'Best practices' question for a backup

[Scott Allen]

On Thu Sep 22,2005 01:59:18 PM Madison Kelly wrote:
>   I've run into an ethical/best practices question that I wanted 
> input from as many people as I could get on. I have a backup 
> program that is aimed to be generally available to the public. That 
> said, I need to be careful how I tell the program to work. In this 
> case though, either decision I think could upset someone. So....
> 
>   The problem is; when a file or directory has the permissions set 
> to not be world/group readable the backup program (well, 'rsync' 
> specifically) will fail to backup that file.
> 
>   I have two options (as I see it, is there a third?):
> 
>   1. Leave the file behind and assume that the user knew what s/he 
> was doing.
> 
> -OR-
> 
>   2. Have my program temporarily raise the permissions to allow for 
> the file to be backed up and then reset them after words.

If you choose option 1, and have the ability, you should log or 
otherwise display a message such as:

"xxx files could not be backed up due to permissions settings".

You could also have a setting that logs or otherwise saves the path 
and names of files that were skipped. This should be an option 
because in some circumstances it could result in a huge or unwanted 
list.


-- 
** Scott Allen   scotta-cpI+UMyWUv9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org **
**     Toronto, Ontario, Canada     **
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