rfc or suggestion--save backups function for gnucash

[jdebert]

Derek Atkins wrote:
> jdebert <jdebert at garlic.com> writes:
> 
> 
>>Elizabeth Dodd wrote:
>>
>>>cron sounds like a better idea.
>>>just copy them to another machine or a removable medium at a regular hour.
>>>
>>
>>That is untimely, it seems. By the time cron got round to it, the data
>>could be gone. Especially if there is a system problem.
>>
>>That is not to say that cron is useless. It is still good practice to
>>do periodic backups as well.
>>
>>Backing up immediately before and after would improve the odds of
>>saving current data. It's added insurance.
> 
> 
> FTR, Gnucash already makes a backup copy of the data file before it
> saves anything.  That's what all those dated files are.  As for
> "backing up immediate after" -- if gnucash can't trust your system to
> save a file, why should it trust it to save a backup/copy?  That's
> just absurd.
> 

In the case of my corrupted data files, the kernel had problems with 
"complex" apps like gnucash. Saving in gnucash trashed the files it was 
writing, including backups.

The wrapper used the relatively simple "cp", which the kernel seemed to 
have no problem with.

Most "complex" apps were affected by kernel misbehaviour. It just 
happened that gnucash was the first thing used after a kernel update. It 
was the first really bad kernel I'd ever had. Up til then, they were 
sometimes flakey but never so bad as to damage stuff.

The kernel also trashed 3 usb disks later on, wiping out the extra backups.