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Another idea for version 2.x

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USBman
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Joined: 2006-10-11 17:43
Another idea for version 2.x

I had another idea to add to the new version of Toucan (in addition to adding Checksum / Hash capability): what about taking advantage of this potential new checksum capability to automatically check for changes to specified files, allowing for the automatic creation of versioned backups. Super cool!

It could go something like this:

  1. Have a menu in which you specify 1) (the location of) individual files or (the contents of) entire folders you want to be monitored, 2) the location where you want them backed-up, and 3) the time interval in which to monitor them
  2. Run the checksum comparison, checking the locally stored file versus the backed-up file (at the above specified time interval)
  3. If any files differ, automatically create a copy of those specific files (maybe even have an option to specify if you want to simply copy the file or compress it (in the screen from step #1)
    This might create an issue with checksum comparison though. ...maybe you could place the compressed backup file inside of a timestamped folder, along with a simple text file with the checksum of the content(s) of the corresponding compressed file, which could then be parsed for comparison purposes)

As I haven't yet thought these steps through a bunch of times, there may be issues. However, I think any issues may be worth working through; while this feature could be beyond the original scope of Toucan, adding the option for checksum verified backups would make Toucan a hugely more versatile and complete package!

This idea originally came as I read this post, where they talk about a program called Cobian Backup doing a similar type of thing. Reading that post got me thinking about my previous post and the notion that having the checksum comparison built in to a versioning backup feature would make the backups way more reliable. ...and, unfortunately, as of the most recent version (9.x), Cobian is no longer open source.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Steve Lamerton
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Last seen: 11 years 3 weeks ago
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Joined: 2005-12-10 15:22
I

have just got back from my holiday, and will post a detailed response as soon as I have had time to think properly! Sounds like a good plan though!

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