HistoryFS

I have just released a new Freeware which I called HistoryFS.

HistoryFS is an image filing system implementing a simple document management system without the ability to control check in/check out of documents.

In general you can simply store files and directories inside another file (the image file). However if you are deleting or overwriting a file this old version of the file is kept internally in the image file. HistoryFS internally assigns an id to every file and tracks when a file has been created or deleted. Additionally you may assign other files to a file. I am calling this tags.

I wrote it to implement an archive. You can also make usage of the tags. Eg. you want to assign some data to a PDF file you just generated. So you could create a text file containing eg. customer, document date. Later you can search this text tag files by a program like eg. TextSeek.

You can also store the content of your webpages inside a HistoryFS image file. During the time the pages will change. Simply adapt the content of the according HistoryFS image file then. However one time you want to know which content your webpages had at a certain point of time. Then you are telling HistoryFS the desired point of time by defining a so called filter.
Afterwards HistoryFS will show you the content of the image file at that time and you can compare the files with its actual pendants by eg. using DirSync.

HistoryFS can be either downloaded from my homepage

http://thomas-milius-stade.dnshome.de/indexE.htm

or from !Store.

Don’t know wether anyone will find a useful usage for the program …

That’s… quite impressive.

Nice job Thomas! :)

One additional hint:

Be careful to use HistoryFS on memory cards, like SD cards. The header of the image file contains a value which is updated at every write. As a block on a memory card can be written around 20,000 times there exists the danger that this block gets damaged in case that you are writing some thousands files into a HistoryFS image file.

This is not problem specific to HistoryFS but is a general problem. Some SD cards are trying to avoid this internally but some are doing it in such way that FileCore structures are getting corrupted.

So it is better to write large amounts of files to HistoryFS image files on classical hard discs or RAM discs. Writing of hundreds of files should be also not a problem and reading from a HistoryFS image file should be possible without any limits independently of the storage media.

Another additional hint after a hint of a user:

Due to the image filing system concept HistoryFS stores blocks. In case that a block isn’t used in full size the content of the block passed by FileSwitch towards HistoryFS is containing arbitrary data at the end of the block. This data is stored one to one inside the image file by HistoryFS.

Note that this arbitrary data may contain data generated by other programs and so in worst case this may be a password or an address.

I shall try to improve HistoryFS in such a way that
it will overwrite the content of the blocks which are not used with zeros when FileSwitch is telling the final size of the file. However I am in doubt that this will cure this problem under any circumstances.

Be careful to use HistoryFS on memory cards

Thomas, you do realize that this means the opposite of Be careful using HistoryFS on memory cards ? Perhaps you meant Be careful not to use HistoryFS on memory cards ? This is a common trap of English, the distinction between the infinitive (to use) and the participle (using), which runs counter to usage in other European languages.

Be careful to frammify is an encouragement to frammify. Be careful frammifying is a discouragement to frammify, or at least a warning against it.

This is a common trap of English, the distinction between the infinitive (to use) and the participle (using), which runs counter to usage in other European languages.

Many things about English, and the English themselves, are strange.

I once came across a book entitled something like “How to be English” in which twists of the language and quirks of the natives were listed with explanation.
The German student on work study considered it all serious, I found much of it rather amusing.

Not to mention (all right I will) the differences between English and American. Like inflammable ought to be the opposite of flammable, but is the same.

Or the time we sent some equipment to the States for an exhibition, with the instruction “clean the microscope stage with paraffin”, which is a liquid in England, and a wax in the states (called candle way or paraffin wax here).

The German student on work study considered it all serious,

Well, misunderstanding can have serious consequences. I heard horrific stories about why the second atomic bomb was dropped in WWII. Then there is massacrez tous versus ma sacrée toux . But in this case it is not about difference in meaning of individual words but of grammar.

Many thanks for the hint! I meant of course that it is better HistoryFS not to use on memory cards. I hope that I shall take this into account in future when writing “Be careful” again.

I heard horrific stories about why the second atomic bomb was dropped in WWII.

Excuses aside, basically they wanted to test the Plutonium version.

What irks me is Americans putting gas into their car.

Did y’all flunk high school science?
What you’re talking about is a liquid therefore it’s not a gas.

What irks me is Americans putting gas into their car.

Bad boy.
You know what they are shortening, in the same fashion that mathematics is shortened to “math”

You know what they are shortening

Uh… <asks Google>

Oh… Gasoline. That’s a word I’ve heard maybe twice in my life.

Why don’t they just use “petrol”? ;-)

Why don’t they just use “petrol”? ;-)

Isn’t that short for petroleum-gas? :-P

Oh… Gasoline. That’s a word I’ve heard maybe twice in my life.

Clearly avoid numerous trans-pondian TV programs and films

Isn’t that short for petroleum-gas? :-P

Petroleum distillate.
IIRC, Petroleum oil (Petro = rock, oleum = oil) is basically crude. Petroleum distillate is shortened to petrol.

Gasoline, I think, was a trade name for a particular brand of the distillate in the US and is commonly adopted for the particular fractionate used to power internal combustion engines other than those based on the design from the guy known as Diesel.

BTW. Since petrol is a mix of different hydrocarbons having it change to gaseous form requires an interesting range of temperature. So, no that isn’t petroleum-gas.

Why don’t they just use “petrol”? ;-)

Now go away and investigate the variety of names used in continental Europe.

From an incident in my youth, a group of us wanted some paraffin for a camping stove, in Saltzburg. We were directed to a pharmacy – SteveP will explain. As I remember, we should have been asking for ‘petrol’.

Paraffins = group of similar hydrocarbon chemicals.
Liquid paraffin(medicinal use), paraffin oil, paraffin wax being common items with differing composition.
While petroleum-distillate rich in octane is often known as petrol, I think the “paraffin stove” should really be known as a kerosene stove, that being the petroleum oil fractionate used in stoves and lamps.

Long, long time since I did chemistry and my course/personal tutor pointed out that in discussion with the electronic engineering faculty they had me down as an electronics student mistakenly attending chemistry lectures.

Which is history of a kind, and almost on topic for the thread subject line.

a group of us wanted some paraffin for a camping stove, in Saltzburg. We were directed to a pharmacy – SteveP will explain. As I remember, we should have been asking for ‘petrol’.

Paraffin stoves and petrol stoves are similar but different.

The most significant difference is that a paraffin stove has a little screw which is undone to release the pressure and stop the flame. A petrol stove has a tap below the burner. If you use petrol in a paraffin stove, when you open the screw the vapour ignites.

A pharmacy is probably right – in the UK you used to buy paraffin there, and maybe still can.

Wrong place. Delete by me. Sorry.

With ref to the Nagasaki bomb – remembering visiting the museum (old school) which was under the blast – still can see pictures of the results of the blast.

A giant statue now resides in peace park.

The looks I was given by the locals – I can well remember – talk about evil looks :-(