Shared Backup is a backup scheme designed for Hermes. With Shared Backup you can do automatic backups of the Hermes Shared file, message files, directory description files, G-Files and daily Logs. It will do backups to a location of your choice on a nightly basis or do a manual backup at any time from the externals menu. This is a DEMO of the external and will only run for about two days. I you would like to use it longer than that please register it.
Installing it.
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Shared Backup consists of both a user and sysop external, but has not other associated files (other than the backups it creates). To install it simply put Shared Backup in the externals folder and restart.
Setting it up.
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All customizing of Shared Backup is done from the sysop external. From the sysop external (the system preferences item under the sysop menu) you can customize Shared Backup to suit your needs.
Toggling the 'On/Off' option will turn Shared Backup on and off (it will not be called in the idle loop which is where all the action takes place) without having to remove it from the externals folder.
The next item you need to set is the number of backups you would like Shared Backup to save. The default is 5 copies and arbitrarily it is limited to 20 copies. Setting it above that level will default to 5.
Next there is a small black box that has the time that Shared Backup should start processing the backup. Click on this box to change its value. You will get a dialog similar to the one Hermes uses to set node and sysop available times. NOTE: You should not set the backup time too close to midnight. The reason is that both Hermes and lots of externals do special processing then. Shared Backup is a little rude when doing the backup and if you try to do to much at once it may cause problems.
Below the number of backups box are two check boxes. These allow you to set options which will significantly decrease the amount of disk space that is required
to store the backups.
'Only copy data fork' will only backup the user records contained in the Hermes Shared file. It will not copy the other data that is stored there (menus, directory, forum and sub names), since these change much less option. This option will decrease the size of each backup by 80K or more (depending on the size of your menus). Should you ever need to use one of these backups you can use 'FixShared' to recover them.
'Compress backups' does exactly that. It will use the Stuffit Engine (part of the Stuffit Deluxe package) to compress your Hermes Shared file. The savings is most worth it. Backups compress by about 90% (mine is compressed from 320K to 33K) so it is definitely worth it to compress them.
If you chose the compression option then several more options will appear directly below the compression choice. These four boxes allow you to choose what other files should be backed up with the Shared file. The choices are to include the Messages, Data, Logs and GFiles folders. If you include these files they will be compressed along with the Shared File.
The last setting is the only one which is absolutely necessary. You need to tell Shared Backup where to save the backups and how to name them. To do this click on the 'Path to save backup' box and you will get a standard 'Save' dialog. Choose the place you would like to have your backups stored.
Running it.
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Nothing special is required to run Shared Backup in automatic mode. Each night Shared Backup will backup your Hermes Shared file with the options set in the sysop external. It will do this after the time that you set in the the preferences dialog, but will wait until all users have logged off before it does it.
Limitations, problems etc
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The only real problems I can see are related to errors. Everything should go smoothly as long as you are careful to set everything up right. There isn't much you can do wrong. If you don't have the path for the backup set correctly look in the same folder as Hermes and you may find your backups there. I have added log keeping even when the backup is successful to help track these sorts of things down.
The biggest risk is that you may run out of disk space. Make sure you have enough space on the volume you are backing up to. Check the doc that came in this archive called "What to backup?" for an idea of how much space you will need. Then do a manual backup to make sure. If you don't have enough space the Stuffit Engine will not be able to complete the backup.
Future features
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I am thinking about including the following but would like to hear other ideas.
--using Stuffit Lite to compress files (unlikely--problem is memory usage)
All of these are dependent on people registering Shared Backup. If you like it let me know and I will continue to work on it.
The plea.
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Shared Backup is SHAREWARE. I think this is a really useful product. I am more than willing to support it but new versions are of course dependent on interest and interest is dependent on feedback and the best feedback is registration. I have written a few shareware applications and it is getting discouraging, not to mention financially hard, to justify all the time. If you use it please register your copy. I feel that shareware has fallen into the same trap as the commercial system it is supposed to be an alternative to. Authors ask for such large fees because so few people actually send them in. This in turn causes fewer people to send them in, which makes authors feel they need to ask for more, which…you get the picture. I have intentionally made the price so reasonable you don't have any excuse not to pay the shareware fee. If you don't think the external is worth $10 then DON'T USE IT.
Registration info
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To register send $10, *and* the registration form below (the form does make things easier) to Chris Owen, PO Box 1471, Garden City, KS 67846 (before August 1993 you can send it to me at 27 Bishop St #2R, New Haven CT 06511 for faster registration).
If you have any questions or comments about Shared Backup, I would appreciate hearing them. I can be reached on Olympus or at the addresses below.
Chris Owen (#681, I think)
owenc@minerva.cis.yale.edu <-- I prefer one of these two addresses
owen-christopher@cs.yale.edu <-- I prefer one of these two addresses
Mulligan's Valley ("official" support board) 203-772-4485 (2400)
