On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Bob Hetzel <beh AT case DOT edu> wrote:
>
> 1) If you use the version that's not the latest, the bacula folks will most
> likely just tell you to upgrade to the latest version, so you might as well
> start there now and try to stay current.
>
One reason for this is the developers are using the current version
and also are a lot of the users who frequent the forums. I use 2.4.4
and have been using it for some time so someone who has problems with
1.38.X (which I used in 2006 possibly 2007) I really can not help them
with that because I probably do not remember back that far...

>
> 2) On open source software that's where development is still "active" I'd
> highly recommend learning to configure/compile from source.  You don't need
> to know how to program to do this and it's reasonably well written up in
> the Bacula docs at www.bacula.org.  Documentation of decisions that go into
> compiling by the packagers is generally sparse or non-existent.
>
Agreed.
>
> 3) If you find a bug and happen to be the first one to report it you'll be
> able to test the fix (Kern and others have been really good in my
> experience with fixing bugs whenever they can get a full explanation plus
> output showing what's happening) much easier than if you have to wait for
> the next release followed by the next package release.  Generally fixes are
> put out as patches of source code only (new "release" versions of bacula
> seem to be quarterly or so lately).
>
One thing about bugs. If you are using an ancient version it may not
get fixed for that version.

>
> 4) In addition, through configuring/compiling practice you'll probably
> obtain a much better understanding of how Linux/bacula/etc work.  I don't
> compile very much at all on my systems, but bacula is definitely one to
> compile here where I work.  Since you're running a Linux variant and
> bacula's active development takes place on Linux you won't likely hit a
> compiling problem that's not easy to solve.
>
Fully agreed.
>
> In my case I just put my compile options in a script so I don't have to
> re-figure them out every time and so it takes only about 5 mins to install
> a new bacula version or a patch fix.
>
For me I use a source based distro that I can modify the package
manager's files for bacula and add patches very easily to the normal
building process. So I can test the patch on one system and roll the
updates to all 30+ linux machines I have.

John

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apps built with the Adobe(R) Flex(R) framework and Flex Builder(TM) are
powering Web 2.0 with engaging, cross-platform capabilities. Quickly and
easily build your RIAs with Flex Builder, the Eclipse(TM)based development
software that enables intelligent coding and step-through debugging.
Download the free 60 day trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-adobe-com
_______________________________________________
Bacula-users mailing list
Bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users