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I suppose tarsnap is named like 'portsnap', which you also wrote, but what is the thought process behind calling that 'portsnap'? That might help stimulate some
by parennoob 13y ago
I suppose tarsnap is named like 'portsnap', which you also wrote, but what is the thought process behind calling that 'portsnap'? That might help stimulate some ideas and suggestions.
I am assuming it's not a piece of tar snapped in half. Although sometimes, having the FreeBSD ports system compile perl and python from scratch when I am trying to install emacs does make me want to snap it in half (yes, yes, I know I am not the model FreeBSD user, et cetera :))
- wrl 13y agoShort for "snapshot", I think?
- cperciva 13y agoportsnap = SNAPshots of the FreeBSD PORTs tree tarsnap = TAR backups, in a SNAPshotted model (vs. incremental backups). I also liked the fact that it reminded FreeBSD users of portsnap, which is a very popular tool.
- SwellJoe 13y agoI understood the name immediately, but always considered it an awful name for most "normal" users. But, maybe UNIX culture will win in the end and "tar" will become a word everyone knows.
- parennoob 13y agoFor what it's worth, I do know what 'tar' means -- I mostly use Linux (GNU/Linux if you're being pedantic), so the snap part was what I was asking about.
- cperciva 13y agoTarsnap users almost always already know what tar is. The fact that tarsnap has a tar command line -- i.e., one they already know -- is a big deal for a lot of tarsnap users.