Is it the right tool?

[pchandler@hdra.org.uk]

I'm involved in moving a small organisation from windows 98 p2p to running a Linux 
server.  Everything's fine except they are now hooked on a (discontinued) Powerquest 
product called Datakeeper.  That monitored folders on the Win98 server and kept 
versions of changed files.  It didn't work on timed runs but, I guess, on system calls.  You 
set how many versions you want to keep and it will keep that many, independent of how 
old the versions are.

I've been trying to find a similar Linux solution and have been trying rdiff-backup.  The 
way I've been testing it is running it every 5 minutes to try and catch recent changes but I 
of course end up with huge (in terms of no. of files) rdiff-backup-data directories.  The 
other problem is that restoring is cumbersome when all you want to do is restore the 'last 
version'.

I appreciate the problem is the way I'm trying to use rdiff-backup, but I'm wondering 
whether it is possible to achieve what they want (i.e. a set number of prior versions 
irrespective of age) or whether anyone knows of an alternative approach/product.  I'd 
really like to get close as their IT guy is going out on a bit of a limb by going Linux.

Thanks
Phil

Phil Chandler
IT Manager
HDRA
itmanager@hdra.org.uk
http://www.hdra.org.uk