Backup method "incremental" incorrectly labeled

Submitted by Locutus on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 06:09

Of the two backup methods, "full" and "incremental", the latter is in my opinion incorrectly labeled (or maybe incorrectly documented?).

Documentation says: "If the Incremental option is selected here, only those files that have changed or were created since the last full backup will be included."

Usually, for this method, the term "differential" is used. Difference is as follows:

"Incremental": only those files that have changed (or were created) since the last FULL OR INCREMENTAL backup are included.

"Differential": only those files that have changed (or were created) since the last FULL backup (disregarding any intermediate differential or incremental backups) are included.

Going with that terminology, the backup method employed by Virtualmin should be labeled "differential".

Status: 
Closed (works as designed)

Comments

Submitted by JamieCameron on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 13:24

I think I'm going to stick with "incremental", as that is that the tar command man page calls it.

Also, if you click on the help link for incremental mode, it does say : "only those files that have changed or were created since the last full backup will be included"

Joe's picture
Submitted by Joe on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 13:28 Pro Licensee

Agree. Even if tar uses the terminology incorrectly (which I think is debatable, as I've used other backup products that referred to all backups of this sort as incremental), it's better to use the same terminology as the software that underlies the GUI whenever possible.

Submitted by Locutus on Sun, 10/17/2010 - 17:25

Alright then... I suppose since VM offers just the one method besides "full", and does not need to differentiate between "incremental" and "differential", it is okay to stick with the terminology induced by the "tar" tool.

For users who, like me, come from the "Windows world" - where the two terms are used as I outlined it - it might be worth a thought to put a specific note somewhere in the documentation, that the use of the term "incremental" differs here from what people might know from certain other backup software. Just for clarification, so that nobody wonders "what the...?". :)