Changes ======= This file lists changes, in reverse chronological order, as they have appeared in official releases of MRBackup. I have attempted to be thorough, but may have missed a few key items. *** NEW FEATURE LOG *** 12/28/90 Big Change!!! The "contents" file has been merged with the "catalog" file. This was done to facilitate storing the catalog anywhere (one file is easier to manage than two). You may now store the catalog anywhere you wish. If the backup is done to floppy disk, MRBackup assumes that you wish to save the catalog to floppy, also. However, you may override this assumption and save the catalog to your hard disk. 12/27/90 (Happy birthday, Me!) MRBackup used to restrict the Preferences file name to "/MRBackup.init". This restriction has been relaxed. In addition, whenever the Preferences setting is changed to a new (and valid) filename, and the change doesn't originate from an ARexx script, MRBackup will ask if the new preferences should be loaded immediately. There is also a new file requester gadget next to the Preferences gadget. MRBackup now takes a new startup option. From the CLI, this takes the form: -i and from the WorkBench, a new Tool Type entry: INIT= This allows you to start MRBackup with any valid preferences file, not just "MRBackup.init" or "S:MRBackup.init". Hand-in-hand with this change, the concept of the MRBackup project has been extended. A new icon file, MRBackupDefaults.info is now provided with MRBackup. This project icon contains defaults for the DIR and INIT Tool Types. By making copies of this icon and editing the Tool Types, you can create multiple sets of startup parameters for MRBackup. For instance, you may wish to create a unique set of parameters for each partition on your hard drive. As an example, your configuration might look like this: Project Icon Name Preferences File (INIT) Working Directory (DIR) DH0Backup.info s:DH0Backup.init T: DH1Backup.info s:DH1Backup.init T: DH2Backup.info s:DH2Backup.init T: 11/03/90 The fast backup mode will now backup/restore to/from a file! At least, that's what I intend for it to do. The user interface has changed (yet again!). You will notice that the gadget layout has changed a little and that the MRBackup Parameters window (main window) now is closed when you a) start a backup, b) start a restore or c) invoke the utilities. The STOP and PAUSE gadgets have been moved to the Status Window. The highlighting on the various gadgets uses the general convention that buttons (gadgets which are activated simply by clicking) are raised and text boxes (string gagdets) are recessed. MRBackup now creates a catalog disk at the end of a backup. This disk contains two files: MRBackup.contents and MRBackup.catalog. The "contents" file contains some descriptive information about the backup: - backup date - home path used for backup - number of last disk - backup mode used (AMIGADOS, FAST) The catalog file describes the full contents of the backup set in a compact but human-or-machine-readable notation. There's a new About menu item which will pop up a window displaying the program version and available memory. When backing up from one directory hierarchy to another, an error message would be generated, indicating that formatting must not be enabled. MRBackup now simply ignores the formatting option when the destination is not a floppy diskette. The "set archive bits" strategy has been changed. Prior to this release, the bit setting would occur at the completion of each disk. Now, it is deferred until the complete backup has successfully completed. This prevents marking files as archived only to encounter a media error later on in the backup process which could render the backup set useless (and the archiving information incorrect). MRBackup will now respond to the STOP gadget while compressing a file. It is checked on every buffer input cycle. *** "To Z or not to Z, is THAT the question?" *** Prior to this release, files that were compressed during backup had a ".Z" suffix added to their names. Wrinkles developed when I introduced the new catalog scheme, since compressed files had a "dual identity". I have tackled the problem in a somewhat non-standard way and there will most likely be an outcry from some of you. The filename is no longer changed. Instead, I have introduced a new (non-standard) file protection bit which gets set when a file is compressed. During restore, this bit is detected and the file is automatically decompressed (assuming it passes the decompression code size and decompression filter tests). The utilities display will reveal compressed files to you by displaying this protection bit as an upper-case "C". *** BUG FIXES! *** 12/21/90 When doing a partial restore, MRBackup got confused about the "selected" state of files below the top level. This has been fixed. 12/12/90 When using AmigaDOS backup mode and using Quick formatting mode, MRBackup would give up when a diskette which was not previously formatted for AmigaDOS was inserted. This condition is now detected and MRBackup will ask for permission to use normal formatting mode (for the current diskette only). 12/10/90 The tape handler has been modified such that the AmigaDOS MOUNT command will now successfully mount the MRTAPE: device. Also, the buffer size parameter now is a multiple of "K" (K = 1024). I changed the default mountlist entry to use 128 (vs. the original 512). This maps to a double-buffering of the WangTek's built-in 64K buffer and keeps the tape drive busier. I believe that this results in much better throughput. 12/05/90 Backup file selection had a bug. If a directory was deselected but its children were still marked as selected, the directory would still be backed up. 11/18/90 There was a problem with speech related to multi-line messages. It appears that the SPEAK: device handles these inconsistently. I've rewritten the speech routine to overcome this. 11/05/90 The Utilities would crash when a file larger than 999999 bytes was displayed. 11/03/90 The disk motor is now shut off when a "fast mode" disk has been completed. At end of disk processing, a requester would instruct the user to remove the current disk. In addition, MRBackup was not properly cycling to the next selected disk unit. These problems have been fixed. The "Deselect All" gadget in the file selector did not work properly at the top level. The "Bytes In", "Bytes Out" counters got confused on a fast backup when compression was engaged. 11/01/90 The backup filter was not functioning correctly. Excluded files are now correctly eliminated from the backup file selector. 10/26/90 Found very nasty bug (store through uninitialized pointer) in the file selection module. 10/15/90 Restore now recognizes the new "compressed" bit in the file protection word. 10/14/90 If you deleted a file after it had been selected for backup, a 205 error would occur (file not found), as expected, but selecting "Skip File" in the error requester was ignored. There were a couple of problems with big file handling which were a result of the major upheaval in the internal structure of MRBackup. The known problems were with the Restore phase and should be fixed. Clicking "Deselect All" during file selection would cause problems if you were positioned at any but the top-most level. This is because the parent directories were deselected, rendering further selection activity at the current level meaningless. The behavior of this gadget has been modified such that parent directories are not deselected. 10/13/90 MRBackup was attempting to add 3D borders to system gadgets as well as its own. This has been fixed. A serious bug, related to compression, appeared in MRBackup version 4.0b. During compression, it is possible for a file to actually expand. MRBackup is supposed to catch this condition, delete the output file and switch from compression mode to straight copy mode. Unfortunately, though the condition was being detected, it wasn't being handled properly. This could result in spurious truncated compressed files being left on your backup disks and the affected files not being backed up. If you see any files in your backup sets whose names end in ".Z" and whose lengths are an exact multiple of 16,384 bytes, treat them suspiciously. They are probably corrupt. The big file splitting algorithm was not very bright. Specifically, if you specified a large buffer size, a considerable chunk of disk space was wasted when the large write detected the "disk full" condition. Dumb! The new algorithm adjusts the buffer size downward when the remaining disk space is less than the current requested buffer size. The "disk full" condition is also avoided, leaving about 4 blocks free on the diskette. Backup/Restore for big files did not properly cycle through selected units when using multiple-drive selection. This has been fixed. Use of the :INCLUDE: specification would cause every directory in the home path to be created on the backup set. Yeah - this was pretty dumb! This no longer happens. The SetDate function in the Utilities section didn't work and has been fixed. It was possible to hang your system by clicking the right mouse button in the menu bar while MRBackup presented a request (log file overwrite/append, for instance). *** KNOWN BUGS *** There are several error conditions (bad media, etc.) which MRBackup does not handle well. I'm working on these... *** READ THIS!!! *** What follows is not an MRBackup bug, but I put it here to get your attention. There IS a bug in the old file system (which MRBackup uses in AmigaDOS mode) which can be mighty annoying. In certain instances, a SYSTEM requester will pop up (on the WorkBench screen), indicating that the current floppy drive has a read/write error. You might wear out your left mouse button (or your left-Amiga and "B" keys) before the requester ever goes away. Though this may seem like an MRBackup bug, the sad truth is that MRBackup never even gets a chance to play in the error recovery game. You are dealing strictly with the filesystem handler. MRBackup disables all requesters which might result from a bad drive or logical name specification, etc., but this situation is not within MRBackup's control. I haven't checked this out under AmigaDOS 1.4, but I suspect that it's been fixed in that release. What can you do? Sometimes, persistent clicking of the Retry or Cancel gadgets in the system requester, intermixed (if you're quick enough) with clicks of MRBackup's STOP gadget, might get you out of this "deadly embrace". However, chances are you're going to have to reboot. My only possible advice: use reliable media! You shouldn't trust your backups to junk diskettes. *** PACKAGING CHANGES *** The shareware version of MRBackup is now named 'MRBackup-sw'. Also, the ARP library, 'arp.library', is no longer included with the MRBackup distribution. It has been omitted in compliance with the ARP distribution policies which state that it's O.K. to redistribute the full ARP package but not portions of it. Sorry 'bout that. If you can't find the latest ARP distribution through normal channels, send me a blank disk + postage and I'll mail it to you. *** ADVERTISEMENT *** A new non-shareware version of MRBackup, MRBackup Professional, will be hitting the market soon. MRBackup Professional will have all of the capabilities of MRBackup shareware but will also include a fast-backup option and a powerful ARexx facility. Registered MRBackup shareware contributors will receive a discount when upgrading to MRBackup professional (details have not been worked out yet - stay tuned). MRBackup Professional will be marketed by TTR Development, Inc., 1120 Gammon Ln. Madison, WI 53719 (608) 277-8071