ù Overview ù Using BaR ú Creating and configuring Profiles ù Deleting Profiles ù Renaming Profiles ù Moving Child-Profiles ù Viewing Information ù Working with archive attributes ù The 'File Exclusion' window ù Working with logs ù Backing up ù Backing up INI files ù Restoring ù Trouble Shooting ù Disclaimer ù Copyright ù Contacting the author ù Revision history OVERVIEW BaR is simply a PM-based front end for OS/2's backup and restore utilities. Its purpose is to simplify the process of backing up your files/data to floppies by allowing you to create Profiles, essentially configurations for various backup sessions which contain, among other things, command-line switches which are passed on to backup and restore. USING BaR - Creating and Configuring Profiles When you first launch BaR, you're presented with a blank window with a series of raised icons along the top and a series of embedded icons along the right-hand side. The top icons are pushbuttons and their function is, from left to right: 1) create a new parent-Profile, 2) Edit/Delete log files, 3) configure INI backups, 4) Exit BaR. The icons along the side are used for dragging profiles, and their functions are, from top to bottom: 1) backup, 2) restore, 3) create a child-Profile, 4) edit a child-Profile's settings, 5) delete a Parent- or child-Profile, and 6) display information on the Parent or child-Profile. You first begin by creating a parent-Profile, beneath which actual backup/restore profiles will be situated. The advantage of this is that you can group similar (or dissimilar) backup sessions beneath one parent, for e.g. - Documents c:\notes\*.* d:\misc\letters\*.* e:\general\reports\*.* You can either drag a specific child to the backup icon to backup only that Profile, or drag the parent to backup all of its children (N.B. backups are done consecutively, not incrementally). Once you've created the parent-Profile, drag its name to the 3rd icon along the side to create a child-Profile. The backup parameters appear on various notebook pages. Make your selections and press the 'Save' pushbutton at the bottom of the notebook. A note about log files. BaR no longer attempts to construct a name based on the Profile name. The reason for this is simple. If you've got a bunch of child-Profiles and would like them all to appear in a log file, it would be far better if you selected the append radio button and named that log file something meaningful to you. USING BaR - Deleting Profiles You can delete parent- and/or child-Profiles by either selecting it and presing the 'Delete' key, or by dragging it to the trashcan. Deleting a parent-Profile deletes all of its children as well. USING BaR - Renaming Profiles It is possible to rename existing parent- and child-Profiles by holding down the Alt key and clicking the right mouse button. USING BaR - Moving Child-Profiles You can also move a child-Profile from one parent to another by dragging it to another parent. N.B. you cannot copy a child-profile. USING BaR - Viewing Information If you're curious, you can drag the parent-Profile to the Info icon to see when the profile was created. Dragging a child-Profile will display the date and time of the last successful backup. USING BaR - Working with Archive Attributes If you select the 'Modified' backup option, you will be prompted when you backup the child-Profile if you would like to set/clear the archive attributes manually. Selecting yes will display a window where you can set and/or clear the attributes. If more than one child-Profile has this option checked, each will have its own Attributes window with the title of the child-Profile in the title bar. USING BaR - The 'File Exclusion' Window A small window appears alongside the main BaR window. The list box contains the extension of files you would like OS/2's backup to ignore, such as BAK, TMP, and TXT files, for example. To add to this list, right click on the list box and choose the 'Add...' menu item. To delete an entry, select it, and right click, then choose 'Delete.' USING BaR - Working with Logs If you chose to have OS/2's backup log the back up process to file, a file which you name will be created in BaR's own directory. If you want to view/edit/delete a file, click on the Log file pushbutton and you'll be shown a window in which all the files in the directory with the extension LOG will appear. To edit a file, double click on it, or select the file, right click, then choose the 'Edit' menu item. To delete a file, select it, right click, and choose 'Delete.' To exit the window, either double click on the system menu or right click and select 'Exit.' USING BaR - Backing Up To backup files to floppies, drag either an individual child-Profile to the backup icon (or select it and press CTRL-B) or a parent-Profile. USING BaR - Backing Up INI Files BaR is equipped with an, admittedly, crude INI file backup. What this essentially does is copy the user-selected INIs to an equivalent directory structure beneath BaR's own directory. For example, D:\BIN\BAR\ | |____Drive_C\ | | | |____OS2\ | | | |____OS2.INI | |____OS2SYS.INI | |____Drive_D\ | | | |____OS2\WINOS2\ | | | | | |____WIN.INI | | |____SYSTEM.INI The INI backup facility is intended to take the bother out of backing up crucial INI files by doing it for you every xth time you launch BaR. To enable this feature, you first have to click on the INI pushbutton, after which you'll be shown a preliminary setup window in which you can check the Enable check box to enable the INI backup and select an invocation number with the slider, from 1 to 9. When the Invocation number (see Trouble Shooting) corresponds with the selected Frequency number, BaR will copy the previously selected files to their appropriate subdirectories, first creating those subdirectories if they do not already exist. This ensures that you have a relatively recent backup of INI files should you require them. There is one caveat, however. Because BaR attempts to maintain directory and file names, if you are backing INI files from an HPFS drive or partition, be sure to install BaR on a similar drive or partition. I'm not sure what will happen if you try to copy HPFS directory and/or file names to a FAT-formatted drive or partition, but I am almost positive the results will be less than satisfactory. To select the INI and other important files, click on the 'Files...' button at the bottom of the initial setup window. USING BaR - Restoring To restore files from floppies, drag a child-Profile ONLY to the restore icon. Select the restore options from the window, and press the 'Restore.' To display the files which would be restored, press the 'Display' pushbutton. TROUBLE SHOOTING Should you find that Profile names do not correspond to backup options, you can do one of two things. Either delete the BaR.INI file and start over, or edit the INI file manually. BaR.INI conforms to standard OS/2 (c) INI files, but the data is written to the file in ascii format. The basic structure is: BaR.INI [BaR] BaR_Dir = the directory from which BaR was launched + BaR.INI INIOptions = [Yes|No x] where x is a number from 1 to 9 Exclude = list of file extensions separated by a space Invocation = is a BaR invocation count used for INI backups DateFormat = xx-yy-zz where x, y, z represent the system dependent format [Parent-ProfileName] CreationDate = date time (of when the parent was created) Child-ProfileName = backup parameters (see below) Child-ProfileName__DateTime = date time (of when the last successful backup took place [INIBackup] x = INI file (where x is a sequential number beginning with 1) Backup parameters are written and read in the following order: ProfileName = Path = e.g. C:\*.* Drive = e.g. B: Log = e.g. /L:Profile.log Modified = /M Append = /A Recursive = /S Format = e.g. /F:1220 Date = e.g. /D:01-01-01 [where the numbers are system dependent] Time = e.g. /T:01:00:00 [where the numbers = hh:mm:ss] Exclude = Exclude_Yes [or Exclude_No] Log File = Log_A [or Log_O] Each option *must* be separated by a space, and non-selected options are represented by the string ''. Path, Drive, Exclude, and Log File must have a valid string, i.e. something other than ; otherwise, BaR is likely to fail. DISCLAIMER This program is supplied with no warranty whatsoever either expressed or implied. Neither its author nor Watcom International can be held directly or indirectly responsible for any loss of data or damage caused by the use or misuse of BaR Front End. All software and documentation is supplied AS IS. If you use this program, you understand that you do so AT YOUR OWN RISK. COPYRIGHT BaR Front End (c) 1994 Paul H. Caron OS/2 (c) IBM International VX-Rexx (c) Watcom International BaR is released as SOS which stands for 'Sort of Shareware.' By that, I mean BaR remains freeware, and you DO NOT have to send any money if you continue to use the program. If you feel that financial remuneration is in order, however, you are invited to slip whatever amount you desire into an envelope and address it to: Mr. J-P Caron c/o Paul H. Caron A10-420 Westmount Avenue Sudbury, Ontario P3A 5V4 CANADA You are under no obligation to pay for or to register BaR, and if you do send a token of your appreciation, you will receive my gratitude, albeit non-verbal and non-written. BaR is not released into the public domain; in other words, you are free to use BaR as you see fit and are encouraged to upload it to BBSs and FTP sites. You are not permitted to alter BaR in any way, nor are you permitted to charge a fee for the use of this program. Distributors may collect a small fee to cover shipping, handling, and media costs, as long as that fee does not exceed the amount of 5.00 USD. CONTACTING THE AUTHOR If you find a bug or have suggestions for improvements, feel free to contact me at G9026163@mcmail.cis.McMaster.CA. REVISION HISTORY January 1994 (version 1.0) - Initial release February 1994 (version 1.0a) - InfoZip truncated the executable, which made 1.0 unusable. February 1994 (version 1.1) - Some minor changes, including the removal of superfluous buttons. - Added the ability to detect whether the backup will back up only modified files and to prompt the user if archive attributes have been neither set nor cleared prior to invoking backup. - Fixed a problem I had been having with setting and clearing the archive attributes on some files, much of which stemmed from my use of diacritics in filenames but not all. - Added the nifty little information box when BaR is launched. February 1994 (version 2.0) - Major revisions on the BaR.INI handling routines. - Added the INI backup feature. - Fixed annoying 'Drive not ready' message OS/2 produces when it tries to read a CDROM drive, for example, by having BaR ignore it (and any other such 'not ready' drives). March 1994 (version 2.1) - Added drag & drop support. - Added child-Profile. - Moved backup options to a notebook. - Did away with the external BarBar.cmd Rexx script - BaR now handles this internally. April 1994 (version 2.11) - Fixed a bug in the directory page of the Backup Options Notebook (sub-sub directories would not display). - Moved the directory page of the Backup Options Notebook to the front rather than it being last. - Fixed a miscalculation in the 'Queued:' display in backups of parents with only one child. - The backup process waits for the Archive Attributes window to be dismissed. In the case of multiple windows, backup begins after the first window (bottom level) is dismissed. - Fixed two bugs with the INI backup configuration whereby (1) the Setting window would reappear whenever a non-INI file was added to the listbox and (2) selecting the 'Files...' button in the Setup window would scan the drives rather than load the filenames in BaR.ini. - changed the title of various windows. - changed the pointer to 'Wait' where necessary. - fixed a bug in tabulating the elapsed days since the last backup in the Child-Profile Information window. - Added status text on the Directory and Log file notebook pages, displaying the currently selected path and log filename respectively. - Add the hint text to the directory container, informing user that he/she must double-click on the desired path in order for that selection to be registered by BaR. - The directory container in the Backup Options notebook is no longer removed when editing child profiles, so a directory change can be performed in editing sessions if desired. - Fixed a bug when answering 'Yes' when overwriting an existing child profile - the record would not be removed from the container. - Added a Parent duplication check. - Requesting information on a parent or child-Profile now provides information for all the children and parent Profile. - Archive Attributes window is now sizeable. - Changed the 'Edit child-Profile' icon to reflect its purpose a little better. April 1994 (version 2.12) - Fixed a bug in the LogFile setup notebook page whereby clicking on the Log check box and selecting Cancel in the file dialog box would resut in an access violation. (reported by Matthias Kiess 1994-04---19) - Menus and corresponding containers are now disabled if no Profile exists, to prevent inadvertant user input. - Changed the Add Parent and Delete Selected accelerators to Alt+Ins and Alt+Del respectively to prevent conflicts when editing profiles by Alt-left-clicking on the names. - Added explanatory information to the dialog box when a parent-Profile is dragged to the edit icon. - Added hint text about editing the name of a profile directly. - Increased the size of buttons and text to accomodate the variety of displays (essentially guess work).