Re: [tlug] Command Line is Good to Learn . . .

[Joe Larabell <fred62@???>]

On Thu, 6 Jul 2006, essertier wrote:

> Not at all.  I have actually been wondering how to back up files and
> transfer them periodically from one computer to another, so that my home
> computer and work computer have the same data on them.

This isn't related to 'backups', per-se (and should not take the place of
regular backups either), but since you mentioned iPods and working on two
computers, I have an idea which might be of some interest.

I have recently been working on a number of projects where I can actually
do some of the work on my desktop at work and some on my home machine. I
already carry a USB memory stick around with stuff I frequently need when
I'm not at either location, so...

I used 'cvs' to put a repository in a directory on the USB memory. I then
imported the latest version of my project files and did clean checkouts on
both my work and home machines. Now, whenever I finish working at one
location, I just type 'cvs commit' and everything gets copied to the USB.
Upon arrival on the other end, 'cvs update' brings that copy of the files
up-to-date. This has two advantages over simple rsync:

1) If you forget to copy the files some day, you can still continue work
   on the other machine, in an unrelated part of the code, and have a good
   chance that you won't have a messy manual merging job to do later. In
   the case of a simple copy/rsync to the iPod, that would be harder to
   pull off.

2) You get all the history-related benefits of cvs for free.

I don't know how this would play out with other version control systems.
The repository for CVS is fairly light (not much more than 2x the total
size of all the files, even with quite a few rounds of edit history) and
it also seems not to mind being stored on a FAT32 file system (software
that relies on *nix-style permission bits often chokes on a USB stick).
Subversion in flat-file storage mode (no dB) might work OK.

Granted, CVS is not as easy to set up as a simple copy would be. But once
you walk through the initial setup, the commands to 'copy' stuff back and
forth between the machines are simple.

One drawback... if you are already using version control on the project in
question, this solution could get messsy. You would have to figure out how
to have the same working copy of the files owned by two repositories (the
main one and your personal iPod/USB one). In that case, it sounds like git
might provide a better solution.

---
Joseph L (Joe) Larabell            Never fight with a dragon
http://larabell.org                     for thou art crunchy
                                  and goest well with cheese.