Question regarding limiting versions

[Plerry]

I am very glad you added the long requested feature of "Limit file versions" in FFS-10.2
The manual does not provide details on this new feature (yet) and (at least to me) it is not fully self explanatory.
Assuming one uses the "Time stamp [File]" naming convention, the way I understand it is (and please correct me if I am wrong!):

- If you only tick the "Last x days" box, any versions older than the selected amount of x-days will be deleted.
- If you only tick the "Last x days" box and the "Minimum" box, any versions older than the selected amount of x-days will be deleted, but at least the selected minimum number of versions will be kept (if available), even if such version(s) would be older than the selected amount of x-days.
(The tick-box "Minimum" is grayed out as long as the tick-box "Last x days" is not ticked)
- If you only tick the "Maximum" box, only the youngest selected (maximum) amount of versions is kept, all older versions are deleted.

Where it gets confusing is if a combination of "Last x days" and "Maximum" is selected.
My guess is (and again please correct me if I am wrong!):

- If you only tick the "Last x days" box and the "Maximum" box, all versions older than the selected amount of x-days will be deleted, and additionally all older versions than the youngest selected (maximum) amount of versions will be deleted, even if such version(s) would be younger than the selected amount of x-days.
- If you tick all boxes ("Last x days", Minimum" and "Maximum") and you set
Maximum > Minimum, all versions older than the selected amount of x-days will be deleted, and additionally all older versions than the youngest selected (maximum) amount of versions will be deleted, even if such version(s) would be younger than the selected amount of x-days, but always the minimum selected amount of versions will be kept, irrespective of their age.
- If you tick all boxes ("Last x days", Minimum" and "Maximum") and you set
Maximum < Minimum (yes, this is possible ...), I have no clue

So please correct me if/where I was wrong and at least clarify the last bullet case.

[Zenju]

All your assumptions are correct. Maybe the feature is indeed as self-explanatory as I have hoped. :)

> Maximum < Minimum (yes, this is possible ...)
No, this will not be accepted. You'll get an error message once you click on "OK".

[Plerry]

OK great. Thanks!
It certainly meets my needs ("Last x days" and "Minimum"),
but also seems to meet all needs from others I have read about.
All good things are worth waiting for ... ;-)

[Godmcgarvey]

Just to clarify a few things..

Does the profile that set up the version have to be run to delete older files or just any profile?

Does it work purely on date stamp or date + timestamp?

I have an experiment set up for a file version I created at 10.25 14 Aug and its now 18.21 on the 15 Aug and the version hasn't been deleted with settings at 1 day old and no minimum of maximum set

[Godmcgarvey]

I am either not understanding this feature correctly or it's not working for me.

The "version" file created on the 14 Aug at 10.25 is still there. Ive ran the profile many times, rebooted as opposed to sleeping the computer but the file will remain.

Rechecked the option and it still set at Last x days =1 with neither minimum or maximum box checked

Anyone got a solution or suggestion?

[Mobius]

Zenju, thanks so much for adding this feature--I have been waiting a looooong time for this! And thank you Plerry for explaining it.

A quick test of Maximum shows it to be working as expected. But a question regarding "Last x days:" does this refer to the number of days elapsed since the timestamp within the filename, or to the number of days elapsed since the actual date of the file?

[Mobius]

While this feature is great, a small refinement would be excellent: Currently when Versioning Naming Convention is set to Replace, the Limit File Versions check boxes are all grayed out. Of course Minimum and Maximum do not make sense when only a single version is being retained, but Last X Days would still be extremely helpful, in order to remove old files and recover the storage.

[Plerry]

@Mobius: I understand the logic behind your suggestion.
If Zenju would not see ground and/or opportunity to implement this, but your use-case requires it, you can presently already achieve the same by
* selecting the Naming Convention Time-stamp [File] (instead of Replace)
* tick-mark the Last x days box and select the desired amount of days and
* tick-mark the Maximum box and select a maximum amount of 1.

I don't know if this also works if you would select the Time-stamp [Folder] Naming convention.

[Mobius]

Hi Plerry, I had exactly the same thought. This method should work well, and the only difference that I see is that all filenames would then contain a timestamp (which they don't when Replace is selected,) which could be good or bad, depending on the user's needs. I think I'll evaluate this method and see how it goes.

As to my earlier question regarding Last x days: I take it that it applies to the timestamp within the filename (not the file's actual date?)

[Plerry]

… the only difference that I see is that all filenames would then contain a timestamp (which they don't when Replace is selected,)

When using the Time-stamp [File] Naming Convention, the most recent previous version does not have/get a time-stamp. Only if a more recent previous version is added to the versioning location the time-stamp is added to the then second most recent previous version.
So, with the proposed settings, regarding file-naming it should behave identical to Replace.

[Mobius]

… the only difference that I see is that all filenames would then contain a timestamp (which they don't when Replace is selected,)

When using the Time-stamp [File] Naming Convention, the most recent previous version does not have/get a time-stamp. Only if a more recent previous version is added to the versioning location the time-stamp is added to the then second most recent previous version.

Of course! It took me some time to figure out what you were talking about, because I was constantly thinking about archived versions--those versions that go in the directory specified when choosing Time Stamp [File]. I thought you were saying that the first version in that directory would not get a timestamp, until additional versions were added; but I knew that that was not the case.

It finally dawned on me that the files in the original backup directory (the one on the right side of each folder pair) do not get timestamps--only the older versions in the archive directory. Doh! Thanks for pointing that out.

But that raises the question: How can Last x days work with files that don't have timestamps in the name, if indeed it is based on filename timestamps, rather than on actual file dates?