[tahoe-dev] timestamps on mutable files

[Zooko O'Whielacronx]

On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 10:33 PM, Jody Harris <havoc at harrisdev.com> wrote:
> I have set up my web server to store backup files on my tahoe grid, shifting
> from the use of a server at my house. One thing that initially alarmed me
> was that the timestamps of the backed up files is not updated in the
> tahoe-lafs interface. I did confirm that the shares timestamps are updated.

Tahoe-LAFS doesn't store timestamps or other metadata on files, only
on links to files, which links are stored in directories.  So if you
have a directory which contains a link named "README.txt" to version 1
of your file, and then you upload version 2 of your file and you
change that directory to link to version 2, then Tahoe-LAFS will
update the timestamp on that link named "README.txt" when it updates
the link to point to the new file.

Did you say "mutable files"?  You should probably not be using mutable
files for anything.  Immutable files (plus directories) probably fit
all your needs for backups, and mutable files have significant
performance problems.

How do you trigger these backups -- are you using "tahoe cp" or "tahoe
backup" or sending HTTP requests to the WAPI or something else?

Regards,

Zooko