Re: Incremental backups and renamed files?

In article <2007053015581716807-thanksforno@spamcom>,
Bill Lloyd <thanks.for.no@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2007-05-29 11:04:48 -0700, Fred Moore <fmoore@xxxxxxxx> said:
In article <yobr6oztxwo.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
BreadWithSpam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
SuperDuper doesn't do "incremental backups" in the sense of
making snapshots. It makes a backup copy identical to the
main copy. SuperDuper's "Smart-update" is not an incremental
backup. It's a smart sync system for cloning a drive.

Exactly! However in SD!, there is an option to leave on the target
volume files which have been deleted from the source. This feature can,
if you finesse it properly by duplicating and then renaming files, give
you an approximation of snapshot incremental backups.

There is?

I've never seen that option. I just had a look -- care to give a
pointer as to where it is?

Sure. Options->General->During copy->Copy newer... or Copy different...

From the help file->Backing Up Your Macintosh->Step 4:

/quote/
Copy newer and Copy different, the other two During Copy options,
control what SuperDuper! does when it copies a file from a folder on the
source volume to the destination, and finds there¹s already a file in
that location with the same name.

When Copy newer is selected, the file on the destination is replaced
with the one from the source if the file on the source has a newer (more
recent) modification date.

Copy different replaces the file on the destination if the source file
is different (not necessarily newer) in date, size, HFS+ metadata,
attributes, etc. So, the file on the destination is replaced if it¹s not
exactly the same as the source file.

***** In both cases, files on the destination that are not on the source
are left as-is. ***** [emphasis added]
/unquote/

Thus, if you have deleted, renamed, or moved a file on your source disk,
the original no longer exists as far as SD! is concerned when it looks
at that file on the target. If you are Smart Updating a previous backup
using Copy newer... or Copy different..., the original backed up file on
the target will not be touched, yet the newly named one _will_ be backed
up, producing *2* (or more) versions of the same file, i.e. a type of
incremental 'snapshot' backup. It's not Retrospect, but it's a lot
easier to implement.

RTFM. For this app, 'Fine' really is the correct F-word. ;)

--Fred
.

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