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Reboot with "backup" causes error if .filetool.lst is empty - but it shouldn't?

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baz:
My .filetool.lst and .xfiletool.lst are purposely empty. When I reboot, and the backup option is checked (by default) I receive an error because they are empty. I would prefer that it just backed up nothing for two reasons:

One, is that I would always like to make it a habit to backup and let my config files decide what, if anything, to backup, rather than changing back and forth and having to remember what state .filetool.lst is in.

Two, and much more importantly, let's say I previously used to backup something, but now I don't want to back it up anymore. It is very important to remove it from .filetool.lst and choose to backup, otherwise it will get restored on next boot. So the backup, in this case, is actually serving to un-backup. This works nicely in all cases, except when you no longer want to backup anything at all, now you have to manually delete mydata.gz. The flow of working changes just for this case.

To add, it seems that "backup" should be renamed to "skip backup" and unchecked by default, just to emphasize that backing up is the *normal* thing to do. Then let .filetool.lst decide what happens.

roberts:
See the man page for tar: http://linux.die.net/man/1/tar
In particular the -T and -X options which are for the lists .filetool.lst and .xfiletool.lst respectively.
It does not make sense to have empty lists.

baz:
Rather than tar'ing nothing, perhaps the backup could detect that there is nothing to backup, and delete mydata.gz for the user.

I am commenting from the user perspective, not the implementation perspective or the tar perspective. Regardless of how it works, does it not make sense for a user to consistently manage their backups in the same way?

roberts:
Using a *nix system imples that some file management. This is not turnkey nor a windows like OS.

Too much automation is not good. You seem to not want to use the system as designed.
That is fine, but don't expect more automation to accomodate hybrid scatter mode installation as that is not the intended goal. We had not had an issue with backup/restore for over one year.

Re: User's perspective...
I would not expect a new user to be deleting all the items in a hidden system file, unless they had a  some knowlege of their inteded purpose.

I would never purposely delete a user's mydata.tgz file.

baz:
I love TinyCoreLinux that's why I post so much to the forums! The last thing I want is a Windows like system.

In my opinion the system is designed amazingly - but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. The TinyCore team are fantastic engineers without a doubt, but sometimes being so deep in the code makes one lose sight of the user perspective. Being a user, I aim to help provide some of that perspective. And all things being equal, it is fair to say that a better front-end experience will only benefit TinyCoreLinux. Of course "better" is very subjective, as is "all things being equal" because they never are :) but that's where a good discussion is helpful.

I don't claim to know everything, and I am perfectly happy to hear other people's point of view and change mine. I made a specific point about workflow using the .filetool.lst, and it is not consistent the way things are. If someone deletes all paths to be backed up, why would it be wrong to also delete the backup? They are saying they no longer want to backup, and remain consistent with how the system is designed in all other cases. Anomalies are generally not positive.

Again, I mean no awffence, and I am a big fan. It is because of that that I care enough to post :)

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