[rdiff-backup-users] some questions, web interface, etc.

[Ben]

Hello, I have only just started testing rdiff-backup and it works really
well. I mainly want to use it to backup windows servers. I've been
testing it on win2k, backing up the system state, etc and it seems very
efficient.

The thing I like about rdiff-backup is the incrementals - it doesn't
back up files that have changed since the last full backup. Rather, it
backs up files that have changed since the last incremental backup. 

Second thing I like is that it uses ssh to transfer, plus numerous other
things are good about it. There are two things about it though that I
have questions about.

1) No compression on the files that it recieves. All the diffs are
compressed but not the actual current pool. I want to backup a *lot* of
servers and need all files to be compressed to save disk space.

2) No web interface for restoring files.

I have a solution to both of these problems. I am interested in making a
web interface. It won't be a very good one but it will be something that
(non-tech) users will be able to download files. I won't bother making
it restore to the windows server, I'll just make it so that by clicking
on a file, it will save it to whatever location they choose. I don't
think this will be all *that* hard to do, although making it browse
incrementals as well will be a little harder. I haven't actually looked
at how it checks for new file changes and where it stores them, but I'm
sure its not that hard to do. I'll probably end up doing this in perl
cgi.

As to the compression problem, I was thinking of making it so that any
new files that are transferred will get compressed and prepend the
filename with a couple of characters that identify them being
compressed. When a user goes to the web interface, then these first
couple of characters will be stripped as to not confuse the user. When
they choose to restore file(s), it will automatically uncompress them
and then send the files compressed down the pipe.

As I said, I haven't had much of a look at any of this so if this is not
going to be possible then please let me know of any problems I may run
into. 

Also, thanks for rdiff-backup =) seems pretty good. I would also like to
try the installer that David (I think?) made for windows that ties all
the necessary files together for rdiff-backup to work on windows. I will
get around to it and let you know how it goes compared to a compiled
version. I am in the middle of transferring a whole windows drive over
the network and so far its fine without any errors (apart from the usual
open files).