[mbackup-devel] virtual locations

[<ra...@Te...>]

Hi!
It's nice to see some movement in free backup software.
One thing I always missed in every bachup software I've seen is some
kind of host/subpath independent backup:

Let's think of users home directories in a larger networked environment.
Home dirs may be placed on different hosts and on different disks within
a single host. As requirements change $HOMEs may be moved between disks
or hosts.

With a conventional backup system a complete full dump of a moved home
directory is required and in case one want's to restore some older
data, one has to remember the old location of that directory.

This can be solved by using virtual locations. Other valuable uses
might be ftp or web data areas or data locations in general.


Another point that directly affects the above mentioned idea (in case of
a file system backup -- opposed to a data base backup) is:

What is the file? Is it the data behind the inode or the file name? If
it's the inode, what should be done in case the backup set has been
move to a new location (or restored on a new disk)? And should the data
be backuped when the file name or permissions/ownership have changed?


m.
-- 
Matthias Rabe               ra...@te...        +49-521/5251-123
OWL-Online GmbH & Co KG               Feilenstr. 31       D-33602 Bielefeld