moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (04/25/89)
[I imagine I could direct this at Chuq, but why put him on the spot? :-)]
Played around with the Retrospect overview stack, and it certainly looks
interesting. A couple of questions, which I hope someone can answer without
getting in dutch with Dantz:
1) CLASSIFICATION. Is there some way of providing information about what
the file you're archiving is -- something you can examine at a later time
when you're scanning through the files on the archive tape/disk/whatever?
An info box/window, or something? Actually, it would be tedious for me to
type in information on every file I archived -- I tend to classify my stuff
by what folder it's in. (e.g. my digitized theme to Secret Agent Man is in
Sound:Sound Files:TV:Secret Agent Man). Is there some way to either
preserve the structure or indicate the pathname the file was in when it was
archived?
Perhaps I should generalize: how are the archived files classified?
2) DELETION/REPLACEMENT. Is there some way to delete a single file off the
archived list? Is the space then reusable by something else? Is there a
way to overwrite an older edition program with a newer one on the archive?
(When it's physically possible, I mean, i.e. not a WORM drive.)
Certainly looks good; using partitions and tape drives, I'm currently using
DiskFit for archiving, but it's still tedious. I just want to make sure
Retrospect will take a significant amount of that tedium away before
purchasing it. (And hopefully, I won't have to do too much work to get
things in order for Retrospect archiving.)
"Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine."
-- Patti Smith
---
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, hplsla, thebes, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty
CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind...
<*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/25/89)
>1) CLASSIFICATION. Is there some way of providing information about what >the file you're archiving is -- something you can examine at a later time >when you're scanning through the files on the archive tape/disk/whatever? >An info box/window, or something? There is an info box you can fill in for every session you archive. That's not quite as granular as an info box per file, but probably good enough for most situations. >Is there some way to either >preserve the structure or indicate the pathname the file was in when it was >archived? Directory structure is maintained for nested folders based on the root of the volume (or subvolume) so if you have a directory foo:bar:baz:file, the archive will reflect (and optionally regenerate) the directory structure when you restore. >2) DELETION/REPLACEMENT. Is there some way to delete a single file off the >archived list? No. I asked about that, too. It's primarily a limitation of the media -- tapes and WORMS and stuch don't allow that. Dantz has said they'll look into supporting it for media that does support it sometime in the future (i.e. not in the initial release, maybe not ever). >Certainly looks good; using partitions and tape drives, I'm currently using >DiskFit for archiving, but it's still tedious. I just want to make sure >Retrospect will take a significant amount of that tedium away before >purchasing it. (And hopefully, I won't have to do too much work to get >things in order for Retrospect archiving.) I've been using it heavily since I started testing it. Once you get everything into a Retrospect archive, updating and finding stuff in them is a real joy. The hardest part of the whole thing was converting my 70 floppy PD archive to a 38 floppy Retrospect (compressed) archive. It was amazing how many duplicates snuck in when I wasn't looking, and now if I need something, I can find it easily.
moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (04/26/89)
In article <29471@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes: >>Is there some way to either >>preserve the structure or indicate the pathname the file was in when it was >>archived? > >Directory structure is maintained for nested folders based on the root of >the volume (or subvolume) so if you have a directory foo:bar:baz:file, >the archive will reflect (and optionally regenerate) the directory structure >when you restore. Excellent -- and I assume that this directory structure is listed when you're browsing through a Retrospect archive? >>2) DELETION/REPLACEMENT. Is there some way to delete a single file off the >>archived list? > >No. I asked about that, too. It's primarily a limitation of the media -- >tapes and WORMS and stuch don't allow that. Dantz has said they'll look into >supporting it for media that does support it sometime in the future (i.e. >not in the initial release, maybe not ever). Probably not a biggie -- every once in a while I could dump the entire archive to disk, get rid of the duplicates, and then archive it back to tape. One last question: can multiple Retrospect archives be placed on a single tape (in particular, a 40MB cartridge tape?) In other words, after you've archived one group of files to a tape, can you create another, seperate archive on the same tape (if there's room) and begin archiving files to it? If you can, then I'm sold; I suspect that a Retrospect archive == a file, so this is probably possible. OK, *one* more question, Chuq: how does the file compression option stand up? Does it slow down the archiving process much, compared to non-compressed mode? How does the % compressed stand up, compared to (say) StuffIt? [If you're under non-disclosure oath about stuff like this, forget I asked, and thanks for the info so far...] "We Americans, we're a simple people... but piss us off, and we'll bomb your cities." -- Robin Williams --- Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, hplsla, thebes, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind... <*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>
chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (04/26/89)
>Excellent -- and I assume that this directory structure is listed when >you're browsing through a Retrospect archive? Yes. >One last question: can multiple Retrospect archives be placed on a single >tape (in particular, a 40MB cartridge tape?) No. It'll use the entire media for a given archive. The reason why you don't want to put multiple archives on a tape is that you need to be able to add to the archive later -- and if there were another archive beyond it on the tape, you couldn't do that. >OK, *one* more question, Chuq: how does the file compression option stand >up? Does it slow down the archiving process much, compared to >non-compressed mode? How does the % compressed stand up, compared to (say) >StuffIt? [If you're under non-disclosure oath about stuff like this, forget >I asked, and thanks for the info so far...] The file compression is Lempel-Ziv, so the compression factors are essentially the same as Stuffit. The compression algorithms have been optimized, so they're claiming 10-15% faster compression times than using StuffIt (which my testing seems to agree with). PLUS you can run a compressed archive across multiple floppies without having to split it up manually. In fact, it'll archive a single large file across multiple disks, compressed (and optionally encrypted), and put it back together again without you having to do anything special at all.