Re: [rdiff-backup-users] SafeKeep version 1.0.1 (stable) released

[Dimi Paun]

On Sun, 2007-06-24 at 11:29 -0500, Jim C. Nasby wrote:
> SafeKeep looks interesting, but it's not entirely clear to me what it
> offers over and above rdiff-backup, other than a centralized
> configuration.

The centralized configuration is part of it, yet.

>  I found your motivation page, but it doesn't really
> describe what you found lacking in rdiff-backup.

Probably I didn't do a good enough job in the motivation page :)
But seriously, there's nothing lacking in rdiff-backup per se,
it does a good job at what is meant to do. However, setting up
a backup solution for a LAN is more involved: database dumps,
maybe snapshots, key management for SSH, error handling, etc.

Now, once you add all these, you have a non-trivial amount of
code, and you're better off packaging in something like safekeep,
that's well tested, and carefully coded. Now, you are right that
one can probably do with just rdiff-backup + a bunch of scripts,
but those are likely to be less carefully done and not as well
tested. I would venture to say not something you really want for
a backup application.

> Also, does it absolutely depend on snapshot capabilities? I have a
> mixture of FreeBSD and OS X, neither of which currently have
> snapshotting (at least until ZFS...) 

No, it does not depend on it, but it can make use of it if you have it.

-- 
Dimi Paun <address@hidden>
Lattica, Inc.