[p4] Question about back up depot

[Robert Cowham]

> But order is important. The checkpoint MUST be older than the 
> snapshot of
> > the archive files (aka the depot directory). Otherwise your backups 
> > will be unusable.
> 
> 
> So, if i create a checkpoint right now and backup my depot 
> files right after that, will the backup be unusable since the 
> checkpoint is *not* older than the archive?

If you do that then the checkpoint WILL be older than the backup (even if
only by seconds - more likely minutes) so you will be fine.

The key thing is:

If metadata (i.e. copy of which is in checkpoint) says that you have 10
versions of a file and the file in the archive also has 10, everything is
obviously fine.

If metadata has 10 and yet archive has 11 (i.e. in the time between between
checkpoint and backup of archive an extra version was submitted - info
written to live journal but not in checkpoint), then the server will be OK -
no errors. In this scenario, you should find the missing information from
the metadata in the live journal (and attempt to recover it).

If metadata has 10 and archive has 9 then server will complain when you try
and sync #10.

Obviously in both the last 2 scenarios you have (potentially) lost data
which is not good, but one alternative is better than the other!

Robert