Re: "in-program" backup facility
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg111931] Re: "in-program" backup facility
- From: David Reiss <dbreiss at gmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:22:15 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <i4ges3$jek$1@smc.vnet.net>
On Aug 18, 4:06 am, peter <plindsa... at gmail.com> wrote: > Understood, thanks to all who responded. > peter > > On 17 August 2010 06:20, David Bailey <d... at removedbailey.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > On16/08/10 10:55, Bill Rowe wrote: > >> On 8/15/10 at 7:36 AM, plindsa... at gmail.com (peter) wrote: > > >>> I've seen a few posts about this and I'm wondering if I am missing > >>> the point [ again ]. Surely folks are managing their own backups - > >>> perhaps using "Time Machine" on the mac or whatever. The arguments > >>> in favour or regular backups surely extend beyond the use of > >>> Mathematica and apply generally to the use of a personal computer ? > > >> Undoubtedly, such backups are done by many users here. But, such > >> backups don't entirely resolve the issue. > > >> Time Machine and the like backup the entire hard drive. The > >> default interval for Time Machine is 1 hour. With Mathematica, a > >> substantial amount of work can be lost when restoring a notebook > >> to what it was 1 hour ago. > > >> And note, Time Machine backs up the file as it exists on the > >> hard drive. If you have not saved your work periodically, the > >> file backed up by Time Machine could be quite a bit more than 1 > >> hour old. > > >> Creating some sort of script to automate periodically saving the > >> state of a notebook and decreasing the interval Time Machine > >> uses for backups isn't a viable solution either. If you decrease > >> the interval between backups enough, then Time Machine will be > >> perpetually running and never complete a backup. Further, with a > >> scheme to automatically save notebooks there will be the chance > >> Time Machine will be writing the notebook to the backup at the > >> same time it is being modified (saved) by the automated save > >> script. And the probability of this occurring clearly increases > >> as the interval between backups is decreased. The result of such > >> collisions will be the copy of the notebook in the Time Machine > >> backup won't be stable and likely is unusable. > > >> Programs designed to backup all files that have changed on a > >> hard drive really aren't replacements for what is being asked for. > > > I'd say some sort of 'nag' function that just reminded the user that he > > had been working on a notebook for x minutes, and wouldn't he like to > > save. An automatic save can easily happen at the worst possible moment = - > > say half way through a long series of find/replace operations! > > > I like control over what is going on. > > > David Bailey > > >http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk Since I didn't mention it in this thread, there is a CVS-like backup facility in http://scientificarts.com/worklife/ Best, David