[Xapian-discuss] backing up a database by locking while backup program runs

[Olly Betts]

On Thu, Dec 13, 2007 at 05:52:44PM +0000, Ronan wrote:
> I want to back up a Xapian database.  If I copy the database directory
> and its contents using (for instance) rsync, and I know that throughout
> the duration of the rsync process another process has had the database
> open for writing, but has not actually made any modifications, can I
> be sure that, on completion of the rsync process, I have a copy of the
> database which is consistent and fully up-to-date?

Yes, that will work.

> The document at [1] makes it fairly clear that the answer is "Yes",
> but I'm a little doubtful about the status of that document, since there
> seem to be no links to it from the Xapian website.

There's a link from here ("sysadmins" at the top):

http://www.xapian.org/docs/

> (The following Google
> query finds nothing: "link:www.xapian.org/docs/admin_notes.html".)

It's not my job to explain Google's inability to find things!

Cheers,
    Olly