Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Backup from FTP via curlFTPFS

[Matt]

Bram Schoenmakers wrote:

> > It's rather slow but, with only FTP access available, it's a pretty good
> > solution.  Hope someone finds this useful.
>
> The problem with mounting remote, virtual, file systems is that there's only 
> one rdiff-backup instance running: at the client. To compare a file, the whole 
> file is transparently downloaded from the remote site. If it differs, the 
> whole file is uploaded back + a delta. 

It's not being uploaded back as our target is a local disk.  The FTP 
filesystem is mounted readonly.  It looks, from their bandwidth stats, 
that it's not actually downloading every file either.  Perhaps it's just 
downloading those with changed timestamps?

> The advantage of having rdiff-backup at the remote site is that client and 
> server can efficiently communicate what has changed and only toss over the 
> deltas.

Yep, I use rdiff-backup in the usual manner everywhere else.  This FTP 
system was a least-worst option where a proper install simply wasn't 
possible.  I was just reporting that it works nicely, as I thought there 
might be other people stuck in the same boat :)

Matt