[Discuss] Possible backup scenarios for a 500GB drive

[Daniel M German]

 >> Daniel, what is subversion like to set up? ..... too easy, easy, OK or unix
 >> man page hard?

 Alan> I am sure Daniel will want to answer this question, but I would like to
 Alan> answer as well because I have had a lot of really good recent experience
 Alan> with subversion as a result of converting 6 different SourceForge projects
 Alan> from CVS to subversion, and then just using subversion from then on for each
 Alan> of the projects.

[...]

I fully agree with Alan and his message. Just one comment: its use is
orthogonal to other backup systems: i.e. you can still mirror the
disk.

Check this: http://kitenet.net/~joey/svnhome/

Learning SVN is a great skill, and the SVN book is available on line. 

It is the best way to exchange files with other people <PERIOD>. No
more emails, no more worries of "do I have the latest version".

for personal uses it has 2 advantages:

* You "commit" a version whenever you need/want. A commit is
  equivalent to a backup.

* YOu can synchronize different computers using it. For me it works
  great. I work on my desktop, commit the changes, then update on my
  laptop; and viceversa.

THe cost:

* a bit of administration. SVN is way better than Cvs, and
deals better with binary files.

* disk space for the repository. Every copy you make uses space, and
  it is not really designed to remove old copies, so the repository
  keeps growing, and growing... ;)



 Alan> Setting up a local subversion repository and learning how to use a
 Alan> subversion client is easy if you have had prior experience with CVS or some
 Alan> other version control system, and you are comfortable with the command line.
 Alan> If you have never ever used a version control system getting started with
 Alan> subversion will be harder. However, if you plan to work with computers at
 Alan> all, then I believe version control system skills are worth developing, and
 Alan> subversion is an excellent starting system to help you do that because it is
 Alan> so well documented in the downloadable book at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/.
 Alan> Also, don't be intimidated by the size of the book.  The quick-start part of
 Alan> the book at http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.4/svn-book.html#svn.intro does
 Alan> exactly what its title says.


-- 
--
Daniel M. German                  
http://turingmachine.org/
http://silvernegative.com/
dmg (at) uvic (dot) ca
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