Re: [Fwd: Re: [Duplicity-talk] How do you list all files since the backup chain started]

[Richard Scott]

Hi,

Many thanks for running with my idea regarding listing of files in a backup 
chain :-)

I like the options so far. However, I have a comment on the listing output.

> /path/myfile
> Sun Oct 5 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-05T23:00:00
> Mon Oct 6 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-06T23:00:00
> Tue Oct 7 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-07T23:00:00
> Wed Oct 8 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-08T23:00:00
> /path/myfile2
> Sun Oct 5 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-05T23:00:00
> Mon Oct 6 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-06T23:00:00
> Tue Oct 7 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-07T23:00:00
> Wed Oct 8 10:52:11 2008 131791 in 2008-10-08T23:00:00
> ...

I don't see the need (or any advantage) in totally re-writing the way file 
information is
displayed. I feel that the above sort of listing may make things harder to 
process this output via
a script or frontend application as the required information for a file is 
split over a number of
lines.

Perhaps just extending the output style we currently have would be better e.g:

Thu Oct 23 14:05:15 2008 12345 121 myfile
Thu Oct 24 14:05:15 2008 12360 122 myfile
Thu Oct 25 14:05:15 2008 12370 123 myfile

Ordering the list by date and then by filename. That way we can process the 
output and all
relevant data regarding a file from one line and in the following space 
separated format:

timestamp [space] osize [space] csize [space] filename [newline]

The osize and csize would be "original size" and "compressed size" if we could 
have that much info
that would be nice too :-)

Also, is there any way to display what the object is. For example, in the above 
listing's we have
no idea of knowing if "myfile" was actually a directory, a file, a symlink etc. 
Perhaps having a
flag in the output may help?

timestamp [space] osize [space] csize [space] flag [space] filename [newline]

These flags could be something really simple:

F = File
D = Dir
L = Symlink

I don't know if this is another request or an addition to the current one :-) 
I'm just trying to
figure out how we can make things easier for a frontend to manage and process 
the outputed data.

Thanks,

Rich.