luckyb

Loukas Avgeriou Athens, Greece

Hi, I am luckyb and I create System Software.

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System Software

luckyBackup

System Software Mar 28 2014

Score 83.1%

luckyBackup

System Software 236 comments

by luckyb

Score 83.1%

Mar 28 2014

thank you very much for your kind message Fernando, I really appreciate it :)

True, LB was once maintained by Fink but undfortunately not any more:
http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/luckybackup - Apr 16 2015

Hi Larry,
your arguments look correct.
I tried a similar setup and it worked as it should
eg
empty include_filelist.txt -> nothing backed-up
absolute paths -> backup only specific files, ok
absolute + relative paths -> backup only specific files, ok

Just in case: Could you please double check that the files that are not part of your filelist-relative.test.txt file do get transferred when only this task runs ?
You can empty the destination directory or just change one of the files that is supposed to be excluded and give it another go to test this...

Loukas - Oct 11 2014

Hi Sam,

Unfortunately LB does not integrate with ubuntu one.

A good (general) workaround is to mount the cloud locally (eg using "cloudfuse" or "davfs2") but that has to be supported by the cloud service.

Loukas - Jan 08 2014

Hi Gandon,

thank you for the nice words no matter whether you use LB :)

Indeed, hard links is quite a smart solution for multiple snapshots and is even used by another powerful tool: "rsnapshot".
I wish I'd thought about that from the beginning. Technically it's not easy any more to change the overall snapshot behavior of LB, the first releases might include several bugs plus there will be compatibility issues with backups created with older versions.
Still, I do consider this change a good idea !!
...so here it goes under the official to-do list:
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/todo.html
I know it's low priority, but it involves a lot of work to be done and it all depends on how the development will go this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Also have in mind, that data backed up with LB can still be restored without the use of any app but this is limited only for the very last snapshot created. - Apr 15 2013

my pleasure Steve !

thank YOU for taking the time to write a couple of lines and make this day a better one for me :) - Feb 07 2013

> At least I now know why this is happening, is this by design?

This issue came up after a specific upgrade of QT.
The fix will be available at the very next official release of LB (0.4.8)

thank you for the kind words Nick :) - Jan 08 2013

Hi Nick

a couple of questions first:
1. Does this happen at normal run or during a schedule ?
2. Are the tasks de-selected when you run the app or do you manually de-select them and then click run ?

If this happens during a normal run and the tasks are deselected by default (eg you run luckybackup and then click "run" without changing anything) try to:
a. select and de-select each task once but also select the task item (name of the task gets highlighted) before changing the check-box
b. save the profile
c. give it another go - Jan 07 2013

my pleasure Kate.

It always makes me smile when I receive such comments :) - Mar 20 2012

it's true !!

luckybackup is nominated as Backup Application of the Year at the 2011 LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards

http://goo.gl/0nroO - Jan 08 2012

/***** info ******
This thread has started at the knowledge base:
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?action=knowledgebase&content=94391&kbid=709
*****************/

bummer :(

Could you please let me know of the contents of the cron log file:
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/manual.html#cronItLogFile

If it's too big (I suspect it isn't) you can email it to me:
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/contact.html
I will make sure to post here all useful details so that it's available to everybody - Sep 30 2011

there will be periods during the current day (March 12) that the arch link will not be available.

This is for testing purposes for the packages from OBS - Mar 12 2011

Thanks for mentioning about the Arch pkgbuild :)

I will add that link together with some puppy pets at the download list as soon as v0.4.5 is released... - Mar 08 2011

ok, I just spent an hour writing about mount theories and scenarios.
Don't worry, I "ctrl+A & delete" them :D

Here's the verdict:
Your suggestion is very good but an ideal scenario for various reasons.

(I'm talking about checking whether a specific partition is mounted at a specific point)

By all means I will adapt and implement it :)

But I cannot just forbid the profile to run.
There always going to be users that would like to by-pass the safety checks for a reason.

I will make sure though, that a clear WARNING together with a clear user's confirmation is displayed. - Jan 28 2011

I see what you mean.

That's how it actually was some time ago, but after some users suggestions, most of the warning dialogs were replaced by other kind of visual feedback.

But since it has happened again, as you mention, and its results are quite serious an extra warning has to be used.
How about a dialog that would demand the user's confirmation to go on after he/she hits the run button (if there are "critical" tasks) ? - Jan 27 2011

Hi Leon,

Quote:

Is there any way of avoiding this in future.

Yes. This is probably the first feature of LB, back to the times when it was a simple bash script :)

Please have a look at the relevant section of the manual (declared data check):
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/manual.html#startDeclaredDataCheck
(It's not much to read, don't worry)

to make a long story sort:
1. Take a quick look for "non-green" tasks just before you hit that run button.
2. Have the skip-critical box checked if you're scheduling.

Hope I helped - Jan 27 2011

Happy holidays to you too, Kate :) - Dec 28 2010

A couple of days ago and before you posted the last message, I used Ktorrent and wanted my pc to shutdown as soon as some download reached 100%.
Then I noticed that really handy "configure shutdown" button.

Despite the fact that you are absolutely right, I consider this a karmic coincidence and added your request at the project's official to-do list:
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/todo.html - Nov 22 2010

Hi Francisco
:)

It is quite often that users would like to execute various stuff before or after a task has finished.

That is why there is an "also execute" feature available:
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/manual.html#OperationAdvancedAlsoExecute
You can provide an "also execute" -> after command at the very last task, so that your system will shutdown as soon as the profile finishes.

Have a look at the man pages of the commands shutdown, poweroff and halt to use the one that suits your needs ;) - Nov 09 2010

Hi snowhog,

the dir A & dir B terminology is actually used at "sync" tasks, not backup ones, where source & destination are used indeed !!

Syncing is a 2 way operation.
At the first stage, the 1st dir is used as source and the 2nd as a destination.
At the 2nd stage, it's the other way round ;)

That is why, the terminology changes when the task refers to syncing directories.

If you still believe this should be changed, let me know ;) - Sep 13 2010

Hi Kate,

for once more thank you for your kind words :)

Unfortunately LB never did have a direct support for compressed backups.

Your request is already in the official app's to-do list:
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/todo.html
(...but its priority is a bit low)

Alternatively, and if it suits your needs, you can always add a handmade "also execute -> after" command to create a compressed tarball out of the created backup - Sep 04 2010

Hi sigma.

Theoretically the handbook links are supposed to be working fine when the app is installed but not when run from a binary inside a folder (eg when you compile it yourself and run it from that folder)

Nevertheless, your advice sounds like a great solution to this issue and I will certainly follow it.

thank you very much for that tip
:) - Jul 04 2010

You know, most of the times feedback from users is all about problems, feature requests or support generally.
This is normal of course.

I really needed a comment like this.
Thank you Kate :) - Jun 29 2010

Please excuse my late reply.
I've been away at a small trip :)

I seem to have made a serious typo there while updating the menu items to include various translations.

Although both of the links read "super-user", one of them executes LB with normal privileges as expected.

I added this at the known issues (http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/bugs.html) and will have it fixed at the next release.

Could you also confirm that this is the case ?
(one of the links runs LB as a normal user) - Jun 22 2010

Hi Nick :)

No, I haven't changed anything !!
Packages downloaded from this site are supposed to still include 2 menu items.

Let me know of your distro and where have you installed the package from - Jun 19 2010

the download links seem to be working normally at the moment :) - May 18 2010

Hi tryfan :)

see also above post

Sourceforge support has confirmed this issue and is taking some action...

I thank them for the fast response - May 17 2010

Indeed.
There seems to be some issue with sourceforge.
Maybe the mirrors just need some time.

I contacted them am waiting for a reply... - May 16 2010

Quote:

Suggestion - if console is problematic, wouldn't it be better to remove it until it's ready so that it causes no harm? Not everyone reads the "known issues".

Well, the "known issues" usually come up after a release and they refer to that. Until know all known issues of a specific release are fixed at the next one.
Moreover, it does not cause no harm ;)
It just malfunctions (some tasks don't run) at some systems.

Quote:

I'm a little confused about "Backup the entire source directory (by name) vrs "Backup the contents of the source directory". Reading the manual helped but the titles need work, maybe add "with parent directory name included". Should "by name" be the default even"?

I will not disagree, it is confusing, but I had to come up with a small phrase that would fit there. The smaller, the better. Moreover when it is translated at some languages it becomes bigger !!
Does the popup message (when you leave the mouse cursor on top of the selections) help or is that misleading too ??
(I am not judgmental. I do appreciate user's opinion and feedback more than you can imagine. You (and many others) have helped making this app better ;) )

As far as the default option is concerned, I have changed it a couple of times, but concluded to this one because of user's feedback. Unfortunately, I cannot keep everybody happy.

Quote:

"The pattern editor does not produce the right pattern for "specific files/folders" when "Backup the entire source directory (by name)" is used as task type." If I just use reg expressions as described in the manual will that work correctly with "by name"?

Yes.
If you need more help on patterns (they can be a pain) let me know...

Quote:

thanks

anytime :)
thank you for the valuable feedback - Apr 13 2010

Hi google,

you are correct.
cron, though powerful and reliable, is a bit poor as far as features are concerned.

You can use kalarm or anacron or whatever suits you best.

It is strongly advised though, due to some CLI issues, to not use the console mode, but the silent mode.
Then you will have an icon at your tray every time LB runs as a notification that something happened.

Please excuse the lack of documentation on this issue. I will release the new manual together with the next version shortly... - Apr 13 2010

Yes, there's nothing wrong with your installation in case you wondered !!

The use of different backends is not yet implemented. Just rsync is available.

I started it some time ago (that is why it exists at the gui, but disabled-greyed out) but gave up on it due to different priorities.

For your info, the schedule currently is:
1. Release v0.4 (probably) within this month. I've changed a lot of the code to be able to accept "snapshots" as a feature.
2. Implement the use of snapshots.
3. Look into the "different backend" issue

...thank you for your nice words :)

- Mar 13 2010

Hi thomas

thank you for maintaining LB for Fedora :)

The gnome root execution is a pain.
I use 3 different .destop files to produce Debian-ubuntu-Fedora packages.
In the beginning I had all3 included in the tarball, but after some complaints I left only one (the Debian one).

The easy way is to patch the file
menu/luckybackup-gnome-su.desktop
so that the following line:
Exec=su-to-root -X -c /usr/bin/luckybackup
becomes
Exec=/usr/bin/beesu /usr/bin/luckybackup

Anyway, I suppose most people here do not care that much about this conversation so we'd better continue by email

For the record, to my opinion consolekit is a more correct approach for the Fedora philosophy but people would like to have the right to choose.

You got pm ;)
- Mar 06 2010

I just run my FC12 VM and to my (pleasant) surprise I realized that luckybackup is included in the FC repos.

I updated the package (to luckybackup-0.3.5-2) and realized that the "normal user" execution link under Accessories was no longer available.
Also, the "super user" execution link, did run without the use of beesu.

Please check if you have recently updated you system.
If yes, you probably now have the luckybackup package created by the Fedora developers. - Mar 03 2010

Are you using the specific Fedora package from this (or the sourceforge) page ??

Then please have a look at the first paragraph here:
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/install.html

It's all about normal or super-user execution of LB.

Have you compiled the source tarball yourself or use the generic rpm ?? - Mar 03 2010

Hi mirzaD

first of all, thank you for the compliment :)

1. The tray notification is a result of many suggestions from users, for an ability to minimize the app to the tray as well as provide some notification when its executed via cron.
The bubble message is (believe it or not) standard Qt !!
But, now that you mentioned, it does look kinda weird !!!
I'll see what I can do about that ;)

2. The feature to add compression support is already in my to-do list.
It's just not at the top of that list and will take some time to be implemented :(

3. No, you are not missing anything. At the moment, LB uses rsync to perform transfers. This has the drawback of not being able to extract size information. So the calculations are being made by using the number of files. That means that if 100 files are to be transfered, 99 of them have a size of some KB and 1 is some GB, the progress won't be realistic at all !!

< This is a really great app and thank you for making it:) >

well, thank YOU, for the valuable feedback :) - Feb 23 2010

Indeed, the implementation of snapshots is at the top of my to-do list.

That way, the user could roll back to any snapshot made.

You got to be a bit (or o lot !!) patient though ;) - Feb 14 2010

Problem added at "known issues":
http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/bugs.html

This is a tricky one ;)

thank you again for the feedback :) - Jan 13 2010

ok
I have confirmed that scheduling does not work with Greek characters too !!

Will further investigate this issue and get back to you

Thanks for bringing this up :) - Jan 13 2010

Could you please paste here the output of the command:
crontab -l
(execute that as the user that runs LB)

I want to make sure that the argument "--silent" is used because of the "console mode" state, and NOT "-c --no-questions"

- Jan 13 2010

Hi karapuz

Does this happen only in scheduled execution ??

If yes and you are using v.0.3.5, uncheck the "Console Mode" option at the schedule dialog and let me know of the result... - Jan 13 2010

That is why patterns are confusing to many users.

If you want to anchor the pattern to the hierarchy of files you use a starting "/"
But this "/" actually means the source, not the root directory.

So if your source is /home/glen/
the pattern /home/glen/Dropbox/
actually means /home/glen/home/glen/Dropbox/ !!!
You've got to use the /Dropbox/ pattern to refer to the specific /home/glen/Dropbox/ directory !!

I'm just curious to know why that didn't work though.
Did you have the source declared launching the pattern editor ?
Did you press the add button after inserting a pattern with the editor to the line-edit field ? - Dec 23 2009

The pattern refers to a:
Set of directories

name contains:
DropBox

Go deeper in path by:
Any

;-)

Of course you could always type this manually and not use the pattern editor - Dec 23 2009

I'm glad the pattern editor proved useful :)

Questions regarding patterns were for sure the most frequent.

Could you tell me which specific deb package is out of date. I checked them all and they seem ok !!
Or is it the debian repos that haven't included the new version yet ?? - Dec 22 2009

Hi poliicallycorrect

are you using the new pattern editor (feauture of version 0.3.5) ??

If you're using v0.3.3, let me know of your source and one directory that you would like to exclude so that I can give you an example - Dec 21 2009

Hi Koronation,

unfortuantely I cannot provide a solution to this :(

I can only give you a hint of what's to blame...

This error is due to some "invalid" characters inside the filename.
This "\#241" is supposed to display differently.

Some people have found a solution with the "convmv" tool to convert the encoding of files to utf-8, but I cannot recommend something I haven't tried. - Dec 06 2009

Hi Nick
:)

I've already improved the logfiles.
Every task will have its own separate log, with the relevant timestamp.
I also integrated a log viewer that shows all errors in red color and has 2 buttons: next & previous error so that it's easier to find them.

This feature will be available in the very next version (0.3.4).

Let me know of what you think about it and if there is still need to produce separate error logfiles. It's not difficult to implement at all - Nov 18 2009

for sure, all these are not easy to implement.

...but I'll keep a copy of your message to my "have in mind" directory ;-)

thank you avlas - Nov 16 2009

Hi Sergio,
I'm fine mate, thanks for asking :)

Yes, tray support is going to be introduced at the very next release (fingers crossed).
Nothing special, just a popup at the tray notification that will inform you that LB is running.
That is quite handy especially if you have some scheduled jobs.

As for the syncing tasks part of your suggestion for sure something has to be done !!
I wanted to avoid LB running in the background and consuming system resources.
But to have a real sync, monitoring the changes of folders is inevitable.
Will further investigate the issue as soon as I'm finished with a couple of other (minor) improvements

thanks you for your suggestions and of course for the nice words ;-) - Nov 04 2009