* Sven Rudolph <rudsve AT drewag DOT de> (Mon, Jul 21, 2003 at 03:48:12PM +0200)

>>> Amanda's estimate phase takes here between 3 and 8 hours (with GNU
>>> tar). So I thought about ways of skipping the extra estimate phase.

>> Topic comes up periodically.  There have been mentions of ways to
>> substitute your own estimate technique.  I think they generally
>> involve the "calcsize" command.  Probably making it a wrapper
>> on the client.

> I haven't found many useful info on this.

> <http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=amanda-users&m=98888253924842&w=2>
> hardcodes the calcsize calls in sendsize. A bit unflexible.

yes, but it works for me.
I once started work on doing this proper
(use exclusion lists, make it a dumptype option &c &c ...) but it was too
much work

> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amanda-hackers/message/2541> is some previous 
> info on this patch.

> Both messages mention speedup numbers. calcsize is three times faster,
> and it does all levels in one run.

It's 3 times faster *AS* it does all 3 levels (level 0, level incremental,
level incremental+1) in one go.

> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amanda-hackers/message/2542> tries to
> find reasons why calcsize isn't used in default amanda. I guess it
> must have a drawback; otherwise it would be amanda's default method.
> It sounds like calcsize is basically unmaintained code. 

> What are the current advantages and disadvantages of calcsize?

Since I tried to do it properly (2 years ago ?) I don;t think anyone has
ever worked on it.

The biggest issue is that the estimates from calcsize do not match the real
estimates for incremental dumps . People who tested this mentioned upto 5%
difference in size.

In my case 5% is about the same differnece I get anyway, given the time
difference between the estimate and the actual dump, and the fact that lots
of data is generated overnight.

Currently listening to: the radio

        Gerhard,  (faliquid AT xs4all DOT nl)   == The Acoustic Motorbiker ==   
-- 
   __O  But as it did, the heavens opened
 =`\<,  And rain began to fall
(=)/(=) Final judgement now, spread before you all