This page describes flashback, a Unix shell script which creates snapshot backups of the current directory (including any subdirectories) into a designated backup directory. Use flashback frequently when you're consumed in a coding frenzy and you'll never again suffer the anguish of accidentally typing "rm * .o" and losing a day's work.
This page describes flashback in Unix manual page style; the program may be downloaded from the link at the bottom.
For an additional degree of security, you might want to modify the WHERE variable to place backups on a different computer (with a writable file system mounted on the machine on which you usually edit), or on a different physical storage device than the one where you do most of your work. That way, even after a screeching drive disaster or smoke incident, you'll be able to recover your work up to the last flashback.
Flashback is a Unix shell script, written for the Bourne shell, and will require modifications on systems with incompatible shells. It is completely useless on non-Unix systems.
Flashback assumes standard System V behaviour for the Unix commands chmod, cut, date, du, gzip, sed, tar, and tr. If these commands behave differently on your system, you'll need to modify the script accordingly.
This software is in the public domain. Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, without any conditions or restrictions. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.