ColdC: Function/Method Reference: backup()

INTEGER backup()

This function syncronizes the running database on disk and copies a backup to binary.bak, where binary is the binary database directory name specified upon bootup (defaulting to binary). If the backup name already exists it and any of it's sub contents are removed.

The return value represents the success of the backup. A value of one was a success. A value of zero means the backup failed when it tried to execute rm in removing the existing binary.bak directory. A value of negative one (-1) means the backup failed when attempting to execute cp in copying the database. The error ~error is thrown if the backup cannot remove binary.bak (insufficient permission).

Note: because of the nature of running a disk database it is not possible to fork the server for a backup. The time involved in a backup is primarily disk related (i.e. copying the binary db to another directory). If you have a fast disk, backups will be fast. In general backups will be much faster than other Virtual Environment System drivers. Because backups are atomic, other tasks will not execute while the backup is occuring.