[Pybackpack] pybackpack thoughts and future

[Andrew Price]

Hi Jeff,

On 24/08/07 21:29, Jeff Spaleta wrote:
> On Thu Aug 23 seth vidal wrote:
>>> - Ability to run from the commandline or cron
>>>   (e.g. pybackpack --nogui --backup mybackupset)
>> Heh, another fedora contributor was asking for this specifically. :)
> 
> I'm pretty sure Seth is refering to me here.

You're not the only one :-)
http://projects.sucs.org/projects/pybackpack/ticket/51

> Yeah... being able to push backups via other tools would be keen. I'm
> particularly interested in being able to push updates via a scheduling
> mechanism (cron for example) or "event" triggers.   Event trigger
> examples...
> 
> 1) I plug in my usb-key and pybackpack starts the backup associated
> with that removable device.  I can sort of do 1) with usbsink right
> now. But I'd like to see this sort of event activation incorporated
> into pybackpack if possible.  Just plug the drive in, and let
> pybackpack do its magic.

I'd like this to happen some time in the future. I know one person on
this list has toyed with the idea of automated backups when usb drives
are inserted recently (but using OSX, not pybackpack) and he encountered
a couple of problems:

- How to keep the data safe in case your drive is lost/stolen
  (This could be a job for an encrypted backup backend like duplicity
   which Seth suggested earlier)
- Could anyone come along and insert their usb drive into your computer
  to snaffle your files?
  (Again duplicity might help with this but is there a better solution?)

Also, I'm not sure if a pybackpack daemon waiting around in the
background for events is an idea I'm comfortable with. In my head,
things like that should be kicked off by the desktop environment where
conflicts can be easier avoided (e.g. GNOME already offers configurable
actions for when CDs/DVDs/iPods are inserted but sadly not for usb drives).

> 2) Wired network activates or VPN activates. I'd like to be able to
> schedule backups for my work related stuff..to an ssh location at
> work..when it makes sense to do it. Which means over the fast wired
> link at work, or when I bring up the VPN.

This sounds good too, it'd certainly help me to keep backups more
regularly.

> And more speculatively, I'd like to see if it makes sense to tie
> pybackpack in with what safekeep does, so individual users can
> initiate backups to network adminstrator defined locations in the
> site's safekeep configuration.

Thanks for your ideas Jeff. It's all good stuff.

I get the overall picture that different people like to back their files
up in lots of different ways and I feel that trying to cater for all of
them in pybackpack proper would be an act of insanity. As I discussed
with Seth, if the abstractions in pybackpack were improved it should be
pretty easy to write extension modules to provide these backup methods
and extra functions. Not that I'm against having extension modules in
the pybackpack project, I'd just like them to be distributed separately
so that users can pick and choose and only install the functionality
that they require. I'll likely make a place for them in svn.

So for the moment I'll be concentrating on improving pybackpack's
abstractions and then hopefully more people will be tempted to write
code to work on extensions. Since I'm about to start the final year of
my comp sci degree and I'll not have as much time for pybackpack, I'm
hoping that will happen. As a wise man once said, "patches welcome" :-)

--
Andy Price
http://andrewprice.me.uk