[comp.sys.atari.st] BackupST limitations?

dinapoli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Ron DiNapoli) (01/13/91)

There's been some talk about BackupST over the past month or so, so I 
decided to try it out.   Nice program!  However I've had a problem with
trying to backup my "fonts" directory for TeX.  There are a lot of files
in this one directory (and lots of subdirectories as I'm sure users of 
TeX know very well) and after scanning through the majority of them 
(calculating sizes) it doesn't seem to be able to open any more files.
Upon returning to the desktop, the fonts directory appears to be empty.
Sure enough, when I reboot, everything reappears.  This behavior is similar
to what you get when you get bitten by the folder limit bug.  However I
have the FOLDRXXX program and set it to FOLDR999.  BackupST still had
problems.  

This is not a big inconvenience to me because I have the original .zoo
files that the fonts came in.  So there's really no reason to back them 
up all the time.  Anyone else have a problem like this?  I also tried
to zoo the whole directory and it had problems too!

Ron D.

roberson@aurs01.UUCP (Charles "Chip" Roberson) (01/15/91)

In article <1991Jan12.172310.25325@rodan.acs.syr.edu> dinapoli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Ron DiNapoli) writes:
>There's been some talk about BackupST over the past month or so, so I 
>decided to try it out.   Nice program!  However I've had a problem with
>trying to backup my "fonts" directory for TeX.  There are a lot of files
>in this one directory (and lots of subdirectories as I'm sure users of 
>TeX know very well) and after scanning through the majority of them 
>(calculating sizes) it doesn't seem to be able to open any more files.

>Anyone else have a problem like this?  I also tried
>to zoo the whole directory and it had problems too!

Yep!  Me too...but with Turtle.  Turtle can't handle my d:\tex\fonts
directory.  There is some bug in Turtle that I could never convince
George Woodside of its existence, also.  Lately I've been gambling
because Turtle will not backup *either* of my two 10meg hd partitions
without bombing.  I'm running TOS 1.0 or whatever (circa 1985) on
a 1040ST.

If BackupST can overcome the TeX font directory thing, I'll start using
it since Turtle won't work for me anymore.

cheers,
 -chip


* Work:  2912 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh, NC 27609  (919) 850-5011
* (...!mcnc!aurgate!roberson) || (roberson%aurgate@mcnc.org) ||
* (71500.2056@CompuServe.com) || (Chip.Roberson@f112.n151.z1.fidonet.org)
#include <disclaimer.h>

woodside@ttidca.TTI.COM (George Woodside) (01/16/91)

In article <59439@aurs01.UUCP> roberson@aurw31.UUCP (Charles "Chip" Roberson) writes:
>In article <1991Jan12.172310.25325@rodan.acs.syr.edu> dinapoli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Ron DiNapoli) writes:
...
>Yep!  Me too...but with Turtle.  Turtle can't handle my d:\tex\fonts
>directory.  There is some bug in Turtle that I could never convince
>George Woodside of its existence, also.  Lately I've been gambling
>because Turtle will not backup *either* of my two 10meg hd partitions
>without bombing.  I'm running TOS 1.0 or whatever (circa 1985) on
>a 1040ST.
....

I've never argued the existance of a problem, only that I've been
unable to re-create it. That makes it nearly impossible to locate the
problem, let alone do anything about it.

I've a theory that the problem is centered around a huge file list,
a problem in the combination of MWC malloc, GEMDOS Malloc, and the Pexec
of the Ramdisk, resulting in an overwrite of something somewhere in
memory. Until I can recreate the problem, however, I can't do anything
about it. And, if I can recreate it, and it turns out to be one of
exceeding the memory available, then the only fix possible will be to
deal with smaller quantities of files, or expand your memory.
-- 
* George R. Woodside - Citicorp/TTI - Santa Monica, CA *
* Path:       woodside@ttidca.tti.com                  *
*   or:       ..!{philabs|csun|psivax}!ttidca!woodside *

fred@prisma.cv.ruu.nl (Fred Appelman) (01/16/91)

In <59439@aurs01.UUCP> roberson@aurs01.UUCP (Charles "Chip" Roberson) writes:

>In article <1991Jan12.172310.25325@rodan.acs.syr.edu> dinapoli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Ron DiNapoli) writes:
>>There's been some talk about BackupST over the past month or so, so I 
>>decided to try it out.   Nice program!  However I've had a problem with
>>trying to backup my "fonts" directory for TeX.  There are a lot of files
>>in this one directory (and lots of subdirectories as I'm sure users of 
>>TeX know very well) and after scanning through the majority of them 
>>(calculating sizes) it doesn't seem to be able to open any more files.
>
>>Anyone else have a problem like this?  I also tried
>>to zoo the whole directory and it had problems too!
>
>Yep!  Me too...but with Turtle.  Turtle can't handle my d:\tex\fonts
>directory. 

BackupST is a *very* clean program. Except for reading/writing to floppy/screen
I use high level gemdos calls to do the job. This means that if GEMDOS has
the problem, BackupST will have the trouble too. I am not sure if the problems
described above, are GEMDOS errors, but because Turtle and zoo have the 
same problems, I think that it is indead a GEMDOS error. Is there anybody
on the net who can confirm the existence of such error. Is it fixed in 
newer versions of the TOS (1.4 or 3.0)? 

As far as I know right now, there is one bug clear bug in the program:
	The program assumes that it needs 32K of memory for the screen
	which can be reached by pressing the 'esc' key. This is not true
	for 'TT' machines, and for Mega ST machines with larger screens.

I am currently working on a new version of the software which will be
completely under GEM. This new version will fix the memory allocation
error. 

BackupST will become slow if directorys with hundreds of files are backup'ed. 
BackupST is slow because Fsfirst() and Fsnext() are slow. Is there anybode
who knows how to make this faster in a *portable* way?

If you have wishes for the new version of BackupST please mail them to
me. 

Fred

Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz (01/17/91)

<59439@aurs01.UUCP>
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Comment-To: roberson@aurw31.UUCP
 
George Woodside has uploaded Turtle to Genie over Xmas, I did not see
what version it is as I can't use it, It requires at least 2 megs of ram
for me to work, that is for a 800k ram disk, have you tried Vault ???
or the Meg a Minute by Dave Small from Start Mag...
 
-- 
Roger W. Sheppard   85 Donovan Rd, Kapiti New Zealand...

woodside@ttidca.TTI.COM (George Woodside) (01/18/91)

In article <1991Jan17.045644.26945@actrix.gen.nz> Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:
><59439@aurs01.UUCP>
...
>George Woodside has uploaded Turtle to Genie over Xmas, I did not see
>what version it is as I can't use it, It requires at least 2 megs of ram
>for me to work, that is for a 800k ram disk, have you tried Vault ???
>or the Meg a Minute by Dave Small from Start Mag...

You must have a rather complex set up. Turtle is designed to run in
1 meg systems, since that's all I have. I also back up entirely on 800K
disks.

You can help relieve a cramped system by placing the RAMdisk in your
auto folder, rather than allow Turtle to install it. It does use less
memory that way. The RAMdisk is a normal and fully functional one
which I use al the time as a fast scratch drive. It does not, however,
do any autoloading of files at boot time.

If you do use the RAMdisk in your auto folder, you'll need to set the
proper configuration when you want to back up. Hold down either shift
key when the boot process approaches the RAMdisk. If a shift key is down
when the program starts up, it will present a configuration menu.

-- 
* George R. Woodside - Citicorp/TTI - Santa Monica, CA *
* Path:       woodside@ttidca.tti.com                  *
*   or:       ..!{philabs|csun|psivax}!ttidca!woodside *

roberson@aurs01.UUCP (Charles "Chip" Roberson) (01/18/91)

In article <1991Jan17.045644.26945@actrix.gen.nz> Roger.Sheppard@bbs.actrix.gen.nz writes:
>George Woodside has uploaded Turtle to Genie over Xmas, I did not see
>what version it is as I can't use it, It requires at least 2 megs of ram
>for me to work, that is for a 800k ram disk, have you tried Vault ???
>or the Meg a Minute by Dave Small from Start Mag...

I run Turtle in a 1meg ST with the Twistered RAM disk.

I have not tried Vault but have used Meg-a-Minute.  MaM was okay, but
I'm not too excited about having Image copies.  Turtle is nice in that
any file is accessible via TOS copy.

-chip


* Work:  2912 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh, NC 27609  (919) 850-5011
* (...!mcnc!aurgate!roberson) || (roberson%aurgate@mcnc.org) ||
* (71500.2056@CompuServe.com) || (Chip.Roberson@f112.n151.z1.fidonet.org)
#include <disclaimer.h>