A Backup Format I Like

Huey32 · Jul 31, 2008#12008-07-31T18:55+00:00

I finally got a backup to work that is close to ideal for me. It cumulatively saves backups of a file to a sub-directory "\backup", creating the sub-directories if necessary.
Go to the Advanced pull-down. Click Configuration, Navigate: to File Handling, Backup.
Under Backup Files on Save: check the No Backup button (no .BAK).
Leave the Default backup directory: empty.
Under Version Backup: check the On save box, and enter "\backup\$n$e $y $m $d $H $M" in the Format: box. This works in 14.00b.

My ideal backup would be "\backup\$n$e $y$m$d $3c", but that doesn't work yet.

Aug 01, 2008#22008-08-01T13:50+00:00

Although "\backup\$n$e $y $m $d $H $M" works in 14.00b, I'm told there needs to be a "." preceeding the other text. Anyone else out there born before MSDOS was born join me in saying "DUH." Everyone else ask your parents what "." and ".." mean. (It's a joke, sorta like simulated humor)

I didn't try it yet but it makes good sense now. I'm really kicking myself, because I think I tried ".." way back when, and ended up with a peer directory named "backup." It threw me off because it creates ".\backup" without the ".".

Mofi · Aug 03, 2008#32008-08-03T14:53+00:00

You should update to latest version of UE if you use version backup because there has been made an important change. The last saved version backup file is now not identical anymore to the file. It is now the version of the file before last save. That is important if you already have a file with no version backups and you start editing. The first version backup file created during the editing season contains now the initial file content as you started editing this file. That was not the case for UE < v14.10.

Just a short explanation for those users which know nothing about relative paths.

.\ means current working directory.
..\ means parent directory of current working directory.
\ at start of a relative path means root directory of the drive of current working directory.

So if "\backup\$n$e $y$m$d $3c" did not work as you expected, it is not the fault of UltraEdit. You can easily verify what I have described by opening a command prompt window, and use for example

cd "%temp%"

Now execute one after the other:

cd .\
cd ..\
cd \

You will immediately see now how relative paths work.