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https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn

A Windows utility that mounts a shadow copy of the disk at a drive letter and then spawns an arbitrary command.
https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn

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A Windows utility that mounts a shadow copy of the disk at a drive letter and then spawns an arbitrary command.

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README 

        
# Status



NO LONGER SUPPORTED. It might still work - I don't know. I don't run Windows any more. Sorry! I supported it for years but hopefully there's a fork somewhere out there. If you make one and maintain it I will be happy to post a link here. 



# What Is ShadowSpawn? 



ShadowSpawn is a tool for working with shadow copies. Shadow copies

are read-only snapshots of your disk. Working with shadow copies

instead of the actual files allows you to do things like work with

in-use (locked) files. 



ShadowSpawn works by making a shadow copy of your disk, making it

available at a drive letter, then launching (spawning) another

program that you specify.



Probably the most common way to use ShadowSpawn is to use

[Robocopy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy) make a copy of files

that are currently in use.

   

# Installing ShadowSpawn



Most users can simply unzip the appropriate zip file from

[the download page](https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/downloads).

ShadowSpawn.exe can then just be run - there is no installer.

However, ShadowSpawn uses the Visual C++  runtime, which may not be

present on some machines. If ShadowSpawn does not work for you, run the

vcredist executable available from the same download page.



# Running ShadowSpawn



ShadowSpawn is a command-line tool: there is no GUI.



ShadowSpawn take three arguments: 



1. The directory that contains the files you want to snapshot. 

1. An available drive letter where the snapshot will become visible. 

1. A command to run. 



Let's say that you wanted to use robocopy to copy files from the

`C:\foo` directory to the `C:\bar` directory. You could do that with

the following command: 



    shadowspawn C:\foo Q: robocopy Q:\ C:\bar /s

    

That would cause shadowspawn to 



1. Make a shadow copy of the C: drive. 

1. Mount the shadowed version of the C:\foo directory at Q:.

1. Launch `robocopy Q:\ C:\bar /s`

1. Wait for Robocopy to finish. 

1. Clean up the shadow copy and remove it from Q:



You can use any drive letter you want (it doesn't have to be `Q:`),

but it does have to be a drive letter that's not currently being used

for anything else.



You can run any command you want. So if you just wanted to use notepad

to look at a shadow copy of `C:\foo\blah.txt`, you'd run



    shadowspawn C:\foo Q: notepad Q:\blah.txt

    

Just remember that shadowspawn will remove the Q: drive as soon as the

command you specify exits. 



# Relationship to HoboCopy



ShadowSpawn is derived from the same source code as

[HoboCopy](https://github.com/candera/hobocopy) and is intended to

replace it. The evolution was driven by the fact that although the

shadow copy part of HoboCopy works well enough, the copying part was

nowhere near as robust as tools like RoboCopy. By providing a tool

that just takes care of the shadow copy, ShadowSpawn allows users to

work with locked and in-use files using any other tool, not just the

limited copy features provided by HoboCopy.



# Status



ShadowSpawn is currently at version 0.1.0, which is meant to indicate

that it is an initial version. While it largely consists of fairly

mature code taken from HoboCopy, there are bound to be a few issues as

early adopters identify opportunities for improvement. 



# Reporting Bugs and Requesting Features



Please report bugs and request features using either

[the project issue tracking system](https://github.com/candera/shadowspawn/issues)

or the project mailing list at [email protected]

([website](http://groups.google.com/group/shadowspawn-tool)). 

   

# USAGE: 




Usage:



shadowspawn [ /verbosity=LEVEL ] <src> <drive:> <command> [ <arg> ... ]



Creates a shadow copy of <src>, mounts it at <drive:> and runs <command>.



/verbosity   - Specifies how much information ShadowSpawn will emit

               during execution. Legal values are: 0 - almost no

               information will be emitted. 1 - Only error information

               will be emitted. 2 - Errors and warnings will be

               emitted. 3 - Errors, warnings, and some status

               information will be emitted. 4 - Lots of diagnostic

               information will be emitted. The default level is 2.



<src>        - The directory to shadow copy (the source directory).

<drive:>     - Where to mount the shadow copy. Must be a single letter

               followed by a colon. E.g. 'X:'. The drive letter must be

               available (i.e. nothing else mounted there).

<command>    - A command to run. ShadowSpawn will ensure that <src> is

               mounted at <drive:> before starting <command>, and will

               wait for <command> to finish before unmounting <drive:>



Exit Status:



If there is an error while processing (e.g. ShadowSpawn fails to

create the shadow copy), ShadowSpawn exits with status 1.



If there is an error in usage (i.e. the user specifies an unknown

option), ShadowSpawn exits with status 2.



If everything else executes as expected and <command> exits with

status zero, ShadowSpawn also exits with status 0.



If everything else executes as expected and <command> exits with a

nonzero status code n, ShadowSpawn exits with status n logically OR'ed

with 32768 (0x8000). For example, robocopy exits with status 1 when

one or more files are Scopied. So, when executing



  shadowspawn C:\foo X: robocopy X:\ C:\path\to\backup /mir



the exit code of ShadowSpawn would be 32769 (0x8000 | 0x1).