Recursively Backup Directories
Jorgen Grahn
grahn+nntp at snipabacken.se
Sun Apr 6 03:05:19 EDT 2008
On Sat, 5 Apr 2008 16:56:31 -0700 (PDT), misceverything at gmail.com <misceverything at gmail.com> wrote:
> I am writing a script that will backup specified folders from one hard
> drive to another (for example, backup source "C:\DATA", destination "D:
> \Backup"), and was thinking of using shutil.
I'd avoid doing that (writing a backup script, that is).
It may be fine if your goal is using it only under MS-DOS, and not
distribute it. But making it robust (vital to a backup utility!) and
portable is tricky. You have to handle things like
- symbolic links (when to follow, when not to)
- hard links
- copying metadata of various kinds (timestamps, permissions,
ACLs, file system-specific metadata)
- non-obvious error handling (like copying the file 'foo', but
the target exists as a directory and must be rmdir()ed first)
- ...
I believe it is better to write a script which drives a widely known
and well-tested copying utility. On Unix these include tar, cpio and
rsync -- don't know which ones are common under DOS (xcopy?)
I guess I'm saying that I do not trust module shutil. I see now that
it documents how it treats some of the things above, but ...
/Jorgen
--
// Jorgen Grahn <grahn@ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu
\X/ snipabacken.se> R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
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