This file documents recent changes to MRBackup. Changes are listed in reverse chronological/version order. The MRBackup version number scheme follows these conventions: The first digit is the version level. Changes in the version level indicate major functionality changes and possible incompatibilities with previous versions. The second pair of digits following the period constitute the revision level. Revisions generally indicate added or changed functionality while maintaining upward compatibility. If the revision level is followed by a letter (a-z), this indicates a bug-fix release. *************************************************************************** * Don't forget to assign MRBackup: to the directory where MRBackup lives! * *************************************************************************** 04/03/93 V1.14a =========== Bug Fixes =========== -- Another problem in the Utilities was discovered when handing names delivered by the PathHandler. Because extensive changes to the Utilities would be required to address this problem and because a relatively few Amiga owners are affected, I have decided to simply prevent access to the Tao: volume. You can still specify assigns which utilize the PathHandler, however. 03/31/93 V1.14 =========== Changes =========== -- MRBackup's floppy disk tracking mechanism has been greatly improved. Each disk unit selected for backup or restore is now represented by a status gadget in the Status Display window. The range of states that a floppy disk may have is: Idle - during initialization Empty - no disk inserted Ready - disk inserted, but not being used Busy - disk is being used by MRBackup Done - disk has been "used" and is free to be removed. -- MRBackup's error handling has been substantially improved. MRBackup will, at your bidding, wade through errors in a corrupted backup set until it locates retrievable data. -- MRBackup now performs a quick validation of the Backup Path prior to backup and restore operations to insure that it's appropriate for the current backup mode. For instance, a directory name is appropriate for an AmigaDOS backup mode, but not for Fast Disk or SCSI Tape. This type of error was always "caught" but wasn't presented in the most straightforward manner. -- It is perfectly legal to backup to a hard disk partition in AmigaDOS mode with formatting enabled. However, it's also quite dangerous, if that isn't what you intended. MRBackup now detects this situation and presents a requester which will allow you to abort before it's too late. Of course, if it's what you intended then MRBackup will let you do it. -- Under AmigaDOS versions 2.04 and up, if Quick formatting is enabled, a new system-level (AmigaDOS) routine is used, rather than the FormatDisk script supplied with MRBackup. If Normal formatting is used or if running under AmigaDOS 1.3, the script is still used. -- MRBackup no longer asks for permission to start the Compressor. Setting the Compression or Decompression options to other than None will cause the Compressor to be automatically started if it is not running. -- MRBackup no longer pops its screen to the front when the file selection window is opened. Instead, a short message is spoken. -- The Progress gauge now displays the completion percentage as a numeric value superimposed on the bar graph readout. -- Important! An important new feature has been added to MRBackup which allows you to recover from Fast Disk backup floppies out-of-sequence. Let's say, for instance, that MRBackup is ready for diskette 3. You find, to your horror, that diskette 3 has been treated to a cup of coffee or a friendly nibble by Rover. Prior to this release, MRBackup was fairly inflexible about this (though, by deselecting the files on the offending diskette, you could get around it). Now, when MRBackup detects that you have inserted the wrong diskette number, you will be informed, first with a general error report. Next, a requester will ask you if you'd like to proceed with the "incorrect" disk or reject it and try again. If you choose to proceed, MRBackup will delete any partially restored file (remember, files may span multiple diskettes) and then skip forward on the newly inserted disk until the next file or directory entry is found. -- FAST FAST FAST! No, we're not selling Anacin, folks! MRBackup has had all of its internal input/output routines improved. Just do a Fast Disk backup with Verify Writes set to "No" and you'll see what I mean. -- The Compressor has seen some major internal changes. This version of MRBackup now requires version 2.0.0 or higher of the Compressor. --- A new `Tips' section has been added to the online AmigaGuide (tm) documentation. =========== Bug Fixes: =========== -- Verify Backup had a glitch which suppressed the printing of filenames after the first attribute mismatch. -- If the report requester failed to open a report file, it allowed the user to try again. Unfortunately, it also opened another console window, orphaning the first. -- When performing an AmigaDOS backup with compression enabled, MRBackup would request permission to start the Compressor. If the user selected "No", MRBackup would eventually crash. Internally, this was a one-line change. Sorry 'bout that. -- Fixed a long-standing bug in the file selector. Entering a pattern in the Exclude pattern gadget, then clicking on any of the Select gadgets would cause ALL filenames "after" the first match to be deselected. This has been around for a long long time. Thanks to Jeff Grimmett for bringing this to light. -- Fixed a HUGE bug in the Backup/Restore file selector window. Ack! It didn't work when using a WorkBench screen. Thanks to Glenn Holliday for bringing this to my attention. -- Resume Backup would fail if the Work directory specification was not terminated with a colon since it couldn't find the 'checkpoint' file, MRBackup.context. (This is a throwback to when the context file was always stored in S:.) Resume Backup would fail, period. Due to several subtle internal changes, Resume Backup was apparently broken some time ago and it never was noticed. Thanks to Glenn Holliday for pointing this out. -- Beta note: upon completion of a backup, the next disk insertion would cause a crash. This was due to bass-ackward handling of the removal of the DISKCHANGE interrupt handler. It has to be handled differently for AmigaDOS 1.3 and 2.04+. So, I slipped and typed "<= 36" vs. ">= 36", so shoot me. :-) -- A disk full condition (error 221) could occur when a file expanded during compression. Due to a very obscure compiler/linker bug, this condition was not handled the way it was supposed to ("somebody" generated an incorrect sequence of instructions for testing a status variable) and a backup abort resulted. I have reworked the code to avoid the compiler problem and all appears to be well. -- The Utilities would cause a system crash when the WShell PathHandler was installed and the DRIVE gadget was clicked.