[OS X TeX] OT: Backup software

Gary L. Gray gray at engr.psu.edu
Mon Oct 9 20:28:54 EDT 2006


On Oct 9, 2006, at 8:11 PM, Herbert Schulz wrote:

> On Oct 9, 2006, at 6:56 PM, Alain Schremmer wrote:
>
>> This is OT.
>>
>> I dutifully backup with Retrospect, say every hour, but just now I  
>> needed one of yesterdays versions of one of the over 10000 files  
>> that make up the Magnum Opus. And I couldn't get Retrospect to  
>> cough-up the file even when given the path name. Of course, I know  
>> a Retrospect "expert" who will get me the file but I am fed up.
>>
>> I just spent over an hour googling for backup software (over  
>> FireWire or Ethernet) to an external hard drive and, most  
>> important, one that is idiot-proof.
>>
>> SuperDuper ($27.95) ,  Data Backup ($49),  Intego ($70) all appear  
>> reasonable but of course they each claim to be the best. The only  
>> Open Source I found was on the terminal so that ruled it out.
>>
>> I would very much appreciate any suggestion.
>>
>> Regards
>> --schremmer
>
> Howdy,
>
> I used to use retrospect and got fed up with its terrible  
> interface. I now use SuperDuper but I'm not at all sure it will do  
> what you want. It will maintain a bootable image of your hard drive  
> but there is no way to retrieve old versions of files.
>
> It really sounds like you need some sort of version control system.  
> CVS is the traditional one and SVN a more modern system. Both are a  
> bit of a pain to set up and will need Terminal work before you can  
> use a GUI front end. For CVS I've been using CVL and for SVN I've  
> been using svnX as the front ends.
>
> Once SVN and/or CVS is set up, using SuperDuper to make the  
> bootable backup is very nice.


To say that setting up a version control system is "a bit of a pain"  
is an understatement, at least it is for me. :-) If that is what you  
are interested in, a recently announced version control system app  
"for the rest of us" looks interesting. It is called Versomatic and  
more info can be found at:

http://www.acertant.com/web/versomatic/default.htm

I haven't tried it, but I would be interested in hearing from anyone  
who has.

Regards,
   Gary
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