Toucan 2.1.0 Development Test 3

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March 15, 2009 - 4:32pm

Steve Lamerton

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Toucan 2.1.0 Development Test 3

Application: Toucan
Category: Utilities

Toucan 2.1.0 Development Test 3 has now been uploaded.
This is classed as a Development Test not because it is buggy but because it doesnt yet implement all of the features that I would like to add for 2.1.0, however it does add two new major features which I would like as much testing as possible for, they are:

New Progress Box

2.1.0 adds a brand new progress box that looks a lot nicer than the old one in my opinion, it also includes a progress bar that should be very accurate, the trade-off for this is setup time, I would like to know if it seems annoyingly long for you.

New Sync Engine

The Sync engine has also been rewritten for 2.1.0, this includes the preview system, which should now completely reflect what is going to happen. The engine should bring major speedups for all Sync modes, especially Mirror and Equalise; I have had them going up to 10x faster in some of my testing. I would like to know if seem faster to you guys/gals and if it seems to be accurate.

Thanks in advance

Download Toucan 2.1.0 Development Test 3 [2.3MB download / 3.0MB installed]
(MD5:407008d260b0b4cccada57a5724342d4)

Release Notes:
Development Test 3 (2008-03-21):

Empty directory backup fixed
Date and time stamped log now created in command line mode
Date exclusion fixed
Time exclusion fixed
Command line slaphscreen fixed
Command line output fixed
Sync abort fixed
Sync readonly helpfile update
Sync timestamp with root paths fix
Folder exclusions fix (actual and preveiw)
Other Sync preview bugfixes
Taskbar notification updated

Development Test 2 (2008-03-17):

Sync preview tooltips
Taskbar flash on job finish
A couple of equalise bug fixes
A couple of preview fixes
Fix for lack of backup variable expansion
Merge of 2.1 code into trunk

Development Test 1 (2008-03-15):

First pre-release

March 15, 2009 - 4:56pm

J Neutron

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Got it

I'll let you know how it goes.

Jim

neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com

March 15, 2009 - 7:38pm

J Neutron

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Progress bar

The progress bar is a very good addition. I like it! Also the formatting of the filelist is good.

It would be awesome to see the percentage in the bar, but that is certainly not required.

The only other thing I'd look for is some kind of "completed" status indicator - a green checkmark or the "OK" button lighting up, etc or maybe even a "tah-dah" sound (optional of course).

I'll play with sync later...

Jim

neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com

March 16, 2009 - 3:14am

(Reply to #3) #4

Steve Lamerton

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You

are right, percentage would be good, I shall try and get that added. For a better finishing notification I shall have a think, perhaps making the taskbar flash when it is done, like some apps do when they want attention?

March 16, 2009 - 7:37am

(Reply to #4) #5

J Neutron

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Attention

Yeah, that attention thing must be a standard Windoze call.

You are going to run into people who complain that the percentage and/or progress bar are wrong because they represent the number of files done versus left (seems that's the way it works) instead of amount of data. This is different because not all files are the same size and if large files are all in the front or back, it will skew the progress indication.

Of course this isn't exact either, because when backing up a Firefox profile, for instance, there is a long pause part way though while the archiver works before scrolling more filenames.

There's no way that you accurately predict that kind of behavior, so don't get worried about it.

Just be aware that there are going to be some bozos on this bus! (Probably nobody will get that reference).

Jim

neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com

March 16, 2009 - 4:57pm

(Reply to #5) #6

Steve Lamerton

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Yep

indeed it is, I have just added the code, it looks really neat

As for the progress bar, thanks for the warning! I did think about doing it based on size, but decided that number of files would probably be accurate enough (and is certainly better than what was there before ;-)), I tried to keep down the number of things Toucan does when updating the progress bar, I just wasnt convinced that calling another function to get the file size was worth it, however I guess if there was enough demand then I could change it (make it an option or something)

March 15, 2009 - 8:04pm

Patchworks

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Seem to be a problem with building the directories

I just downloaded and tested the new version and I'm getting an error that says the file does not exists. When I look at the directories they all appear to be missing the first level of the directory.

For example:

e:\download\avg\test.exe is trying to copy e:\avg\test.exe

Thanks,

March 16, 2009 - 3:07am

(Reply to #7) #8

Steve Lamerton

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Which sync

mode are you using? Thanks for the report

March 16, 2009 - 1:28pm

(Reply to #8) #9

Patchworks

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Mode

I'm using equalize!

March 16, 2009 - 4:47pm

(Reply to #9) #10

Steve Lamerton

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am afraid I cannot reproduce this, is there anything unusual about the folders you are choosing (if you could post what they are that would be even better) so I can try and recreate a similar folder structure.

Thanks again.

March 18, 2009 - 1:51am

(Reply to #10) #11

Bruce Pascoe

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Reproduced

I just ran into this same issue myself. While trying to backup my entire drive, I kept noticing it was trying to access files in "L:\Music" when they are actually in L:\Documents\Music. It appears it's cutting off the first part of the path...

Here's what the sync job looked like:

Source: L:\
Destination: C:\Users\Family\Downloads\BruceBackup
Function: Mirror
Options: Retain Timestamps, Retain Attributes

Not sure if this affects anything, but I clicked Preview before beginning the operation.

Something else: I was unable to cancel the operation once the errors started whizzing by and instead had to use the close box on the Windows 7 taskbar thumbnail to kill it (thank God for W7 Aero Peek!). Of course this crashed Toucan, but at least I didn't have to wait for it to finish its error spree.

Edit: Here's something interesting: It looks like Toucan actually did copy the files, but it still kept showing "Can't access L:\Music\..." errors in the status window (again, note that my music is in Documents\Music, not Music)... Really strange.

March 18, 2009 - 3:51am

(Reply to #11) #12

Steve Lamerton

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Thanks

Bruce, looks like it is a problem with root paths, I shall get that fixed shortly, and yes there is a bug with aborting, I shall get that fixed too, thanks for the report

EDIT: Oh no it isn't! It is the Retain Timestamps option that is causing it.

March 18, 2009 - 10:38am

(Reply to #12) #13

Bruce Pascoe

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By the way

Why the "Ignore Read-only" option? Read-only files can still be read (and therefore copied), they just can't be written. So I shouldn't have to check a special option just to get Toucan to copy them...

March 18, 2009 - 12:55pm

(Reply to #13) #14

Steve Lamerton

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is for read only files in the destination that you might want to overwrite anyway.

March 18, 2009 - 2:09pm

(Reply to #14) #15

Bruce Pascoe

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Oh okay

But the documentation doesn't make that clear. Toucan Help says "Ignore Read-Only - Read-only files will be copied." This suggests you have to select that option if you want read-only files to be backed up--which isn't the case.

March 18, 2009 - 2:15pm

(Reply to #15) #16

Steve Lamerton

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Good

point, I shall get it fixed.

March 16, 2009 - 11:27pm

#17

J Neutron

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Uh...

There's a problem with variables.

I backup a job to @date@-Firefox.7z so that the backups would fall into sorted order, like:

2009-03-13-Firefox.7z
2009-03-14-Firefox.7z
2009-03-15-Firefox.7z

Imagine my surprise when I saw the backup directory hold a file actually named "@date@-Firefox.7z".

Jim

neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com

March 17, 2009 - 3:44am

(Reply to #17) #18

Steve Lamerton

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shall try and get a Dev Test 2 out later with this fixed.

March 17, 2009 - 3:32pm

#19

Steve Lamerton

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Development

Test 2 now out, see the original post

March 17, 2009 - 4:20pm

(Reply to #19) #20

J Neutron

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Dev 2 Notes

Notes on Dev 2.

Variable expansion works now.

The complete alert only works when the status window does not have focus. If the status window is in front, then the alert does not work.

Jim

neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com

March 21, 2009 - 9:44am

#21

Steve Lamerton

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Development

Test 3 is now out with a huge pile of bug fixes.

March 21, 2009 - 10:18am

#22

horusofoz

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Just noticed in the release

Just noticed in the release notes you have the releases listed as pre-releases rather than dev tests. Oh and thanks for all your continued work on this

PortableApps.com Advocate

March 21, 2009 - 9:26pm

#23

Bruce Pascoe

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Mirror (Update)?

What happened to the "Mirror (Update)" sync mode? Now there's just a single Mirror option... Update-Mirror was invaluable to me for keeping my whole-drive backup up-to-date. I'm left to assume the new Mirror option is going to copy everything over every time...

Also, the release notes say you updated the read-only description in the helpfile, but after I updated from DevTest 2 to DevTest 3, it's still described as "Read-only files will be copied". What gives?

March 21, 2009 - 9:43pm

(Reply to #23) #24

Bruce Pascoe

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Also

It still doesn't abort right away. If I click Cancel, it forces me to wait until the current file is done before it aborts. This is fine for small files, but if it's in the middle of a large file (say, a video), I have to wait until it's done.

I know this is how the standard Windows copy dialog behaves as well, but it shouldn't be this way. If I abort something, I have a good reason for doing so. I expect it to stop what it's doing immediately.

Oh, and one other issue: Several of my files couldn't be copied; Toucan gave me an "Access denied" error on them. When I investigated, it turns out the files it couldn't copy were marked Read-only. While this would normally be allowed (you can still copy read-only files), I found out that, when Toucan encounters a read-only file, Toucan.tmp also ends up being read-only--and then I have to assume it's unable to do anything with the temp file afterwards due to the attribute...

March 22, 2009 - 5:41am

(Reply to #24) #25

Steve Lamerton

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Here

we go:

1. The new Mirror mode will not copy everything, it hash checks the files to see if they are the same and if they are not it copies. I think this makes it the best of both worlds, you get the accuracy of Sync (Copy) but with the speed (or at least the vast majority of it) of Sync (Update).

2. I actually did update the help file but forgot to copy it to the right directory before packaging up the release, I have added this to the release script so it wont happen again.

3. As for aborting, there is no way to do this in the programming library I use, I shall look at other ways of doing it.

4. Thanks for the report, I shall take a look at this asap.

Thanks for the reports

March 22, 2009 - 8:52am

(Reply to #25) #26

Bruce Pascoe

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The thing I liked about Mirror (Update)

was that if the backup copy was newer, Toucan wouldn't touch it. This was great for backing up my nephew's drive, since he has a bad habit of working with his backup files directly. Seeing as the new Mirror mode hash checks (without a date/time check?), I assume this isn't the case anymore...

March 28, 2009 - 6:00am

(Reply to #26) #27

Steve Lamerton

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You

can now do what you want in the first pre-release, do Update followed by Clean.

March 25, 2009 - 3:07pm

#28

lehenauw

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toucan 2.1.0 dev3: now case sensitive

I used V2.0.6 until now and there only the preview window is case sensitive (for example the files pcu_20.abb and PCU_20.ABB should not match, but they do).
But the sync-update function in 2.0.6 did not copy the files.

I now tested the 2.1.0 dev 3 and noticed that not only the preview is case sensitive but also the sync-update copies all the files.
Is it really neccesary to handle file names case sensitive?

I use toucan to synchronise/update notebooks with windows and unix servers, and
the unix server is the problem in this case (converts 8.3 to lower case).

Thanks for help!

March 28, 2009 - 5:59am

(Reply to #28) #29

Steve Lamerton

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I will

continue this discussion here:

https://portableapps.com/node/18705

March 28, 2009 - 6:01am

#30

Steve Lamerton

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Pre-Release 1

now out, see here:

https://portableapps.com/node/18705

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