Time traveling files

[Hagar Delest <ha...@laposte.net>]

We see such reports in the forum from time to time (and I experienced that once in the past): a file saved and then the day after you see that the file reverted to a previous version.

The last topic here: https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=67566

OP raises a clever possibility IMHO: could the first backup file be somehow put aside and not updated at each manual save and then after a crash (or not, maybe an OS problem) replace the last saved version? Reverting it to an old version?

Hagar

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Re: Time traveling files

[Rob Weir <ro...@apache.org>]

On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 5:28 PM, Andrea Pescetti <pe...@apache.org> wrote:
> Hagar Delest wrote:
>>
>> We see such reports in the forum from time to time (and I experienced
>> that once in the past): a file saved and then the day after you see that
>> the file reverted to a previous version.
>
>
> Rob had an interesting theory about this. One starts editing a DOCX file,
> works on it, saves (more or less inadvertently) as ODT since we don't
> support writing DOCX currently, then at some moment there is a power
> failure, the ODT file is unluckily unrecoverable/damaged and all the user
> can find is yesterday's DOCX file. This does not mean to diminish the issue,
> but it provides a plausible explanation for some (not all) of the reports.
>

It could happen even without a power outage.  It could just be that
the person did not notice the file extension changed and he opens the
original, unchanged docx file.   The default mode in Windows Extension
Manager is to hide file extensions from view, so this would make this
kind of confusion even more common.

Support suggestion:  Check:  1) What is the extension of the document?
 2) What OS?

If it is an OOXML file on Windows, check for an ODF file of the same
time.  It might have the more recent changes.

-Rob

>
>> OP raises a clever possibility IMHO: could the first backup file be
>> somehow put aside and not updated at each manual save and then after a
>> crash (or not, maybe an OS problem) replace the last saved version?
>> Reverting it to an old version?
>
>
> I couldn't reproduce anything like this: from a quick test, it seems that
> the backup copy in .openoffice/backup is updated when I save the file again.
> But in theory your scenario could still happen if for some reason at a
> certain point the user disables the "Save backup copy" option.
>
> Regards,
>   Andrea.
>
>
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Re: Time traveling files

[Andrea Pescetti <pe...@apache.org>]

Hagar Delest wrote:
> We see such reports in the forum from time to time (and I experienced
> that once in the past): a file saved and then the day after you see that
> the file reverted to a previous version.

Rob had an interesting theory about this. One starts editing a DOCX 
file, works on it, saves (more or less inadvertently) as ODT since we 
don't support writing DOCX currently, then at some moment there is a 
power failure, the ODT file is unluckily unrecoverable/damaged and all 
the user can find is yesterday's DOCX file. This does not mean to 
diminish the issue, but it provides a plausible explanation for some 
(not all) of the reports.

> OP raises a clever possibility IMHO: could the first backup file be
> somehow put aside and not updated at each manual save and then after a
> crash (or not, maybe an OS problem) replace the last saved version?
> Reverting it to an old version?

I couldn't reproduce anything like this: from a quick test, it seems 
that the backup copy in .openoffice/backup is updated when I save the 
file again. But in theory your scenario could still happen if for some 
reason at a certain point the user disables the "Save backup copy" option.

Regards,
   Andrea.

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