ANN: dfp 0.1

[Patrick Useldinger]

	1.1. What is dfp?
	=================


A frequent software pattern is processing files that have changed:
- an incremental backup system, which will add new and changed files to
an archive or transfer them to another computer
- a website update with the latest changes
- automatic processing, like compiling changed source code
- software integrity check: detect changed files and raise an alert

dfp is a suite of components which permit to detect changed files and to
process them. The components are split into 3 categories:
1. detection: dfp
2. processing: dfpCopy, dfpTar, dfpZip, dfpFtp, dfpCmd
3. updating: dfpUpdate

dfp works with snapshots, i.e. an image of a situation is initially
taken, and on subsequent calls the new situation is compared to the
former. This comparison results in files being classified either as
different, gone, new, or same. 

A processors may then be used to process some or all of these files;
example processors permit to copy files, send them by ftp or put them
into an archive. You may write your own processors for any specific
need.

Finally, the snapshot can be updated to reflect the processing, if
successful.

dfp has been desiged with the follwing goals in mind:
- portable
  - written in Python
  - no os-specific operations 
- reusable
  - all components are stand-alone programs that can be combined
  - all interesting behaviour is build in a class and can be reused in a
Python program
  - all data is text and can be processed with standard tools like awk


	1.2. Technical requirements
	===========================

dfp is written in Python and needs a Python interpreter, version 2.3 or
above. Python is freely available from the Python Website
(http://www.python.org).

dfp has been tested under Windows and Linux. It should run on any
plaform supported by Python which has a shell with pipe mechanisms.


	1.3. Feedback
	=============

Please feel free to send your feedback to <pu (a) vo lu>. I welcome all
comments and will try to enhance this software as long as it in keeping
with the basic philosophy. Also, if you wish to contribute, please send
me a short mail with your ideas.


	1.4. License
	============

All the programs included in this distribution are set into public
domain, and may be used freely, with no warranty whatsoever. 


	1.5. Download
	=============

Get dfp at http://www.homepages.lu/pu/dfp.html

visit my homepage at http://www.homepages.lu/pu/