Re: Backward compatibility of next beta

[Derek Atkins]

Hi,

Frank Crawford <address@hidden> writes:

> (Sorry about the previous formatting I'm resending this formatted
> correctly)
>
> Rigo,
>
> It depends on what you mean by compatible.
>
> Python3 version of rdiff-backup is not interoperable for remote
> operations with python2 rdiff-backup, so v2.0.0 will not work with
> v1.2.8 or v1.3.3.  This is a python3 vs python2 issue and could not be
> fixed without major changes to both versions.

So just to be clear, the version of "rdiff-backup --server" must match
the other version?  Right now I have a backup server that basically
runs:

rdiff-backup <excludelist> hostname_backup::<dir> <targetdir>/hostname

Where "hostname_backup" is an SSH configuration, and it then uses SSH to
connect to "hostname" where it creates and mounts an LVM snapshot and
then runs "rdiff-backup --server --restrict-read-only /mnt/snap"

Having said all this, what you're saying is that once ANY of my target
hosts get upgraded to a point where they can only run
rdiff-backup-2.0.0, then I must upgrade ALL most hosts (and backup
server) to be running rdiff-backup-2.0.0?

IMHO, that is a VERY VERY BAD THING.

> However, the backup archives that are created are compatible, so if you
> did a backup with an older version, you can continue using it with no
> issues.
>
> In fact, while this isn't in the planned distribution, there is some
> comment by someone who has written a wrapper that invokes either a
> python2 or python3 version, depending on what it is talking to.  Of
> course the python2 version is either v1.2.8 or v1.3.3, not v2.0.0.

I think this is extremely important to get into the release in order to
handle the use case stated above!  I certainly can't believe that I am
the only person who uses rdiff-backup this way to back up remote
machines.

> Regards
> Frank

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       address@hidden             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant