[bareos-users] Bareos Database Encoding

[John Bolt]

The Bareos create_bareos_database script creates the database using the SQL_ASCII encoding.

Will Bareos be able to backup and restore file names with weird letters like Ì,ç,ã etc?

Shouldn't we use Unicode (UTF8) for languages as Brazilian Portuguese for example?

[l***@kwsoft.de]

Post by John Bolt
The Bareos create_bareos_database script creates the database using
the SQL_ASCII encoding.
Will Bareos be able to backup and restore file names with weird
letters like Ì,ç,ã etc?
Shouldn't we use Unicode (UTF8) for languages as Brazilian
Portuguese for example?

To my knowledge the problem arises from the fact that it isn't clear
how to reliable detect what the real encoding of filenames is on any
supported OS. With this it is impossible to convert to UTF-8 and
reconvert at restore time without possibly trashing filenames. So
Bareos and Bacula BTW store the filenames as a sequence of bytes
*without* encoding at all with the intention to simply restore them
as-is. That's why ASCII is used to tell the DB to do nothing to check
if it is a valid charset.

Do you actually have a problem with filenames or was it just suspected
to be a problem?

Regards

Andreas

[John Bolt]

Post by l***@kwsoft.de

Post by John Bolt
The Bareos create_bareos_database script creates the database using
the SQL_ASCII encoding.
Will Bareos be able to backup and restore file names with weird
letters like Ì,ç,ã etc?
Shouldn't we use Unicode (UTF8) for languages as Brazilian
Portuguese for example?

To my knowledge the problem arises from the fact that it isn't clear
how to reliable detect what the real encoding of filenames is on any
supported OS. With this it is impossible to convert to UTF-8 and
reconvert at restore time without possibly trashing filenames. So
Bareos and Bacula BTW store the filenames as a sequence of bytes
*without* encoding at all with the intention to simply restore them
as-is. That's why ASCII is used to tell the DB to do nothing to check
if it is a valid charset.
Do you actually have a problem with filenames or was it just suspected
to be a problem?
Regards
Andreas

Thanks for the Answer.
I am starting to test Bareos and PostgreSQL suggests it should be UTF8.
However, I have found a single entry in the bareos manual (http://doc.bareos.org/master/html/bareos-manual-main-reference.html#x1-30600029.1.2) Chapter 29.1.2 Manual Configuration that states:
"The encoding of the bareos database must be SQL_ASCII. The command create_bareos_database automatically creates the database with this encoding. This can be verified by the command psql -l, which shows information about existing databases"

So as you just clearly explained. it is correct to use the SQL_ASCII.

Thanks

[Rinat Camal]

Post by l***@kwsoft.de

Post by John Bolt
The Bareos create_bareos_database script creates the database using
the SQL_ASCII encoding.
Will Bareos be able to backup and restore file names with weird
letters like Ì,ç,ã etc?
Shouldn't we use Unicode (UTF8) for languages as Brazilian
Portuguese for example?

To my knowledge the problem arises from the fact that it isn't clear
how to reliable detect what the real encoding of filenames is on any
supported OS. With this it is impossible to convert to UTF-8 and
reconvert at restore time without possibly trashing filenames. So
Bareos and Bacula BTW store the filenames as a sequence of bytes
*without* encoding at all with the intention to simply restore them
as-is. That's why ASCII is used to tell the DB to do nothing to check
if it is a valid charset.
Do you actually have a problem with filenames or was it just suspected
to be a problem?
Regards
Andreas

Hello!
unfortunately this is a problem.

When I try to find specific file to restore - I cann't.
The name in database is some strange code. bconsole didn't accepted path to this file, and Bareos-webui gives error "Oops, something went wrong, probably too many files." BAT crashes