Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

lstandish · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 126

Sylvander,
The (optional) logfile stored with each snapshot backup indicates which files were backed up (the differences between that backup and the next oldest.) I do think it would be good to allow viewing the latest backup log (whether stored locally or on a remote machine) in a snap2 gtkdialog window.

For more in-depth information, I think the user should open the storage directory and browse through the log files in each snapshot directory.

I think these snapshot logfiles should normally give you what you want to know about a backup event. It's true they don't tell you which files were NOT backed up compared to the previous backup. As pointed out previously, to provide that information snap2 would have to create the hard links via cp rather than via rsync, and this would introduce the ownership/permissions bug (old snapshots can acquire permissions/ownerships of newer snapshots).

If you want more in-depth info about the differences between snapshots, you could run a directory comparison tool such as Krusader's "Synchronize Directories." That's non-Puppy, of course. It's really first-class.

lstandish · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 126

Sylvander, I found a great graphical directory comparison utility for you (called dirdiff), and make a pet package out of it (attached). You can compare up to 5 directories at once. It needs the Puppy tk/tcl libraries. Since they are listed as dependencies, they should be installed automatically.

Here's the Debian package description:
"Dirdiff can handle up to 5 trees. It displays a main window with a
list of the files which are different between the trees, with colored
squares to indicate the relative ages of the versions. A menu allows you to display the differences between any two of the versions in another window. Another menu allows you to copy the file from one tree to another."

I think I'll put it in the snap2 download area. (For Puppy 4.3.1)

2byte · Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 356

Istandish,

Can you add checking for mounted folders to snap2?
I just tried to backup an unmounted partition to another unmounted partition, it failed of course but there was no error reported.
.

Sylvander · Posted: Sun 24 Jan 2010, 06:43 Post subject:

1. @lstandish
(a) I installed dirdiff using the pet you supplied.
At the possible end of the installation there wasn't the usual display of notifications; just saw a quick flash of more than 1 window.

(b) "Menu->Utility->dirdiff" is listed, but if I click on this nothing happens.

(c) Entered the command dirdiff in a terminal and got the response:
/usr/bin/dirdiff: line3: exec: wish: Not found

2. Any ideas how to get it working?

3. Ran "Menu->Setup->Check dependencies" on dirdiff-2.1-4, which reported:
/usr/lib/libfilecmp.so.0.0
Has missing library files:
libtcl8.5.so.0
And that Puppy had examined all user installed packages and found the following missing dependencies:
tcl tk

lstandish · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 126

Sylvander,
The problem with dirdiff is that tcl and tk need to be installed. When I built the pet I specified that tcl and tk are dependencies. Maybe I need to specify the full package name when I specify the dependency. Anyway, if you install the tcl and tk libraries, dirdiff ought to work. Search for "tcl" in the Puppy package installer program - you'll see a package with a name like tcl8.5nothread.pet (that's not exactly it - I don't have Puppy running now to check it.) The tcl package will I think require the tk package, plus a few other pet packages, totaling something over 1 meg in size. I'll try to fix the dirdif package.

2byte, I'll add a check for mounted partitions to a future version - thanks for that excellent suggestion!

Sylvander and 2byte, please make sure that you are using version 3.2-20. 3.2-19 had mirror backup broken and 3.2-18 also had SSL remote authentication broken.

Sylvander · Posted: Sun 24 Jan 2010, 15:05 Post subject:

1. OK...
(a) Used PPM to install both:
tcl-8.5a4nothreads
And...
tk-8.5a4nothreads

(b) dirdiff-2.1-4 now runs and functions. Very Happy

It's looking good so far; looks like it will provide useful info on "differences" between partition contents and backups, or between this backup and that.

lstandish · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 126

Good! Notice that dirdiff also can show color-coded differences between one file and another, so you can see exactly what changed from one version of a file to another. Plus you can apply or unapply file differences.

I made a new pet package for dirdiff giving the fill name of the dependency packages. I'll test it soon. (I made it using dir2pet running on Debian.)

Sylvander · Posted: Sun 24 Jan 2010, 17:00 Post subject:

1. "you can apply or unapply file differences"
Woa...
Could you elaborate?
e.g. Exactly what is done, and How?

lstandish · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 126

I just discovered this program myself, looking for a lightweight directory difference analyzer for Puppy, so I don't know much about it. However, I just did some tests, comparing a directory containing a file from snap2 (snap2engine), with a directory containing a previous version of snap2engine.

It is really cool. When I first ran dirdiff and selected the 2 directories, I saw this:

This shows that both directories have the file 'snap2engine' and that the right-hand file is older than the left-hand file. Also, it shows that the left-hand dir has 'snap2' and 'snap2shell', files that are not found in the right-hand directory.

Then I double-clicked the snap2engine line, and saw this:

This window shows the differences between the 2 files. The green text is the section found in the newer file that is not found in the older file. Note that I have ticked the first 3 checkboxes at the start of the lines. You do this to indicate which changes you want to work with for a subsequent "merge" operation. I clicked 'merge' in the menu and chose to "update /home/lloyd/bin". That's the older, right-hand file (pink name).

Then a window appeared to show me the result of merging my ticked changes to the older file. I scrolled down, and saw this:

At this point you can save the merged files whereever you wish. I'm impressed. I really like dirdiff.

I made a new dirdiff pet and replaced the original (above).

8-bit · Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 3012 Location: Oregon

Dirdiff fixed pet is not quite fixed.
You did not set the executable dirdiff as being executable
When I installed the Pet for it, and clicked on the menu entry, nothing happened.
So I tried running it from a terminal and got Permission Denied.
I then went to it's location of /usr/bin/dirdiff and set the executable properties to allow the scrip to run.
That solved it.

lstandish · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 126

snap2 version 3.2-21beta is ready for download. The most important change is that rsync output is no longer buffered, so you can (again) see the progress of the backup as it occurs. Puppy pet download: http://files.lstandish.com/

Sorry, 8-bit, about the bad permissions in the dirdiff pet. Did it at least load the dependencies properly?

I'll try to go back and upload another fixed pet. (done: dirdiff-2.1-4fixed.pet)

8-bit · Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 3012 Location: Oregon

The dependencies I already had covered.
And I took the program as far as the entry window for dirdiff.
But I thought you should know.
I also will again try your latest version of snap2.

8-bit · Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 3012 Location: Oregon

I'm back with news.
The latest version of Snap2 failed to do a new snapshot when using the "Snapshot backup now" button in the main Snapshot-GUI program.
It seems like it worked before.
The Puppy menu selection of "Snap2 snapshot backup now!" still works.
Also when trying the new version, I uninstalled the old one before installing the new version.
In the uninstall, my snap2 settings were preserved.

lstandish · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Posts: 126

8-bit,
Oh, damn, I know what it is. I left a line in there hard-coding 'konsole' (a KDE program) as the terminal emulator, rather than allowing it to detect the installed terminal emulator program. I'll fix that and upload a new version in a few minutes.

... OK, fixed in version 3.2-22beta

On the snap2 pet uninstall not wiping out your settings: That's true, but do we really want all the backup configuration files to be deleted every time you upgrade?

Sylvander · Posted: Tue 26 Jan 2010, 05:46 Post subject:

@lstandish
1. I'm trying to clarify my understanding of snap2.
(a) The snap2shell window displays ALL differences, right?
i.e.
(b) Newly created folders/files that didn't exist previously, and therefore were not included in any previous snapshot.
And/or...
(c) Changes to existing files.
And/or...
(d) Files that previously existed [are therefore possibly included in previous snapshots], but have been eliminated/deleted.

2. I've been using dirdiff to compare/contrast snapshots [say recent.2 & recent.3], and finding that there were NO DIFFERENCES between them, so I deleted the newest [recent.2], and renamed recent.3 to recent.2
Is it OK to do that do you think?