pkgBackup: (.rpm/.deb-based Linux) / News: Recent posts

I've just uploaded a "new" release. It has no changes to the source code itself. I'd failed to update the copyright years before I released v2.0.0, and didn't bother uploading those changes until today.

I've now been using v1.9.3 for over a year and a half now, with no problems. So, I've decided to bump up the version number to v2.0

A few other changes:

• Renamed the runner-scriptlets copied to "/etc/cron.weekly" and "/etc/cron.monthly". Some more recent versions of cron refuse to run anything with a "*.sh" suffix.

• Updated a core package, "jpwTools.pm". This is my personal Perl library. I consider the copy in the SVN repository for this project an "official release" for anyone to use. So, I try to keep it in sync with my personal copy (to which I regularly make enhancements).

This contains some minor bugfixes. It takes care of those spurrious warning messages about "exit status 0" when using *.deb based backup.

I've uploaded a release tarball for v1.9.2, which is the latest version, containing *.deb support.

Last month, I cut over from an .rpm-based distro (Fedora 8) to a .deb-based one (KUbuntu).

This gave me the chance to finally test out the .deb support. I'd completed the bulk of .deb support a couple of years ago. Now, I've ironed out (most) of the kinks.

I'll provide a release tarball soon.

(Also, once I've had it running successfully for a few months on my KUbuntu system, I'll bump up the version number.)

I've decided to bump the version to 1.0.0 and update the status to "Stable". I've also converted the repository from CVS to Subversion (which I did at home a year ago).

...and working nicely on my machines, for 1.5 years.

Usually, when I look at a SourceForge project that hasn't been updated in over a year, I think, "This project's deader than the dodo." In this case, it's more due to stability. I haven't posted a new version because there's been no need.

"pkgBackup" works well and has shown no problems since I last posted here. The only think it lacks is the .deb support. It still only works with .rpm-based systems. So, I once again ask: anyone want to volunteer to write the *.deb-side of this?... read more

I've tweaked slightly the naming scheme for the backup tarballs. Partly, this was to fix a bug (incremental backups overwriting the full backups).

The bugfix I described in an earlier news post is also included in this release.

Give it a try. If you have a spare system that you can use to test the restoration process (I don't), please do so and submit bug reports.

I found two rather embarassing bugs. I never noticed them because I never did a test of the "--full" option ... which is used by the install-procedure. Oops!

I'll add a new tarball containing the fixes soon. For now, just browse CVS and retrieve the "pkgBackup.pl" script.

"pkgBackup" is a "mature beta"; try it out.

Check the release notes for more info.