If you don't know, it is the setting enabletgzbackups - under Experimental settings.
At our school, where we use backup/restore *a lot* (probably more thank 20,000 backups a year), this setting has resolved many many issues, such as timeouts, big backups not working, and corrupt files.
I want to get others peoples experience to help build the case that it is ready to be default.
Already said this in the issue but we've been using this at the OU (not surprisingly, since I coded it - many of our courses are much larger than the maximum zip file size limit) without problems and I'd be in favour of making it default. But it would definitely be interesting to hear if others have used it.
If anyone's not aware of the basic argument for changing this - current situation is that we effectively have a 'Would you like backups to break mysteriously if the course contains large files?' option, and it defaults to on.
--sam
Nicely put Sam! I would imagine it was not default originally because it was "experimental" which I presume means, "we think this might work but really are not sure". I haven't seen a mass of posts saying it does not work and I know that I have been able to use it successfully...however, maybe the lack of posts is because not many people are actually using it...
The over-riding criteria for any such suggestion should be "Does it improve how Moodle works?" or "Will Moodle run faster with this change?" If using the .tgz format for backups will resolve issues such as large files, corrupt files and incredibly slow backups that come to a standstill, then it is a better option than to continue using the zip format. Just look at other posts in this forum to see how frustrated people get with unexpected backup results. And I am surprised at how many of them have the same problem, so here is a way to fix them. Thanks Eric, for pointing this out.
i would put BIG FAT FOOT DOWN WITH A NO! if users could unzip the file. and do anything with a backup files. with that said... bye bye zip
hello .tgz it would be.
i have not ran across any actual posts that i can remember ever, of recommend editing a backup file. with general users out of the way, just leaves admins, any admin should be able to quickly find an app if not already installed to un-compress files if every need be.
there are normally some other way to upload a spreadsheet, cvs file, or like, without ever needing to deal with a backup file.
the only issue might be is "anti virus" at server level. no clue how that hooks into things.
As a developer I sometimes have to pick apart .bzg files, and occasionally put them back together again after editing. And, most of the time I am stuck working on Windows.
Dealing with .tgz files there is not fundamentally harder than dealing with .zip (e.g. via wizip). If you know enough to unpack a .bgz file now, you will still be able to do it in future, I think.
.tgz vs .tar.gz the double compression may cause issues. and folks not understanding (same thing just different way of showing it. as far as i know?
.tgz = tar first, then gzip
.tar = tar
.gz = gzip
.tar.gz = tar first then gzip
for 7-zip = adding to archive (via right click) and choosing tar then click ok, then repeat but choose gzip next then ok and then if need be rename file extension?
