Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!oberon!cit-vax!ucla-cs!flowers
From: flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: keeping multiple machine environments in synch
Message-ID: <12086@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 8 May 88 02:12:50 GMT
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Reply-To: flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU ()
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department
Lines: 32

It is getting really difficult trying to keep a few different machines
in synch in terms of each having the same installed software and
copies of the same working documents (home & office machines).  Does
anyone have any good suggestions or know of a program that will help
with this?  There are a few things that make this non-trivial:

- Find Since ... (e.g. with DiskTop) doesn't work, since newly copied
files keep their original write dates (which could be quite a ways
into the past).  So you have to keep a directory snapshot in some
manner to be able to detect what has changed.

- I thought incremental backups would be a way to do this, but with
DiskFit at least I can't make it restore a save set without first
deleting and reinitializing the target disk.  Also, you want to
incrementally grab every change that was made, not since the last
backup, but since the last time you propogated changes to other
machines, so you need to be able to specify this.

- Also, with different machines, some individualization is necessary.
For example, choosen printers are different, baud rates differ,
folders differ.  In the future other differences may be based on
different amounts of core memory, disk space, appletalk connections,
activities done only at one place and not the other.  Thus, some way
is needed of making individual changes and NOT having those propogate
to other machines as they are updated.  

Does anyone have any suggestions for technique or sofware packages to
aid with this?  Right now I just try to be careful and systematic, but
that fails at times.

thanks,
Margot Flowers   Flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU   ...!{ucbvax|ihnp4}!ucla-cs!flowers