Easily See and Backup CHANGED files over large directory structures

use:    CHANGED ?           see/backup CHANGED files
        CHGRST ?            ReSTore CHanGed files
        CHGTST ?            TeST CHanGed archive
        CHGBAT ?            make BATch with CHanGed files
        RECENT ?            show RECENT files
        RECMD ?             perform CoMmanD(s) on RECent files
    for descriptions of the programs and command syntax.

.COM is DOS/Win32       <-- Does NOT support LFN's you might want the
.DVM is DVM/Win64           DVM for Win32's long file names.

Also look at CHANGED.INI which has some useful comments.

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2022/01/10 Added 'RECMD'                - perform commands on recent files
2021/07/24 Added 'RECENT'               - see most recent files
2022/02/26 Added 'CHGRST' & 'CHGTST'    - Simplify restoring
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On a pretty much daily basis I modify various files on my system(s).
This is usually source code (to my software) and sometimes configuration
files... in other words, changes not easily replaced if lost.

I've always been a big believer in backing up important files as I change
them, and this can get tricky if you have been working over a dozen (or more)
different projects:

 -  You can spend "hours" going though your system(s), trying to figure out
    what has changed recently, and selectively backing up only those files.
            - or -
 -  You can waste gigabytes of backup space by backing up "everything"
    daily or at least frequently.

These factors often result in missing files which should have been backed
up, and backups occurring less frequently than you might like.

Over the years I have created a number of programs to try and make frequent
backups easier and only occupy archive space for things that have changed.

CHANGED has been the best one (so far), it makes it very fast and easy
(almost trivial) to backup your changed files.

- It will scan a large selection of directory trees and report what has
  changed since the last time you "marked" it.

- It can copy the changed files to a backup folder. Only one folder one level
  deep is created, which makes it easy to compress and store on backup media.

- A simple incrementing numeric name is used for each file copy, so there is
  no problem if there are multiple files which existed at different locations
  which have the same name.

- A separate .TXT index file is produced which gives the numeric backup file
  names, and the original full pathnames for each file on the backup.

To backup everything of importance that I have changed over the course of a
day, all I have to do at the end of the day is:

  C:\> changed -wm
    -w tells CHANGED to Write changed files to the configured backup location.
    This will be a directory named for the current date, eg: R:\20210629
    -m tells CHANGED to Mark it's .INI file with the current timestamp.
    This is what changed uses to see "what has changed".
  Now I just Compress/Archive the R:\20210629 folder (I use 7zip) and place
  the resulting 20210629.7z in backup storage.

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To restore a few files, use CHGRST (CHanGed ReSTore).
This lets you just "pick" files from a backup set and copy them back to the
original location (or somewhere else if desired).

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To do more complex things with the backup data:
    
CHGBAT does most of the work for you in selecting files from one or more
backups and writes a .BAT file to manipulate them.

To restore files: You can do something like:
Decompress the relative archive(s) to a temp location, go there and
run: CHGBAT copy -b -o
  -B means the path to the Backup file
  -O means the path to the Original file

This lets you select the files you wish to restore and then writes CHGGO.BAT
which will contain lines like:
  copy backup-file original-file
for each file you have picked.

As the index and batch files are simple text, you can edit them to your
pleasing. You can also read them with your own programs to manipulate
backup files in special ways.


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I recommend that before you run CHANGED the first time, and every few
weeks (as often as you think is best) you do a FULL backup of everything.

This will reduce the number of CHANGE backups that you might need to
process for a full recovery.

You can use: CHANGED -M
to 'M'ark the current time as that of last backup, which is good to do after
a full backup as it will prevent CHANGED from processing all files with time
stamps before that.

One nice thing about CHANGED is that even if one of your full backups gets
corrupted, you can still recover relative to a previous one - it just might
mean sorting through more CHANGED backups.

Dave Dunfield   -   https://dunfield.themindfactory.com
 Download and see my product CATALOG!       Another way to find me:
 Search "Dave's Old Computers" and see my "personal" link at bottom.
