Open/Libre Office Filename Versioning Plugin?

[megosdog]

Hi all. Sorry I'm having to ask here, but getting any info like this from the OO/LO people seems hopeless. Anyhow, what I'm wanting is just a simple way that, each time I save a file, rather than storing versioning information inside the file, it instead stores it as a new file with a new name. Sorta like, if I open the file "Doug's awesome sauce (2017-04-18).odt", make some changes, and then save it, the file automatically is resaved as "Doug's awesome sauce (2017-08-31).odt". Of course, on days when I'm making multiple saves on a file, it would just continue using the existing filename (ie, Doug's awesome sauce (2017-08-31).odt if it were from today) until it reaches 12 midnight at which point the filename would update to "Doug's awesome sauce (2017-09-01).odt". And of course, for the ultra paranoid, a time stamp could be appended to that, or just version ID's like 001, 002, etc.

The idea for doing versioned files by filename rather than internal versioning came from way back in the Windows 95 days when there was a problem with files being randomly corrupted upon save, causing me to lose everything. I lost entire manuscripts that way, and said method of versioning has saved me countless times before when my working file would get corrupted or truncated for reasons I can't put a finger on. Stuff would just "go away" for no good reason. Thus versions by filename is a real lifesaver when you're working with 100k+ word documents. Right now I do this versioning by hand. But I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to do this automatically from within either Open Office or Libre Office. And if no such plugin exists, how could I request that one be made? It'd be super helpful for me. Thanks.

[chimak111]

If you have a Dropbox account, each time you save a file in your Dropbox folder, the previous version is saved. I don't know what the limit is. Maybe someone else does. But it saved me a couple of times!

[GreyGeek]

Odt documents are compressed zip files, which is why the first two bytes contain "PK". You can save them as FLAT odt files using the fodt extension. That stores them as an XML text file, which you can then use version control on. I'd recommend Git.

That will allow you to write, save, write, save, write, save, etc... as often as you wish, but when you decide that you need make a "version change" you can save (as fodt) and then run a git commit command, giving as a description the version numbering you wish, or any other comments you want to add.

This will allow you to recover, roll back, or branch the document.

I version control entire folders. Some of the files are binary object but it doesn't matter. When I want to "snapshot" the state of a file or folder I use git to create a version.

[megosdog]

Interesting, how do I setup either dropbox or git for that? I last used git ages ago, so I've pretty much forgot how that even works anymore. At least for saving versions.

[chimak111]

I have no experience or knowledge of git

To set up Dropbox, visit https://www.dropbox.com/install-linux. Then, follow the instructions for "Dropbox Headless Install via command line" even though you're using a desktop! Pick the appropriate choice, 32- or 64-bit run the commands given. No need for sudo.

uname -a

should tell you if you're using 32- or 64-bit.

Linux aes-Inspiron-15-3567 4.10.0-33-generic #37~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 11 14:07:24 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

tells me I'm on 64-bit.

This is the procedure I used my desktop (see sig).

After that, if you want to be fancy, you can install a plugin to integrate your Dropbox with Dolphin: https://askubuntu.com/questions/9490.../949139#949139

[GreyGeek]

Open/Libre Office Filename Versioning Plugin?

Git is in the repository. It is drop dead easy to use. You can install a GUI front end if you don't want to use the cli.
Dropbox doesn't solve the problem of having to manually increment the file name and the meta-data to signify the content changes. AND, if you are offline or Dropbox drops its freebie offerings you're hosed.

I've stopped trusting "do no evil" corporations to keep my data safe and secure.

Besides, if your xml (fodt) file becomes corrupted so that LO can't read it you can always open it with a text editor and fix it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[megosdog]

Thanks for the info guys! Sorry for the late reply. Been doing mega overtime at work and totally forgot about this. ^_^;; I'll give that a spin. Thanks.