Re: Mac Backup (OFF-TOPIC)

In fact, I thought about making myself a backup software and that's why I'm interested on more.

Thank you!

(Just one more question: how about the folders Finder doesn't show us? If I log as root can I see them? Is there any way I can see them?)

On Oct 21, 2007, at 7:43 PM, Greg Guerin wrote:

Magnobaldo Hermenogildo wrote:

Hello. I'm new to Mac and I wanted to know how can I know the folders my
programs use so I can backup it. ...
I think if I knew all the folder a program may use I got it.

Use google to search for Mac backup software, then use the program you
like. If you don't know which one you like, use google to search for
reviews of Mac backup software.

The usual strategy for a backup program is to scan all folders for anything
that has been modified since the previous backup. If there was no previous
backup, the program backs up everything. At each backup, the program keeps
modified-dates and other info about each file when it was backed up, or it
has a single timestamp of the last backup and backs up everthing modified
after that. Certain dirs are excluded from this scan, either because it
would be wrong to back them up (e.g. /dev or /Volumes), or because you've
told it you don't want to backup anything in that folder.

You can't just backup folders you know about, because the Finder doesn't
show all folders.

How can these "deleter" softwares know the folders they have to delete
when uninstalling a software?

An undeleter either uses an app's installer receipt (in /Library/Receipts),
or it knows about a specific app it's undeleting, or it looks at the hard
drive before and after an install and deletes anything different.

Instead of trying to figure it out yourself, you should just use a backup
program or a deleter program (depending on what you want to do). That way,
someone who knows more about it has already figured it out and encapsulated
it in software. Why become on an expert on something when you can use
software that is already an expert at solving the problem?

Also, Time Machine in 10.5 Leopard will do some things that are like backup
programs, and other things that are like deleter programs. You may want to
wait for its release (26 Oct), to at least find out what it can do. There
may even be a Time Machine mailing list after release, so you could ask
questions about it there.

-- GG

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References:
	>Re: Mac Backup (OFF-TOPIC) (From: Greg Guerin <email@hidden>)