Filling the Specified Package of any Size

Filling the Specified Package of any Size

nnbackup.exe fill 1420K -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp [options]

In this mode nnBackup automatically sorts the specified files to optimally fill a packages (directories) of any predefined size, keeping the input directory tree structure intact. If the combined size of the files located in input directory is bigger than specified package size, the necessary number of packages will be created. Later you should be able to get an exact copy of your data just by copying all the created packages into one directory, overwriting each other.

The fill mode is very useful when you need to 'split' the large amounts of data (files and directories) into smaller pieces of predefined size. Try to use fill mode when preparing files for backup on several CDRs/ZIP-disks, or when you are forced to move the data between computers using several floppy-disks.

There is an example. Let's assume, there is a directory on your PC (c:\data) which size is 1500M. You are planning to write the content of this directory on a several CDRs - 640M each. If you don't want to sort the files manually, you can start nnBackup like this:

nnbackup.exe fill 640M -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -s -e

After the files are processed, the nnBackup will create three numbered directories in d:\backup\temp filled with files from c:\data and keeping the c:\data directory tree structure intact. nnBackup will do it's best to fill the first two directories completely (appr. 640M each). The last (third) directory will contain the files, which are left after filling of the first two directories (appr. 220M). Now you can easily burn the created numbered directories to three CDRs.

You can specifie the size of packages-directories in bytes, kilobytes and megabytes:

nnbackup.exe fill 1457664 -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -s -e
nnbackup.exe fill 1420K -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -s -e
nnbackup.exe fill 640M -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -s -e

Note, please: if the biggest file in input directory is bigger than specified size of a package, nnBackup will stop processing files and show a warning with the name and size of the file(s) that do not fits to the package.

Some of the nnBackup command line options were expressly created for use in the mode of filling the specified package of any size: more.

Keep in mind that in fill mode (as well as all the other modes) you can fine-tune the program's behavior by specifying what types of files should be processed. For example, you can use inclusive or exclusive filename masks (-m, -x), filters of the creation and/or last modification date (-D, -DC, -DW), file size filters (-LT, -GT) and file attributes filters (options -a, -ax) etc:

nnbackup.exe fill 1420K -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -m *.htm,*.html -s -v

If required, you can specify several input directories (it's a good idea to use the -pn option as well ):

nnbackup.exe fill 1420K -i c:\data -i c:\another_data -o d:\backup\temp -cs 512 -pn 1 -s -e -v

The -nocopy option will allow you to test the command line that you are going to use: nnBackup will imitate the processing of the files, but the files won't be actually copied:

nnbackup.exe fill -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -m *.htm,*.html -s -e -v -nocopy

Examples:

nnbackup.exe fill 1400K -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -s -v

Explanation: sorting the files from c:\data into the packages-directories of 1400 kilobytes each, located in d:\backup\temp. During the file processing, nnBackup will take in account all subdirectories in c:\data and display/write to log the full file paths.

nnbackup.exe fill 1400K -i c:\data -i c:\another_data -o d:\backup\temp -cs 512 -p1 -s -e -v

Explanation: sorting the files from c:\data and c:\another_data into the packages-directories of 1400 kilobytes each, located in d:\backup\temp. Create a folders with the same names as the input directories in every package. During the file processing, nnBackup will take in account all subdirectories in c:\data and display/write to log the full file paths. Empty directories will be processed as well. The cluster size is set to 512 bytes.

nnbackup.exe fill 1457664 -i c:\data -o d:\backup\temp -cs 512 -sl 2 -p1 -s -e -v

Explanation: sorting the files from c:\data into the packages-directories of 1457664 bytes each, located in d:\backup\temp. Create a folders with the same names as the input directories in every package. During the file processing, nnBackup will take in account all subdirectories in c:\data and display/write to log the full file paths. Empty directories will be processed as well. The cluster size is set to 512 bytes. Using the option -sl we are instructing nnBackup to take each folder starting from the second level in directory tree as an undivideable whole and try to copy it to the package without splitting. This means, that files, located in directories, say, c:\data and c:\data\first are allowed to be splitted into different packages. The directory, say, c:\data\first\second will be copied to the package without splitting.