In recent weeks, I've taken to using CrashPlan+ for personal online backups. I'll write more on CrashPlan proper at another time. For now, I'd like to share a nice little method I've got for monitoring CrashPlan activity in real time on my Mac OS X Desktop. Folks in the CrashPlan User Forums have been asking developers to add such functionality to the native CrashPlan client. But for Mac OS X users, at least, there's no need to wait!
It's done very simply with the free and awesome GeekTool. Check out a couple of screenshots.
This first is of my Desktop. Note the CrashPlan History Log data:
The second is of my Desktop with the GeekTool System Preference Pane open to the configuration section for the CrashPlan History Log file:
My Mac has a standard CrashPlan install. The History Log file is at:
/Library/Logs/CrashPlan/history.log.0
GeekTool updates the log file display continuously. I press F11 (Exposé Desktop) to glance at my logs unobstructed by other windows. Afterwards, I press F11 again to resume what I was working on beforehand. What could be simpler?
While I haven't tried it yet, similar monitoring can probably be done on Linux Desktops with the free and open source Conky.
I don't know how this might be done on Microsoft Windows Desktops.
So why don't you give this a try on your Mac OS X machine with CrashPlan and let me know how it works out?
--Brian
