storing binary blobs, or otherwise synching them

[Martin Fick]

--- martin f krafft <madduck at madduck.net> wrote:

> I am now confronted with directories like the papers
> I refer to in
> my thesis. I regard these as data related to the
> PhD, but the
> directory is also almost 100Mb in size by now, and
> as they are not
> expected to ever change, I am somewhat reluctant to
> hand them over
> to SVN.

Well, just because they aren't likely to change
doesn't mean that they shouldn't be backed up, right? 


To me, the subversion repositories are the my primary
backups of all my personal files.  This include my
photo collection which I do not anticipate changing
(but it does get reorganized and I certainly don't
want to risk losing anything while moving stuff
around).  Afterall, many people put that stuff on
CDRs, but they will degrade in a few years and be
worthless.

 

> However, I need a way to synchronise them between my
> machines. Given
> that centralised storage makes sense when
> synchronising more than
> 2 machines, the alternative would be a central
> directory and unison,
> but then I might just use the repository... the only
> thing detering
> me is that I probably want to remove a paper now and
> then, and it's
> not possible to do so with SVN in a way that frees
> storage space, so
> the SVN repository is thus ever-increasing in size.
> 
> I guess I am not looking for answers, just thoughts.
> How do you
> approach this challenge?

I have a special svn repository for stuff that I'd
like backed up currently, but do not anticipate
actually having to have any history for.  This
repository is called 'volatile'. :)  I use this for my
inbox and various other junk files (many dot files). 
The idea is that at some point I could just make a new
volatile repository and delete the old one if it gets
too big.  This allows me to keep one backup strategy
for everything, svn, but I have things split into
various bins (reposistories) depending on the use, and
I make heavy use of subversion externals.  

Ideally if subversion ever allows it, a truncated
feature would be nice for something like my volatile
repository.  If I could just say truncate history up
to 3 months ago, that would be cool!

-Martin


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