Les Mikesell wrote:
> Would you put the file content in the database or just the equivalent of 
> the  directory entries and attributes?  The latter would probably work, 
> but then you need something else to manage concurrency between the file 
> activity and the database items and tools to fix things if the system 
> crashes or ever gets out of sync.  If you would be comfortable with the 
> file contents in mysql then you've been working with a different version 
> than the ones I've tried.
>   
I would just put the metadata in the database - the equivalent of the 
directory structures and attributes. The pooled files themselves would 
remain directly on the filesystem and be managed by the filesystem. In 
fact, I am *not* proposing to get rid of the hardlinks, at least not 
immediately - just another layer that would replicate the hardlink 
structure in a database - as a secondary reference, perhaps. Then, a 
backup of the backup server would simply back up the database, AND the 
pooled files, but not the hardlinks, the hardlinks being recreated by a 
restore from the database as necessary.

Yes, I am comfortable with MySQL. I have worked with large commercial 
databases from IBM, Oracle, and others, and MySQL is at least as stable 
as the others when correctly configured - and usually somewhat faster. 
Besides, as said above, the file content would be *outside* the 
database. I think only an idiot would store files directly in the 
database when that is what the OS is designed for. If the database 
crashed for any reason, then it could be recovered from the hardlink 
data if necessary.

In summary, I see this feature as an *addition* to the current 
environment, not a replacement (yet). If it turned out to be a stable 
addition, then we would simply include a switch to turn hardlink 
creation off if the user wanted to use backuppc on a non-posix-compliant 
file system - such as 'cloud' storage.

Peter


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