In the message dated: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:03:18 +0100,
The pithy ruminations from Arno Lehmann on 
<Re: [Bacula-users] client list for restores sort order> were:
=> Hello,
=> 
=> 11.11.2008 18:15, Bob Hetzel wrote:
=> > I've currently got over 150 backup clients installed with bacula so when 
=> 
=> > I want to do a restore and I have it list the clients by name the list 
=> 
=> > is rather unwieldy.  I'm thinking the list is ordered by when they were 
=> 
=> > added?

I understand exactly what your describing.

One of my pet-peeves with Bacula is the inconsistent interface...some commands 
accept an item number from a list, some accept client or pool name (without 
presenting a list), and lists aren't ordered.

=> > 
=> 
=> > If it's doing a database query to generate this client list, where can 
=> 
=> > the sort order be changed?  Ideally I'd like to change it to order by 
=> 
=> > client name.
=> 
=> This seems to be done in cats/sql_get.c function get_client_ids(). I'm 
=> 
=> not sure if simply adding an "ORDER BY" statement works with all 
=> 
=> databases if you order by a field not actually requested.
=> 
=> Also, this could break existing scripts where you do something like
=> 
=> echo 'status client
=> 1
=> '

I use that kind of thing in scripts all the time. It's horrible, terrible, 
ugly, and difficult to support over time.

Even worse is something like changing a volume from one pool to another...

--------------------------------------------------
bconsole -c /usr/local/bacula/etc/bconsole.conf << E-O-COMMANDS
update vol
1
11
$pool
$mediaID
Scratch
update vol
1
1
4
$mediaID
7
14
--------------------------------------------------

In the first instance ($pool), the pool is specified by number, from a list. In 
the second instance (Scratch), it's given by name.

The other items (1, 11, 1, 1, 4, 7, 14) are all from lists. Horrible to debug 
or document, and very easy to break.

Tell me, quickly, what's does the 3rd instance of "1" mean there?

I'd really like to see bacula support both the current style (as to not break 
too many scripts) and also support specifying items verbosely, so that the 
previous example would be written as:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
bconsole -c /usr/local/bacula/etc/bconsole.conf << E-O-COMMANDS
update vol
Volume parameters
Pool
Incremental
$mediaID
Scratch
update vol
Volume parameters
Volume Status
Scratch
$mediaID
Append
Done
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


It's not beautiful, but it's much easier to read, write, and debug, and it's 
resistent to future interface changes.

Obviously, the same change would apply to the "query" command, which is even 
more likely to change as users write their own queries.

=> 
=> so I would carefully consider such a change.
=> 
=> Arno
=> 
=> >     Bob

Mark

----
Mark Bergman                              voice: 215-662-7310
mark.bergman AT uphs.upenn DOT edu                 fax: 215-614-0266
System Administrator     Section of Biomedical Image Analysis
Department of Radiology            University of Pennsylvania
      PGP Key: https://www.rad.upenn.edu/sbia/bergman 




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