Bjorn Simonsen said:
Nice trick Karen, haven't seen that one before, or maybe I have but
forgot about it, thanks anyway
The behavior first came to my attention more as a bug. Trying one day to
toss some .lnk files into an archive. Got the unwanted result of the zip
util instead putting in the targets of the link files. So this is the idea
to flip things, and take it in as a feature.
Not a time saver if all the
directories one wants to zip resides in same location (same disk, same
dir) - since then one can simply right click those folders directly.
Yes, we normally want the whole set, recursed, as a single zip. The OP's
preference to have each subfolder as an individual .zip was more unusual.
Tho' still one can imagine scenarios where one might need the subfolders
broken down that way. Here is one. Say if using tcp/ip to transmit backups
somewhere. Might not want things too large for single transmissions. For
case where there is lack of resume support. And for case where one might
want to preserve the ability to download a single zipped folders for backup
situation.
(Or. Rereading. Maybe you already were taking that into account. And
meant working from a file manager, with all folders expanded? That case,
yes, doing things from a folder of .lnks would not offer much less work
than working directly in the target area.)
But I guess a time saver if the folders to be zipped are located on
various drives and/or in various subdirectories, as it saves you from
changing to the various drives and directories - can instead have all
the link files in one place.
More common, that, and more what I was envisioning when discussing putting
a lnks to the various scattered folders all in one place.
The best strategy as far asmost automation would be a shell script. Say
it's in form of a batch file; then once you do have it set up, and there
arrives time you want to add or change folders to the list, easy enought
to copy new paths into that file with notepad.
The dedicated utilities for the zip backup situation also sound to me
like a good approach. Not as automated as a shell script, but potentially
offering real reduction of manual steps. I assume that most any of them
store configuration profiles to make it easy to do repeat backups of certain
folders.
The advantage in the .lnk strategy is that it is appealing during moods
of mental laziness. One doesn't feel the pressure of making decisions
while setting up configurations. Nor learn new software (given that they
already use a GUI zip utility with contex- menu extension). Instead just
tossing some .lnks in a folder. Then periodically going back to that folder,
right-cicking and making the zips.
Not that I feel the strategy could prevail in advantage if someone were to
come up and compare it against ease of use with their favorite dedicated zip
backup program. I have seen praise too often for backup programs to be up
against blindly discounting whatever ease they might offer. (And I must
disclose that I don't have extensive experience with them, as my backup
routine suits my current needs. And also my laziness: I make no decisions
at all, and instead just ghost all my partitions.)
Oh I did not think of that one, since Winrar, which I use, offers a
right-click option to compress a folder in current dir using the
folder name as file name. So this shortcut method can also be a time
saver then if archiver does not offer such option.
PowerArchiver and 7zip, it's the same. A click from the context menu, and
then a click on OK; and the zip file is automatically named, and then put
in the parent folder.
I didn't check whether those global defaults can be changed, because it
is normally exactly how you want things to happen. Yet in the case of the
backups of a bunch of folders, it seemed to me that one would want them not
to land near their source, but instead, on a different drive (g:\bakups\...\
or however).
But then that's where lots of extra clicks come in. Instead of hitting OK
right off, it's changing the path for each zip you're doing. Lots of mouse
activity. OTOH, at least still not much thinking. I can pretty much do that
activity and watch the Flinstones (and chew gum) all at the same time.
