BACK_ME is a way to make a quick backup of a file that is often changed.
For example if you are making changes to a REXX script and want to make certain that you can go back to a previous version. BACK_ME will allow you to make multiple unique backups of a file. Each time BACK_ME makes a backup of a file, it creates a unique name for the backup. It does this by appending a file number to the filename, so BACK_ME requires a file system that supports long file names.
If the original file name was CONFIG.SYS, using BACK_ME to make three backups will result in the following files.
CONFIG.SYS.000
CONFIG.SYS.001
CONFIG.SYS.002
The timestamp and EAs of the backup file will be that of the source file at the time of the backup.
BACK_ME starts by adding a ".000 " to the file name and then checks the backup directory for an existing file with that name. If one exists, the number is incremented to ".001" and the process is repeated. Since the process always starts with ".000" , BACK_ME will fill any holes in the backup numbers.
There is a PM and a command line version of the program.
The destination backup directory for the command line version is set by an environment variable in the config.sys file or from the command line.
For example:
set back_me=c:\backup\
Note: There must be no space before the equal sign
The PM version uses the same config.sys setting for the backup directory. If the config.sys setting is not present, the working directory setting in the program object will be used for the backup directory. The config.sys setting takes precedence and the working directory will not be used if it is found.
So if you want to vary the location of the backup directory, do not set the environment variable in your config.sys.
Multiple files may be dropped on the BACK_ME program object and a backup copy of all them will be created.
New in version 1.01
The command line version will accept multiple files on the command line, but does not support wildcard expansion.
For example:
back_me file1 file2 file3
The command line version will accept file names via redirection.
For example:
dir /b * | back_me
or
dir /b >filelist
back_me <filelist
will back up all the files in the current directory.
Note: The ability to accept files via redirection means that the command line version will wait for input if it is executed with no arguments.
For OS/2 or eCS users who work from the command line, a simple CMD file could be created to set the backup directory and execute BACK_ME.