Additional settings
Multitask – When SyncDiscs is either comparing or synchronising two directories it can be run as a single-tasking or multi-tasking process. When single-tasking the machine is 'taken over' and cannot be used in any other way until the process has finished. If in multi-tasking mode, then SyncDiscs still polls the wimp during the processing and so the machine can be used for other purposes at the same time. Single tasking will be faster than multitasking.
Allow multiple filer action windows – This is only of relevance when operating in multitasking mode. Filer operations are passed on to the Filer_Action module, which also multitasks all its operations. If this option is unticked, then SyncDiscs will wait after initiating a filer action until it has completed. If multiple filer actions are allowed (by ticking this option) then SyncDiscs will continually launch filer actions in parallel, and not wait until any single one has completed. SyncDiscs will not allow too many filer actions to be active concurrently, since the desktop will become very unresponsive, so the number of filer actions active at the same time will be limited. The maximum number of concurrent filer actions can be set using the bump icons.
If you have configured for say ten Filer_Action windows, it does not mean there will always be ten running. It will depend upon how much data is to be copied, how large the files are and how fast the hardware is. Large files, such as digital images or audio files, or complete directories, take much longer to copy, and there is more chance that SyncDiscs will have started more off while earlier ones are still completing. Copying over a network will be much slower than copying between two hard drives on the same machine. However, you should not normally see more than the configured number at any one time.
Verbose filer actions – By default this is not ticked. If this is unticked, then when SyncDiscs invokes the Filer_Action module, it will do so with the verbose flag off. This means you will not normally see any Filer_Action dialogue boxes on the desktop. You will see the Filer_Action windows starting and stopping in the Task Manager listing of active application tasks (click SELECT on the right hand icon of the iconbar), and if you have the progress window open and maximised you will see the Filer_Action count displayed. This is the recommended option. If there occurs an error condition during a copy, you will then see the Filer_Action window with the error message and the buttons Skip, Retry etc. open.
If this option is ticked, then a filer_action window will always be opened for each filer_action started, showing the progress of the action. This may clutter the desktop, and will slow things down. The SyncDiscs progress window will give an indication of overall progress anyway.
Copy complete directories – By default this option is selected. If SyncDiscs finds a directory that does not exist in the backup, it will simply copy the whole directory as is, and not inspect the objects (files or directories) within it. This option is faster, but it means SyncDiscs does not see what is inside the directory, and cannot, for example, check whether files are open before copying, or whether one of the ignore zones (if being used) is contained within it. By unticking this option, SyncDiscs is forced to open up every subdirectory, recursively, and create each subdirectory and copy each individual file. For normal purposes, it is recommended that this option is ticked.
Timestamps equal if within... – One of the criteria used by SyncDiscs to determine whether to copy a file or not is to compare the date and time stamp of the two copies. A problem may arise here if you are backing up to a disc on a different OS because, while RISC OS stores timestamps to a precision of 1 centisecond, some other OSs use different precision, which could be better or worse than RISC OS. For example, if the precision is only 1 sec, as on some Windows file systems, then the timestamp of the copy will be rounded down to the nearest second. When SyncDiscs comes to do a subsequent backup, it may think the backup is older than it really is, and copy it again. To reduce this type of occurrence, when SyncDiscs compares the two timestamps, it can be made to ignore a small difference in timestamps and treat them as being equal. Tick this option to turn this behaviour on - the time difference can be set using the bump icons adjacent. A value of three seconds is a good compromise.
There is more information about time stamps here
Ignore filetype differences – SyncDiscs will normally copy a file if the filetypes of the primary and secondary copies are different. When copying to 'foreign' file systems using e.g. Fat32FS, the filetype mapping is controlled by the Mimemap file. Depending on the entries in this file, some filetypes may change when copied. For example, the zip filetype (&a91) may revert to archive (&ddc), or DOS filetype (&fe4) may revert to data or text filetype. This can cause unnecessary copy actions on subsequent synchronisations. If this option is ticked, then when SyncDiscs finds the only difference between the primary and secondary files is in the filetype, then the file will not be copied again.
The next part of the additional settings dialogue is concerned with log file management.
New logfile each synchronisation session – By default, SyncDiscs will add all its output to the configured logfile, rather than starting a new one each synchronisation. This means the logfile can become very large over time (unless you periodically change the name or manually prune or delete it). If this option is ticked, then SyncDiscs will clear the logfile each time it carries out a synchronisation. Since older records are then lost, there is the further option to save the last few logs (up to 9). This is accomplished by adding a numerical suffix to the logfile name. When a synchronisation is started, the oldest logfile is deleted, and the rest are moved 'down the list' by renaming. Note that there may be a problem if the logfile name is of length ten characters on a filing system which does not support filenames longer than ten characters.
Note that a synchronisation session comprises the processing of a single queue of jobs, which may be a single, or a number of, job(s). The session ends when the last job in the queue has completed. It is at this point that the logfile will be written out to disc.
Auto-open log file on completion – This simply opens the logfile in the default text editor once the synchronisation is finished. If this is unticked, then the easiest way to open the log file is to reopen the main SyncDiscs window and click on the 'Open' button, situated to the right of the log file details. Note that, when a number of syncjobs are queued, the log file is opened only when the queue has been emptied.
Save logfile in primary directory – If this is ticked, then it will override the log file path in the main window, and SyncDiscs will then save a log file in the primary directory. When this option is ticked, the log path field in the main SyncDiscs window will be shaded. This is probably of most use when you frequently backup a lot of directories separately and you need to keep separate records of the backups. When this option is ticked the other log file settings described above are still honoured.
Verbose logging – If this is ticked, then if logging is enabled, more information will be written to the log file. It is recommended this option is unticked for normal use.
Save – All the current settings can be saved by pressing this button. Note that SyncDiscs will always use the current settings when starting each synchronisation. When the settings are saved, then SyncDiscs will use the same ones when run on a future occasion.