial
  page allows server to be started/stopped/reloaded.  This still
  needs some i18n work.  Currently the server start/stop is
  commented out.

* Split BackupPC_Admin into a set of modules, one for each major action.
  Each action is now a seperate module in lib/BackupPC/CGI.

* Allow the blackout period begin/end to span midnight.  Adapted
  from patch submitted by David Smith.

* Allow multiple blackout periods, with new config variable
  $Conf{BlackoutPeriods} that replaces the old variables
  $Conf{BlackoutHourBegin}, $Conf{BlackoutHourEnd}, and
  $Conf{BlackoutWeekDays}.  Based on patch submitted by
  Lorenzo Cappelletti.

* Disabled alarms after forks to avoid timeouts in children that
  do not reset their alarm.  Prompted by ideas from James Leu.

* Added options for block size, buffer size and share wild-card to
  BackupPC_tarCreate.  Also added negative backup number options
  that are relative to the last (so -1 is the last), suggested by
  William McKee and Carl Soderstrom.

* Add creation of per-PC directory in BackupPC/CGI/Restore.pm in
  case it doesn't already exist.

* Added -q -x to all ssh commands in conf/config.pl.  Suggested by
  SI Reasoning and Niranjan Ghate.

* Changed restore code so that option #1 (direct restore) can be
  disabled if the restore command is undefined.  Disabling direct
  restore is necessary if the share is read-only.  Suggested by
  Rich B from SAIC.

* Changed regexp in lib/BackupPC/Smb.pm to allow numbers with both
  a decimal point or comma for international versions of Samba.
  Patch submitted by Frank Gard.

* Browsing and directory history now sort the files in a
  case-insensitive manner.

* Changed exec() syntax to allow executing commands whose path
  contains spaces.

* Swapped the Server and Hosts sections on the Nav bar.  Moved the
  host search text box to the top of the hosts section.  This was
  done to move the variable-length part of the Nav bar (when all
  hosts are displayed) to the bottom.

* Fixed a bug in tar restore related to how the common prefix path is
  removed.  Now ensure that the common path is at a directory boundary.
  Reported by Patrick Neuner.

* Added --chuid ${USER} to init.d/src/gentoo-backuppc.  Suggested by
  SI Reasoning, Pascal Pochol, Michael Evanoff and others.

* Added Suse notes to init.d/README from Bruno Vernay.

* Added Apache 2 documentation fix from Michael Tuzi.