[Unison-hackers] [FeatureReqest] auto-delete unneeded backup-files

[Benjamin C. Pierce]

I’d be interested to hear opinions from others on the list.  Personally, I think I probably would not want Unison ever to remove backups of deleted files (though, somewhat inconsistently, I do use the maxbackups feature).  But if there are many others that would find this feature useful, I would not object strongly to its being added, as long as it is easy to control and off by default.

    - Benjamin

> On Sep 26, 2015, at 4:27 PM, c.buhtz at posteo.jp wrote:
> 
> This FR is related to this Thread on the user-List
> <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/unison-users/conversations/topics/11660>
> 
> I am asking for such a feature because I want to have the opinion of
> the maintainers of that project.
> I am aware of the current status (not in active developend) and of the
> less resources of the project.
> I don't ask about if you (the maintainers) have the resources to
> implement that. I am just asking if you think it is a good idea and you
> would accept a patch/pull-request. Maybe you hate this idea and would
> never accept that feature in an official unison release. It is
> important do know for any developer who try to implement that.
> 
> The Feature:
> Unison should check if the backup-files have a corrosponding original
> file. If the original file doesn't exists anymore something should be
> done (e.g. delete it). This could be depended on the age of the
> bak-file, on the size of the complete backup-directorie, etc.
> This would prevend the user for wasting storage space. When the user
> delete an original file the backup-file is still there. Most of the use
> cases it is in a hidden directory. So the user never think about that.
> Using unison for some years this would produce a lot of files.
> 
> In my opinion and habit of developing software this FR could be a
> bug-report, too.
> The use of bak-files is not fully implemented. Unison create them
> automaticly but doesn't take care of there deletion. In german we say:
> "When you say A you have to say B, too."
> 
> Minimaly there should be a big-red-bold-hint in the manual about the
> possible excessive use of storage space the user should take care about
> himself.
> 
> So what is your opinion about this feature and would you accept it no
> matter about your own resources?
> -- 
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