how a safety clone works

[camner]

I have only a dim understanding about how a safety clone works...I know that there are symbolic links between items on the SC and the original volume, but that's about it.

I'm running MySQL/PHP, and I'd like to upgrade the MySQL version. When I'm mucking around in the MySQL directiories, am I on the safety clone, or am I "symbolically linked" to the main volume? Put another way, will upgrading MySQL work the same way any other installing works, which is that I affect only the safety clone and then need to reinstall everything again on the main volume?

What about the databases? Do they exist on the main volume and then are symbolically linked in the safety clone, or are there two copies, one on the safety clone and one on the main volume?

[dnanian]

If you've got special folders that aren't shared by the default scripts, you need to customize the script to add those folders, if you want them to be shared.

In general, MySQL is not shared, so anything you do on the Safety Clone is going to stay there, including the database itself...

[camner]

OK, thanks. That explains why/how I lost some changes to a mysql database a while back when I upgraded OS versions...

Do you know whether it is possible to share the databases themselves WITHOUT sharing the MySQL installation? It would seem to be useful to be able to upgrade MySQL versions on the safety clone without affecting the main drive, just in case...but I see no reason to not share the databases themselves.

Similar question for PHP...since PHP comes preinstalled on OS X, is that a shared directory so that when I upgraded PHP versions it affected a shared copy? Now that I think about it, when I installed PHP5 I think it created a new PHP5 directory, which, presumably, only exists on the safety clone. Am I correct?

Another question...spotlight does not do a good job (in fact, ANY job) of locating files/folders inside the system....is there a way you know of to search for such folders so I can see what is there?

Final question: If I'm in terminal, is there any way of knowing if I'm following a symbolic link when I navigate around the directory structure to see if I'm on the safety clone or the main drive?

Thank you again for your help.

[dnanian]

Yes, that's definitely why. And you can certainly share the databases without MySQL -- just find the folder where the data is, and share it.

Installing PHP would only happen on the Sandbox. We only share applications in /Applications, not the stuff that's considered to be part of "the system", and PHP is definitely part of that.

There are a lot of Terminal-level tools to locate files, including "find". Not quite sure what you mean about symlinks, though -- you can check to see if a folder has symlinks in it with "ls -l" -- the link will show what the file is, and what it points to. But it doesn't work for aliases...

[camner]

Thanks...I thought symlinks was the way SD! worked its magic of sharing apps and files between volumes. Do I misunderstand?

[dnanian]

No, you're right. Just warning you that aliases won't show their targets the same way as symlinks.