Update README regarding metadata support.

[bup.git] / README.md

diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d29af412f47ce1652e194b60946d640d5c968811..3f9c2410a6198ae9328aeb918b44b31a2de66b18 100644 (file)
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -76,13 +76,17 @@ Reasons you might want to avoid bup
    1.5.3.1.
  
  - It currently only works on Linux, MacOS X >= 10.4,
-   Solaris, or Windows (with Cygwin).  Patches to support
+   NetBSD, Solaris, or Windows (with Cygwin).  Patches to support
    other platforms are welcome.
    
    
 Getting started
 ===============
 
+
+From source
+-----------
+
  - Check out the bup source code using git:
  
         git clone git://github.com/apenwarr/bup
@@ -108,7 +112,25 @@ Getting started
        
     (The tests should pass.  If they don't pass for you, stop here and send
     me an email.)
-   
+
+
+From binary packages
+--------------------
+
+Binary packages of bup are known to be built for the following OSes:
+
+ - Debian:
+    http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&keywords=bup
+ - Ubuntu:
+    http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?searchon=names&keywords=bup
+ - pkgsrc (NetBSD, Dragonfly, and others)
+    http://pkgsrc.se/sysutils/bup
+    http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/pkgsrc/sysutils/bup/
+
+
+Using bup
+---------
+
  - Try making a local backup as a tar file:
  
         tar -cvf - /etc | bup split -n local-etc -vv
@@ -191,6 +213,27 @@ Notes on FreeBSD
   the port named 'hs-pandoc' in the 'textproc' section.
 
 
+Notes on NetBSD/pkgsrc
+----------------------
+
+ - See pkgsrc/sysutils/bup, which should be the most recent stable
+   release and includes man pages.  It also has a reasonable set of
+   dependencies (git, par2, py-fuse-bindings).
+
+ - The "fuse-python" package referred to is hard to locate, and is a
+   separate tarball for the python language binding distributed by the
+   fuse project on sourceforge.  It is available as
+   pkgsrc/filesystems/py-fuse-bindings and on NetBSD 5, "bup fuse"
+   works with it.
+
+ - "bup fuse" presents every directory/file as inode 0.  The directory
+   traversal code ("fts") in NetBSD's libc will interpret this as a
+   cycle and error out, so "ls -R" and "find" will not work.
+
+ - It is not clear if extended attribute and POSIX acl support does
+   anything useful.
+
+
 How it works
 ============
 
@@ -257,10 +300,16 @@ Things that are stupid for now but which we'll fix later
 Help with any of these problems, or others, is very welcome.  Join the
 mailing list (see below) if you'd like to help.
 
- - 'bup save' and 'bup restore' don't know about file metadata.
+ - 'bup save' and 'bup restore' have immature metadata support.
  
-    That means we aren't saving file attributes, mtimes, ownership, hard
-    links, MacOS resource forks, etc.  Clearly this needs to be improved.
+    On the plus side, they actually do have support now, but it's new,
+    and not remotely as well tested as tar/rsync/whatever's.  If you'd
+    like to help test, please do; something like 'rsync -niaHAX src/
+    restore/' may be useful on that front.
+
+    In addition, at the moment, if any strip or graft-style options
+    are specified to 'bup save', then no metadata will be written for
+    the root directory.  That's obviously less than ideal.
 
  - 'bup index' is slower than it should be.
  
@@ -324,6 +373,8 @@ bup has an extensive set of man pages.  Try using 'bup help' to get
 started, or use 'bup help SUBCOMMAND' for any bup subcommand (like split,
 join, index, save, etc.) to get details on that command.
 
+For further technical details, please see ./DESIGN.
+
 
 How you can help
 ================