pool@milton.u.washington.edu (Jonathan Pool) (07/05/90)
Central Point Software's new MacTools Deluxe contains a Backup program that has a bug that could cause you to lose data. The program lets you save lists of folders to be backed up, in files called "setups". The setups, when opened, are intended to cause the folders to be selected automatically. The trouble is, THE CORRECT FOLDERS ARE NOT NECESSARILY SELECTED. What is actually selected is, for each folder that was originally marked, the FIRST folder in the volume's directory tree with the same name. And, in that folder, only the files (if any) with the same names as the files that were in the originally selected folder. Suppose you have 2 folders called "Chem 101" and "Chem 102", and in each of these you have 2 more folders called "Tests" and "Grades". Suppose you select "Chem 102" and its subsidiary folders (using Shift-Click) and save this selection in a "setup". When you try to back up your Chem 102 files by opening that setup, you will actually be backing up only Chem 101 files, specifically any files in Chem 101/Tests that have the same names as files in Chem 102/Tests, and similarly for /Grades. If you were to fail to notice that the wrong folders had been selected, and you deleted the Chem 102 files from your volume in reliance on the backup files as an archive, you would permanently lose your Chem 102 files. CPS says neither in-house testing nor extensive beta-testing discovered this bug. CPS says it has now reproduced the bug and says it will explore with the 3rd-party developer of this product what to do. I have not received yet any promise that the bug will be fixed or that purchasers of the product will be notified of the bug by CPS. I intend, personally, to inform CPS (if it comes to that) that this bug violates the product warranty (which, to CPS's credit, actually promises that the software will work) and I want it fixed under the warranty. If other owners of the product do the same, it can only help. CPS's customer assistance people seem sympathetic, knowledgeable, and somewhat frustrated with the support they don't always get from the back office.