Pretty much, yeah. Except I need diffing a pair of files that exist on opposite ends of a network, without causing the entire contents of the file to be transferred over that network.
Now, I have the option of doing this: If I am able to determine that (for instance) bytes 10468 to 1473 in a 849308 byte file are the only segment that has changed, I can send that range over the network and insert it into the right place; and then, with a downtime overnight, I can do a file-copy synchronization to ensure there were no errors during the day. (I'm reading this and wondering if it even makes sense, sorry if it doesn't.) But the trick in my mind is figuring out which specific bytes have been written to disk. That's why I was thinking device level. Am I going to have to work in C++ or Assembler for something like this? Sorry if this sounds like a newbie question. I've been working with Python long enough to know that someone out there has already solved one or another of a really obscure problem. So I thought I'd take a stab at it. Thanks everyone for the great links. V -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
