TIP OF THE DAY: Inteligent cleaning of SW Backups

If you are like me you have SW backups set to 2 copies in the very
unlikely event that you make a mistake and have to go back and restore
a SW document. This leads to another distasteful task, cleaning out the
SW Backup directory from time to time. One of my associates pointed out
that he likes to keep 3 days of backups. So how to keep 3 days of
backups without spending time every day manually deleting files? Enter
DELOLD and the Task Scheduler.

1. Goto
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/MSDOS/Q_21238420.html
and grab this command file using cut and paste. Paste it into notepad
and save to a convenient place on your system's search path with the
name DELOLD.CMD.

2. Create another command file called SWCLEAN.CMD and put in:

CD "SW Backup Directory"
DELOLD 4 *.SLD*

3. Create a task in the Task Scheduler that runs SWCLEAN.CMD at some
early hour of the morning.

4. Before letting this go and run, test SWCLEAN.CMD. If all is well
edit DELOLD.CMD and replace ECHO with DEL so that it actually deletes
files.

Note that you could also add a line to SWCLEAN.CMD to clean out your
temp directory and defragment. Defragment is simply DEFRAG C:

 

In the spirit of Beta testing with users many thanks.

I think it has to do with the spaces in the path or filename. I didn't
write the cmd file so it will take a bit of sleuthing to figure out how
to deal with the more modern filenames. As far as the path goes try
CDing to the backup directory in the batch file that calls the delete
program.

If this is a good idea I suppose it could be translated into a macro
within SW or a shell script.

 

To use a file name with spaces you have to enclose it with Quotes in any app
that uses the console.

Corey

 

and the fix is.....................

DEL /P "%FileName%"

put quotes around the filename (and add a /P for checking).

 

Are you running XP and using it from cmd not command? I didn't have any
trouble in my backup directory and I have spaces in filenames.

 

Try this. After reading the help I noticed it doesn't take a filename
as a second argument so I added that.

:: --------DELOLD.BAT----------
@echo off
SET OLDERTHAN=%1
SET SEARCHFOR=%2
IF NOT DEFINED OLDERTHAN GOTO SYNTAX
IF NOT DEFINED SEARCHFOR SET SEARCHFOR="*.*"

for /f "tokens=2" %%i in ('date /t') do set thedate=%%i

set mm=%thedate:~0,2%
set dd=%thedate:~3,2%
set yyyy=%thedate:~6,4%

set /A dd=%dd% - %OLDERTHAN%
set /A mm=%mm% + 0

if /I %dd% GTR 0 goto DONE
set /A mm=%mm% - 1
if /I %mm% GTR 0 goto ADJUSTDAY
set /A mm=12
set /A yyyy=%yyyy% - 1

:ADJUSTDAY
if %mm%==1 goto SET31
if %mm%==2 goto LEAPCHK
if %mm%==3 goto SET31
if %mm%==4 goto SET30
if %mm%==5 goto SET31
if %mm%==6 goto SET30
if %mm%==7 goto SET31
if %mm%==8 goto SET31
if %mm%==9 goto SET30
if %mm%==10 goto SET31
if %mm%==11 goto SET30
if %mm%==12 goto SET31

goto ERROR

:SET31
set /A dd=31 + %dd%
goto DONE

:SET30
set /A dd=30 + %dd%
goto DONE

:LEAPCHK
set /A tt=%yyyy% %% 4
if not %tt%==0 goto SET28
set /A tt=%yyyy% %% 100
if not %tt%==0 goto SET29
set /A tt=%yyyy% %% 400
if %tt%==0 goto SET29

:SET28
set /A dd=28 + %dd%
goto DONE

:SET29
set /A dd=29 + %dd%

ONE
if /i %dd% LSS 10 set dd=0%dd%
if /I %mm% LSS 10 set mm=0%mm%
for %%i in (%SEARCHFOR%) do (
set FileName=%%i
call ROCESSFILE %%~ti
)

set mm=
set yyyy=
set dd=
set thedate=
goto EXIT

:SYNTAX
ECHO.
ECHO USAGE:
ECHO DELOLD X [FILENAME]
ECHO Where X is the number of days previous to Today.
ECHO Where FILENAME is an optional filename or wildcards.
ECHO.
ECHO EX: "DELOLD 5" Deletes files older than 5 days.
GOTO EXIT

ROCESSFILE
set temp=%1
set fyyyy=20%temp:~6%
set fmm=%temp:~0,2%
set fdd=%temp:~3,2%
if /I %fyyyy% GTR 2069 set fyyyy=19%temp:~6%


:: +*************************************+
:: | This is where the files are deleted |
:: | Change the ECHO command to DEL to |
:: | delete. ECHO is used for test. |
:: +*************************************+
if /I %yyyy%/%mm%/%dd% GEQ %fyyyy%/%fmm%/%fdd% (
ECHO "%FileName%"
)

set temp=
set fyyyy=
set fmm=
set fdd=

:EXIT

:: ----------END-DELOLD.BAT-------------

 

Boy, have they increased the capablities of batch files in XP. I am
going through this thing now bit by bit trying to understand it. If
Windoze main feature over DOS and Unix was ease of use then Unix has
them beat in writing understandable shell files.

 

I use this free little utility to empty temp files inclusive the
contents of the SolidWorks Autobackup folder. I have it set to delete
files older than 30 days

http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp/


Regards

John Layne
Solid Engineering Ltd

 

Here is another method to consider, the one I'm currently using:
External Hard Drives.
I set the SolidWorks Back-Up settings to "Zero". It takes time to read/write
these back-up files every time you "Save".I back up to an External Hard
Drive #1 every 30 minutes or so. I also delete all Temp files every 4 hours
or so. The keeps the Internal Drives on my computer clean. Then, one a week,
I back up the #1 Hard Drive to External Hard Drive #2. I also Defrag my
Internal and External Hard Drives at the end of everyday.
I also recommend the method of keeping the Applications on the C: Drive and
all Data on another Internal Hard Drive.
Best Regards,
Devon T. Sowell
www.3-ddesignsolutions.com

 

Devon,

That is a very good insight. I like Layne's idea too. There is a batch
file on the SW site that does a lot of cleanup and I wanted to
integrate to that. But your idea of not using SW backups has some
merit. The only issue with it is that I like the backups because it is
a means of undo and I work both on local drives and on network drives.
It would be kind of hard to track where I was working and only back
that up. Since SW backup is done to a local drive that is very fast and
the second copy is just a rename operation I don't think I am loosing
that much by leaving SW backup set to 2.

Layne's idea with a little customization for SW might be very helpful.
I also have FEA temp files that can get very large, sometimes several
GB. And they can be anywhere so they have to be found by extension, but
some of the extensions are common to Windows system extensions.

 

Hi Devon

Another utility I use to backup at the end of each day is ViceVersa Pro.
It's not free but well worth the cash.

http://www.tgrmn.com/

I find it invaluable as it has excellent control over what’s being
backed up or synchronized.

My Methodology using ViceVersa:

C Drive Internal 80Gb ATA
F Drive Internal 120Gb SATA Raid 0 array (working files)
H Drive External 40Gb USB Drive

At the end of each day I “Replicate and Prune” working folders from F
drive "Source" to C drive "Target". Hence the working folders on C
become a mirror of F.

I then backup F "Source" to H "Target" using the “Advanced Sync with
History” method and have it set to keep the previous 10 copies of any
particular file, it’s also set to delete backup files older than 6
months. The "Advanced Sync" method allows me to work on the USB drive
from my home office and return to my clients and sync with my PC located
at their office. This method is also used to sync with their server.

My data files occupy approximately 20GB. Due to only updated files being
backed up the entire process above takes about 5 minutes.

Below an extract from the ViceVersa help file on Synchronization Methods
the software has


"Simple Sync (No History)"
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Source are copied to
the Target.
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Target are copied to
the Source.
*Older files in the Target are replaced with their newer counterpart in
the Source.
*Older files in the Source are replaced with their newer counterpart in
the Target.

"Replication (Augment)"
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Source are copied to
the Target.

"Replication (Refresh)"
*Older files in the Target are replaced with their newer counterpart in
the Source.

"Replication (Update)"
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Source are copied to
the Target.
*Older files in the Target are replaced with their newer counterpart in
the Source.

"Replication (Update and Prune)"
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Source are copied to
the Target.
*Older files in the Target are replaced with their newer counterpart in
the Source.
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Target are removed
(pruned).

"Replication (Mirror)" Creates a mirror of the Source in Target = Backup
Source(s) to Target(s)
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Source are copied to
the Target.
*Older files in the Target are replaced with their newer counterpart in
the Source.
*Newer files in the Target are replaced with their older counterpart in
the Source.
*All single (=unpaired) files and folders in the Target are removed
(pruned).

"Advanced Sync (With History)" Bidirectional Synchronization
*All newly added files and folders in Source since last sync are copied
to Target and vice versa.
*All deleted files and folders in Source since last sync are deleted
from Target and vice versa.
*Newer files in Source are copied over their older counterpart in Target
and vice versa.
*If a file was changed both in Source AND Target, the file is identified
as a conflict.


Regards

John Layne
Solid Engineering Ltd