[wp-hackers] The next release.

[Scott Merrill]

Owen Winkler wrote:
> In what way do you suppose that the options in that script are better
> organized than those in Skippy's backup plugin?  For novice users,
> wp-db-backup is much more succinct, and doesn't allow them to execute
> arbitrary (therefore possibly corrosive) queries against their database.

In the context of most blogs, a full backup is the only thing worth
pursuing.  Incremental backups, or backups of specific tables, are
inappropriate:

If you know you'll only need to restore one table (because you're
fiddling with a new plugin, for example), then you arguably ought to use
the right tool for the job (phpMyAdmin or command-line mysql tools).
Any automated or one-click backup thingie should be for disaster
recovery purposes.  "Features" in a DR system are useless: you want to
make sure you've got all your data and nothing else.

The possible exceptions to the above are people who know well what
they're doing, and people who have massive amounts of data in their
database (like the one Podz mentioned recently).  For these people,
better tools for the job exist.

> I take personal offense to the idea that a robust backup script is not
> hard to implement.

If it were easy, it would have been done long ago.

Owen _substantially_ contributed to WP-DB Backup to make it what it is
today.  It is a success in no small way because of his contributions.
Thanks again, Owen.

I still get emails from people with problems.  Most of them seem to
result from faulty detection of gzip support on the host server.

My code is available under the GPL.  If anyone thinks they can make a
better backup system for WordPress, I encourage you to do so.  Feel free
to use as much of WP-DB Backup as you need to succeed.

-- 
skippy at skippy.net | http://skippy.net/

gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 9CFA4B35
506C F8BB 17AE 8A05 0B49  3544 476A 7DEC 9CFA 4B35