Is The Mac Version Safe To Use?

[Moisie]

Hello:

I apologise if this is an insulting question - but is the Mac version safe to use? E.g. does it copy resource forks, xattrs, etc?

I'm more used to using other Mac sync/clone tools - e.g. Chronosync, CCC, SuperDuper - but have used FFS on Windows on occasions, and never really thought about using it on Mac - until now.

Any insights very welcomely received!

Thanks.

[Moisie]

Hello again:

Prefacing this again with any apologies due (I realise how it must look for a noob to come in and say the project stinks...), I've been looking into this a bit.

I'm happily using FFS for some basic data copying - love the fact I can see what it's going to do before it does it - but there's a couple of areas where the Mac version could use some improvements:

1- Easily resolved: there are a couple of additional Filter Exclusions that need adding:

/.TemporaryItems/
/.DocumentRevisions-V100/


2 - Window Behaviour is definitely not Mac-like:
- Open the Synchronisation Settings window, then drag around the main window - the Sync Settings window moves together with the main window;
- Move the Sync Settings window to a different display - it then disappears;
- The Sync window itself seems to float above all other windows - even those from other applications (NB only tested this one on FFS 8.4 on an old Mac).

3 - File metadata integrity tests fail. Running Backup Bouncer over a copied file set returns the following results:

Verifying:    basic-permissions ... FAIL (Critical)
Verifying:           timestamps ... ok (Critical)
Verifying:             symlinks ... stat: ./symlink1: stat: No such file or directory
FAIL (Critical)
Verifying:    symlink-ownership ... FAIL
Verifying:            hardlinks ... FAIL (Important)
Verifying:       resource-forks ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... ok (Critical)
   Sub-test:  on hardlinked files ... FAIL (Important)
Verifying:         finder-flags ... ok (Critical)
Verifying:         finder-locks ... FAIL
Verifying:        creation-date ... ok
Verifying:            bsd-flags ... FAIL
Verifying:       extended-attrs ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... ok (Important)
   Sub-test:       on directories ... ok (Important)
   Sub-test:          on symlinks ... FAIL
Verifying: access-control-lists ...
   Sub-test:             on files ... FAIL (Important)
   Sub-test:              on dirs ... FAIL (Important)
Verifying:                 fifo ... FAIL
Verifying:              devices ... FAIL
Verifying:          combo-tests ...
   Sub-test:  xattrs + rsrc forks ... ok
   Sub-test:     lots of metadata ... FAIL


Unfortunately I don't have sufficient expertise to be able to contribute to the project on this front - but I hope there's some useful information there for someone who can.

Thanks otherwise for a great project!

[Zenju]

/.TemporaryItems/
/.DocumentRevisions-V100/


I've added "TemporaryItems", not sure if "DocumentRevisions" is of general use. It seems this exists only on the system drive.

Open the Synchronisation Settings window, then drag around the main window - the Sync Settings window moves together with the main window

Seems to be either wxWidgets or Cocoa, but the behavior is actually not too bad, IMHO.

- Move the Sync Settings window to a different display - it then disappears;
- The Sync window itself seems to float above all other windows - even those from other applications (NB only tested this one on FFS 8.4 on an old Mac).

FFS 8.4 is ancient. I'm not able to reproduce the first one as I don't have such a test case. But if you tested with an old FFS version this is probably worth a retest.

3 - File metadata integrity tests fail. Running Backup Bouncer over a copied file set returns the following results:

FFS skips symlinks by default, but it can be enabled in comparison settings: https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=comparison-settings

Copying ACLs also needs an opt-in: Preferences->"Copy file access permissions"

[Moisie]

Hi Zenju:

Thanks for the reply - sorry, I've only just seen it.

I'll look into those points you mentioned - many thanks! I'm looking forward to being able to use FFS more widely.

FFS 8.4 is ancient.

(I was using FFS 8.4 because I was running on an old Mac Mini, which only supports up to OS X 10.7.)

I've added "TemporaryItems", not sure if "DocumentRevisions" is of general use. It seems this exists only on the system drive.

`.DocumentRevisions-V100/` is created at the root of any volume on which a document is saved which uses the 'modern document model' - e.g. Pages, Numbers, Keynote etc. The folder is not read- or writeable to the user account, so it (presumably) should be excluded by default.

Best wishes.

[Zenju]

Thanks for the reply - sorry, I've only just seen it.

Is there a problem with the email notifications on this forum? Or did you opt-out of "Automatically subscribe current topic after posting"?

`.DocumentRevisions-V100/` is created at the root of any volume on which a document is saved which uses the 'modern document model' - e.g. Pages, Numbers, Keynote etc. The folder is not read- or writeable to the user account, so it (presumably) should be excluded by default.

Okay, I've added it to the default exclusion list.

[Moisie]

Is there a problem with the email notifications on this forum? Or did you opt-out of "Automatically subscribe current topic after posting"?

No - just me failing to notice the notification amongst loads of other emails...

[Moisie]

Hello:

I've tried this again with FFS 10.23 on macOS 10.15.4 and the settings you advised. Whilst I found the settings, the Copy file access permissions (requires administrator rights) did not prompt me for admin credentials at any point, so failed to copy with the error:

Cannot write permissions of "/Volumes/Dst/00-basic-permissions".

EPERM: Operation not permitted [chown]

Moving onto the previous points:

Open the Synchronisation Settings window, then drag around the main window - the Sync Settings window moves together with the main window

Seems to be either wxWidgets or Cocoa, but the behavior is actually not too bad, IMHO.

Obviously your choice - but this is not a usual behaviour for a Mac app. ;-)

Move the Sync Settings window to a different display - it then disappears;

Still present on FFS 10.23, for the record.

The Sync window itself seems to float above all other windows - even those from other applications

Still present on FFS 10.23 to some extent:
- Start a synchronisation task running;
- Bring another application to the front by using Command-Tab: the 'main' FFS window disappears behind the frontmost app, but the Sync window (although now not focussed) remains frontmost;
- Bring the other application to the front again by using Command-Tab: now the Sync window correctly disappears behind the frontmost app.

Thanks!

[Moisie]

Hello again:

Open the Synchronisation Settings window, then drag around the main window - the Sync Settings window moves together with the main window

Seems to be either wxWidgets or Cocoa, but the behavior is actually not too bad, IMHO.

Obviously your choice - but this is not a usual behaviour for a Mac app. ;-)

Move the Sync Settings window to a different display - it then disappears;

Haha - I've just installed Eclipse - and this does exactly the same too!

[Zenju]

Hello again:

Open the Synchronisation Settings window, then drag around the main window - the Sync Settings window moves together with the main window

Seems to be either wxWidgets or Cocoa, but the behavior is actually not too bad, IMHO.

Obviously your choice - but this is not a usual behaviour for a Mac app. ;-)

Move the Sync Settings window to a different display - it then disappears;

Haha - I've just installed Eclipse - and this does exactly the same too!

Perfect, at least FFS has (good?) company. :)