[conspire] funny backup dvd

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Mon, 04 Dec 2006 01:39:23 -0800, bruce coston wrote:

> if one of my file backup dvd's contains a single file of type ~mvp and
> it gets called an octet stream and konqueror knows not what to do , will
> this be a problem when trying to restore my backup ? , root is owner but
> i gots root here . Or is this an easy problem to overcome so I dont need
> to hurridly check all my backups ?

I'm not quite getting what you mean by "type ~mvp" here. Under *nix, there
are typically only three forms of "file type" used, not counting anything
that specific filesystems may keep track of:
1) extension
2) MIME type
3) magic
You already said the MIME type was octet-stream, so that couldn't be what
you meant, and magic doesn't change as long as the contents of the file
don't change. You didn't say exactly what backup method you used, but
since it's a "backup DVD," I'd guess you just dumped a bunch of files
and/or folders onto mkisofs (probably under the auspices of K3b). That
method is best suited for occasions when a hypothetical restore from
backup would consist of restoring individual files and/or folders rather
than everything that was backed up. If that is the case, the easiest way
to know whether or not all your backups are in need of review would be to
look at the folder whose backup included the "type ~mvp" file, and compare
it to the backup using "diff -qr" in a shell. Of course, this assumes you
discovered the "type ~mvp" file upon making the backup, rather than upon
attempting a restore. If the latter is the case, you'll just probably
never know how accurate or inaccurate that backup may have been, and
perhaps only change your backup method for the future or something.