Mailman 3 - Bit-dev - python.org

Back In Time 2.0.0 Release Candidate 1
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Aug. 12, 2026

Aug. 12, 2026

Hello, this is the first release candidate for **Back In Time 2.0.0**. It is one of the largest updates in the project's history. It includes a major refactoring of the configuration management, a complete rewrite of the mount subsystem, replaces EncFS with Gocryptfs for encrypted profiles, and removes several deprecated features. Although extensive testing has been performed, this is still a **release candidate**. We encourage users to [test it](https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/PLAY_WITH_BIT.md) and report your tests even if you haven't found any regressions. Tests without regressions are also an important information to the project and its release process! !WARNING: Do not test this release with your regular configuration. Version 2.0.0 migrates the configuration and the changes might not be backward compatible. EncFS profiles are also removed. Once a configuration has been opened with 2.0.0, it may no longer work correctly with older Back In Time releases. Please test in a virtual machine or with a separate configuration using the `--config` command-line option. Full release notes: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v2.0.0-rc1> Changelog: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGES> Please think about if you can share this announcement somewhere in your channels and your community. I the upcoming weeks I'll try to step back a bit from the project and waiting for incoming test reports. Best regards, Christian Buhtz

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Back In Time 2.0: Major changes complete, ready for community testing
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 26, 2026

July 26, 2026

Hello, Most of the major work for Back In Time 2.0 is now complete and available in the `dev` branch. No further large architectural changes are expected before the release. This makes it a good time for broader testing. Version 2.0 introduces substantial internal changes, including a completely rewritten mount infrastructure, the replacement of the configuration management system, the removal of EncFS support in favor of gocryptfs, CLI cleanup, and various refactorings. Although these changes are primarily internal, they benefit from testing in different real-world environments. Testing across different distributions, filesystems, desktop environments, and backup setups will help identify remaining issues before the release. A detailed overview of the changes is available in the changelog: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGELOG.md> If you would like to test the `dev` branch, please see this issue and docu for concrete test scenarios and areas where feedback is especially valuable: - <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/PLAY_WITH_BIT.md> - <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2498> - <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2539> Best regards, Christian

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Request Arch-related test: Cron warning
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 20, 2026

July 20, 2026

Hello folks, might someone be able to setup a fresh Arch Linux in a VM and test this? BIT should give somehow a warning about missing cron or crontab. Arch installs cron, but do not enable it is a service. BIT shouuld be able to detect this situation. But I am not sure anymore and also did not documented it in the PR/Commit [1] if I tested it. Thanks, Christian https://fosstodon.org/@backintime [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/commit/6d77e319cd9c15f54dd60acc7879b…>

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Rsync has vibecoded commits
by otyugh＠gmail.com July 5, 2026

July 5, 2026

Hey, I'm trying with some friend to avoid the tool we can avoid to use "ai slope". We heard the rsync did that, for instance : https://github.com/RsyncProject/rsync/pull/903 I was wondering if your project should, considering the long term, think about using some rsyn fork like openrsync https://github.com/kristapsdz/openrsync or https://github.com/gokrazy/rsync ? (I may be talking big, I don't know nor the quality of the code here, and what it would imply)

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Maintainer donations and possible addition to README and Help menu
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 23, 2026

June 23, 2026

Hello everyone, I would like to bring up a topic for discussion and collect some feedback from the projects community before making any changes. Because this mailing list has not so many members I consider to re-post this message also at my own Mastodon account [1] pointing to the projects account [2]. For other projects I maintain, I usually have a note in their README about donations pointing to my personal accounts (currently Liberapay / Ko-fi). I have avoided doing this in Back In Time so far, mainly because I am not the original author. And I am unsure wether this would be appropriate. However, I am considering adding a small, non-intrusive donation section to Back In Time as well. This would be placed in two locations: - README.md (example [3] [4]) - the application Help menu The note would point to the donation section of my Codeberg "about-me" page at [5]. Details and the intended usage is also described there. An important point, also described there, is that donations would explicitly go to me as a person, not to the project itself. The project obviously benefits indirectly, but I do not route donations into separate project funds or structures. The reason is that the current "amount of money" does not justify such structures. There won't be banners, popups, “donate now” messages in the UI, or any promotional content on the mailing list or mastodon. Only a simple informational note in existing documentation/help. Before doing anything, I would like to hear your opinions and any concerns about this. Best, Christian Buhtz [1] https://fosstodon.org/@buhtz [2] https://fosstodon.org/@backintime [3] https://codeberg.org/buhtz/hyperorg [4] https://codeberg.org/buhtz/spdx2debian [5] https://codeberg.org/buhtz/about-me#donations

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Next try to contact Germar
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 9, 2026

June 9, 2026

Hello, just for information. Today I tried again to contact the former maintainer Germar on his regular email address. The mayor problem is that he is the only one "Owner" of the "bit-team". I am not able to manage several things, e.g. add other owners as backup, blocking AI-slop accounts to the project, manage TravisCI stuff, much more... Finally forking is technical an option, but won't solve all problems. And I also don't want to go this path. Keep you informed Christian Buhtz

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New mount subsystem is ready to test
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 3, 2026

June 3, 2026

Hey folks, the new mount subsystem is ready for further testing. It is not yet merged into the "dev" branch but is living in its own Pull Request on branch "feat/sshgocryptfs". Detailed installation and testing instructions can be found in this comment in the PR itself: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2449#issuecomment-4534635028> ☢️ CAUTION: Don't use your regular setup. Use a VM or at least a separate configuration via the "--config" switch. This PR affects 77 files, adds 3,708, and removes 5,135 lines Please also consider to repost the news on Mastodon: <https://fosstodon.org/@backintime/116635499945145372> Thanks in advance, Christian Buhtz

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How do you think about UX tests?
by Marcus Rohrmoser May 8, 2026

May 8, 2026

there may be support from https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/services/#uxtesting, I could evtl. organise it. But surely only if the community wants it.. /Marcus

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Status Update and Next Steps
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 6, 2026

May 6, 2026

Hello everyone, The latest release of Canonical Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) is an opportunity to give a short overview of the current state of Back In Time and what is coming next. Current Status ============== - Latest release: 1.6.1 - Available in latest Debian GNU/Linux (stable, "Trixie", 13) - Available in latest Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (universe repository) - EncFS: - Deprecated and effectively disabled - Existing profiles still accessible - Will be removed completely in the next release Next Release ============ - Planned as 2.0.0 [7] - New mount subsystem (rewritten from scratch) to provide maintainable gocryptfs support [14] - Removal of EncFS [8] - Fixes for rsync change detection and permission handling; may slip to another version if not sufficient in time [10] - My goal is to release this as soon as possible to introduce breaking changes most far long before a new Debian release, to give Back In Time the time to evolve and stabilize. Other big ToDo's and Long-Term Ideas for later Releases ======================================================= - New configuration management code [11] - Configuration file in TOML format [12] - Internal refactoring across multiple layers, improving maintainability, testability and test coverage - Several GUI improvements - Integrate "Snapshots dialog" features into main window and remove the dialog itself - Improve "Manage profiles" dialog - etc Project and infrastructure topics ================================= - Migration to Python build system (PEP 517/621) [13] - Moving from Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg.org - Debian maintenance situation remains unresolved. Practically its status is "orphaned" (Debian meaning for "not maintained"). - Lost contact to former upstream maintainer Germar despite multiple attempts - Handling of low-quality ("AI slop") contributions remains an issue - Code reviews are missing. In most cases there is no second pair of eyes when merge my code. - There is also a lack of manual tests. Additional Notes ================ Thank you --------- I need to express my gratitude to Fabio Fantoni and Danel Echeverry stepping in for the original "Debian maintainer" Jonathan Wiltshier ("jwm") and packaging Back In Time for Debian. Also a big Thank You goes to Skia about approving an Ubuntu Freeze Exception and upload the latest BIT version to Ubuntu's universe repository [4], after we missed their Freeze deadline. Contribution quality and AI slop -------------------------------- This is one of my very personal tasks in this project. It is an ongoing topic with no easy solution. As maintainer I grow suspicious to every unknown account (first-time contributor) not saying "Hello", having to much bling bling icons on their profile page or coming from one of the countries producing millions of AI-using-college-students. I am watching myself and don't like what I see. I want to assume the best efforts in all contributors from the very first beginning, no matter their account age, skill level, or culture. But "AI" and the marketing behind it poisoned that social contract. But fact is, that not a small amount of the first time contributions are "AI slop" and/or of extreme low quality. The tool is not the problem but contributors not taking the responsibility for "their" code. That contributions would require significant review effort just to decided if it is AI or not. And this is even before starting the review itself. Because I am not willing to invest sucht efforts and to keep maintenance sustainable, I tend to close such PR's early. I also report that accounts to Microsoft's abuse team. But I am only a human being, not perfect also sometimes not in the perfect mood. So it comes that sometimes I false-close and miss the best efforts of a first-time contributor. Improving this process without discouraging legitimate contributors is an open task. Other projects I am involved with and occupied by ------------------------------------------------- I need to be careful to stay focused and not lose myself in too many things at the same time. Currently, besides Back In Time, I am working on several other projects: - I reactivated my old RSS reader project "Feedybus" [1] - My "Hyperorg" project need some attention because someone wants to package it for Debian [2]. - Because ongoing resource issues on the side of Debian Maintainers, I created a helper tool for them, named "spdx2debian", to ease their burden with managing copyright and license information [3]. Thank you for reading that far. I am always interested in your feedback. A second opinion or a second pair of eyes is also a valuable contribution. Best wishes, Christian Buhtz [1] https://codeberg.org/buhtz/Feedybus [2] https://codeberg.org/buhtz/hyperorg [3] https://codeberg.org/buhtz/spdx2debian [4] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/backintime/+bug/2142983 [5] https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/backintime [6] https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/backintime [7] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/milestone/36 [8] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1734 [10] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2388 [11] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1850 [12] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1984 [13] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1575 [14] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2449

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Scheduling broken in 1.6.1 ?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 23, 2026

March 23, 2026

Hello, if you are using Back In time 1.6.1 please check if your scheduled profiles are running as expected. Maybe 1.6.0 users, too. Let me know if this is not the case. Best would be to open an issue for the report. Regards, Christian

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Much earlier removal of EncFS support than planned
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 20, 2026

March 20, 2026

Hello, EncFS support in Back In Time will be removed much earlier than previously planned [1]. Monitor the progress in this PR #2449 [2]. Recent development work on the implementation of gocryptfs support revealed that maintaining EncFS in parallel introduce significant complexity and maintenance overhead. Continuing to keep EncFS in the code base would block progress on gocryptfs and jeopardize the entire plan. I have decided to remove the complete mounting logic and re-implement it from scratch. Refactoring the existing EncFS logic would consume disproportionate time and effort for a component that is scheduled for removal. As a consequence, EncFS must be removed before gocryptfs can be fully implemented. The original plan was to add full gocryptfs support and release that verison of Back In Time with the upcoming Debian 14 (~end of 2027), removing EncFS afterwards. This is no longer feasable. The version of Back In Time version for Debian 14 will include full gocryptfs support will not longer support EncFS. Users currently relying on EncFS should start planning a migration to gocryptfs. Migration documentation and guidance will be provided. Additionally, there is the plan to ensure that the latest EncFS-supporting version of Back In Time remain usable on Debian 14, when installed from upstream. Please let me add that the security issues with EncFS are known since the year 2014 [3]. Removing it from Back In Time was decided in 2023, and first deprecation warning within Back In Time was released in July 2024 with version 1.5.0 [4]. Best regards, Christian Buhtz Current maintainer & lead developer [1] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1734 [2] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2449 [3] https://sourceforge.net/p/encfs/mailman/message/31849549/ [4] https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.0

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Backing up another machine form this machine and storing the backup on this machine
by Jeff Silverman March 11, 2026

March 11, 2026

Hello, I have been using backintime for more years than I can remember and I love it. It just works. I was wandering through the documentation and I realized that I could use backintime to backup my local web server. Currently, the web server has no backups, if something happens to it, I just rebuild it and copy the content to the server. But it occurred to me that I can use backintime to backup the server. My problem is that when I backup my server, it stays on the server. There are five solutions that present themselves: 1) Use an NFS mount from my enormous disk drive that I currently use as the backup destination 2) Use a CIFS (samba) mount from my enormous disk drive that I currently use as the backup destination 3) Use a cron job or similar to run rsync over SSH to pull the files from the server to the enormous disk drive. This seems like the safest solution from a computing security point of view because if the server gets compromised, the putative bad guy does not get write access to the enormous disk drive. 4) Use a cron job or similar to run rsync on the server to push the files from the to the enormous disk drive. 5) Ask if there is a better solution. The problems with solutions 1, 2, and 4 is that if a bad guy gets into my server, then he or she has write access to my enormous disk drive. Yes, I am aware that if a bad guy compromises my server, then he or she can write malware and the backup system will copy it to the enormous disk drive. But unless I do something stupid, that's as far as the malware can get. I see that version 1.6 is in the release process - my question might be answered by upgrading. Is that the case? Thank you Jeff Silverman https://jeffsilverman.ddns.net jeffsilverm(a)gmail.com -- Jeff Silverman jeffsilverm(a)gmail.com http://jeffsilverm.ddns.net <https://jeffsilverm.ddns.net>.

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Update on BackInTime 1.6 Release for Ubuntu LTS
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 2, 2026

March 2, 2026

Hello everyone, Version 1.6 is an important release as it introduces several deprecations and functional changes, and it informs and prepares users about that. In my view, it is important and urgunt that Ubuntu LTS users receive this update so they aren’t caught off guard in later LTS release if BIT stops working within their setup. From my experience, Ubuntu LTS users tend to stay on their LTS version for the full five-year-support period. Version 1.6.0 was unfortunately released rather close (11 days) to Ubuntu's "Debian Import Freeze" (February 19). Two days later, version 1.6.1 followed with fixes, leaving only 9 days before the Import Freeze Deadline. Packaging in Debian was also delayed, which meant we missed the Ubuntu deadline. Fortunately, Fabio Fantoni stepped in again to handle the Debian packaging. Our last chance now is a so-called “freeze exception”: <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/backintime/+bug/2142983> I’m not fully familiar with the decision process at Canonical, but the Ubuntu maintainer responsible is the same as for Debian. I’m unsure whether that is an advantage or disadvantage. Just wanted to keep you all updated. Fingers crossed! Best regards, Christian

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Announcement: "plugin system" will be removed
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 17, 2026

Feb. 17, 2026

Hello, I just won't to inform that I'll plan to remove the "plugin system". <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2424> There is no concrete time schedule for it. But I like to announce this as early as possible. Let me know if anyone of you created and is using a user-defined plugin beside the ones offered by Back In Time itself. The regular user callback scripts will work and are not related to that issue. The issue at Mastodon: <https://fosstodon.org/@backintime/116087256061038756> Regards, Christian Buhtz

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Announcement: Release 1.6.1
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 10, 2026

Feb. 10, 2026

Hello, two days later I have to announce the 1.6.1 release fixing some minor issues. Full release notes: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.6.1> Changelog: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGES> Regards, Christian Buhtz

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Announcement: Release 1.6.0
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 8, 2026

Feb. 8, 2026

Hello, I am happy to announce the 1.6.0 release today. Full release notes: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.6.0> Changelog: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGES> Let me give you a summary. Gocryptfs is used for encryption in local profiles. This replaces EncFS with its known security issues. Therefore, using EncFS for encryption is no longer supported for newly created profiles (local and SSH), but remains available for existing profiles. Gocryptfs encryption for SSH profiles is not yet available and will follow in a later release. Package maintainers should be aware of modified dependencies and adjust their packaging accordingly. After 17 years of existence, Back In Time now has its own application logo, provided by Gregory Deseck (@gregorydk). Support for external SSH key agents and configurations was added. There is a new option to warn users about low available storage space. Several changes and improvements were made to the GUI, most of them in the Manage Profiles dialog. Translations improved and updated. Excluding English, 17 of 44 languages are fully translated, 9 are over 80%, but 7 languages are lower than 50% complete and removal candiates for the next release. Newly added language: Georgian. Because of no translation activity the languages Bosnian, Thai, and Occidental/Interlingue were removed. Several bug fixes and a large part of the codebase were refactored. Regards, Christian Buhtz

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Packaging and final testing 1.6.0
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 7, 2026

Feb. 7, 2026

Hello, I packaged the 1.6.0 [1] release as a tar.gz [2]. Would be nice if some of you could give it a try installing it and see if everything is well packed. Thank you in advance, Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2395> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2395#issuecomment-3864022310>

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v1.6.0 - Release Candidate
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 27, 2026

Jan. 27, 2026

Hello together, the Release Candidate for version 1.6.0 is out. https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.6.0-rc1 It introduces massive changes since v1.5.4, thorough testing is crucial. The plan is to get this version into the upcoming Ubuntu LTS. Therefore the testing deadline is February 6, two weeks before Canonical Ubuntu’s Debian Import Freeze. - Add gocryptfs support for local backup profiles - Removed EncFS support for new created backup profiles - Back In Time application logo - New dependencies: bash, python3-pyqt6.qtsvg - Minimum required Python version 3.11 - See CHANGES.md for all details. If possible, please spread our Mastodon post about this: https://fosstodon.org/@backintime/115931593751388080 Thank you in advance Christian Buhtz

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EncFS encryption combined with Udev schedule?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 25, 2026

Jan. 25, 2026

Hello, does anyone of you is using BIT with an EncFS encrypted profile in combination with an Udev-schedule (When drive is connected)? My assumption is "no". I can not make it work. First I thought this is related to gocryptfs itself but then I realized there are similar errors with encfs. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2386> Enough for today. Christian

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How to migrate EncFS profiles to gocryptfs profiles?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 13, 2026

Jan. 13, 2026

Hello there, latest dev version no do support gocryptfs encryption for local profiles. Now I am working on reshaping the GUI in that context and updateting all the EncFS-warnings. BIT won't implement a migration feature. But I would like to offer a migration guide (like a wiki page, manual, FAQ, etc) about how to migrate EncFS backups/snapshots to an gocryptfs backup profile? Maybe someone would like to test and document this process? There is an old migration guide from the gocryptfs community about encfs to gocryptfs. <https://github.com/rfjakob/gocryptfs/wiki/Upgrading> I can imagine these steps in context of BIT. But I have not tested it. 1. Having a local encfs profile with several backups in BIT. 2. Create a new fresh "local gocryptfs" profile. 3. Close BIT. Do everything in terminal. 4. Mount and encrypt the encfs profile directory. 5. Moutn and encrypt the gocrypt fs profile directory. 6. Using tar/rsync/or something else to copy everything from the old into the new profile directory. 7. Unmount/close both directories. 8. Start BIT with the new gocryptfs profile. Now you might see all backups there? Is it that "easy"? Regards, Christian

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Review request: Expert Options got a new widget
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 6, 2026

Jan. 6, 2026

Hello, I got an idea, while browsing through the oldest or most inactive issues. The Export Options tab now has a new widget regarding the "--copy-links" and "--copy-unsafe-links" rsync options. The previous two checkboxes are removed. Would like to know your opinion about it. And also would like to have a second pair of eyes checking the strings and tooltips. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2347> Thanks in advance, Christian

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Review Bash stuff
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 31, 2025

Dec. 31, 2025

Hello, can someone with more Bash experience have look at this PR please. It works. Just want to know if it is OK for someone who really knows Bash. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2328> Regards, Christian

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Review and opinions about new Exclude Suggestions
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 12, 2025

Dec. 12, 2025

Hello, because of issue #2307 I decided to improve the behavior of how BIT does handle default exclude entries. The feature is still a pending PR but I prepared two screenshots and would like to have some feedback from you. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2309#issuecomment-3647038008> Now there is no simple default list of files/dirs/pattern to exclude but a list of suggested files/dirs/pattern. That list also now has a description for each of that entries to make it easier for the user to judge if it is useful or not. Not all entries in the list are selected by default. Only a subset of entries is selected by default, also depending on the mode (user or root) BIT is running. That is why there are two screenshots. Thanks for your feedback. Christian

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Why "decode" SSH-EncFS but not local-EncFS?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 5, 2025

Dec. 5, 2025

Hi there, I need some help in untying a knot in my head. I am not a regular user of the encryption feature. I understand that EncFS somehow scramble/hash all names of files and directories. BIT offers a "decode" feature to make the log file readable and convert the scrambled paths into there original names. What I do not understand is that this decode (a checkbox in the bottom of the Log View dialog) is offered only for SSH-Encfs profiles but not for local-Encfs. When viewing the log for a local-Encfs backup the paths are already human readable in not scrambled. But in the filesystem the paths are scrambled. It seems that decoding is already done in local-Encfs but not in SSH-Encfs. Why? Is there a good reason to have that separated behavior? Thanks Christian

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Modifications on the Default Exclude list
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 30, 2025

Nov. 30, 2025

Hello, because of an Issue [1] I modified the list of default excludes [2]. Some entries removed and some new entries are added. I am interested in your opinions about it. Regards, Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2307> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2309>

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Scheduling migration from Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg: Request for feedback
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 28, 2025

Nov. 28, 2025

Hello together, I am interested in your opinions and thoughts about this. I have mentioned this before. The project needs to migrate away from Microsoft GitHub. The current target would be Codeberg e.V., which hosts Forgejo (a successor to Gitea). I wonder if it might be a good plan to do the migration after the 1.6.0 release, which is scheduled for spring or early summer 2026. I see no good reasons against it. Technically, I do not expect much problems. The migration works very well and offers several options. Logistically I also don't expect much problems. The repo at Microsoft GitHub will have a clear migration statement on top of the README file and will be set to read-only. I'll also inform all known distro maintainers about the migration. Mirroring is definitly not an option. I would keep the repo on Microsoft GitHub available (but read-only) for a limited time (one or two years) and then remove it. What do you think? If you plan some donations around Christmas time maybe Codeberg e.V. might be a good choice. Christian

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German editing ... BiT
by rk Nov. 1, 2025

Nov. 1, 2025

Hello, how are you doing? If interested I could help with the german translation. Ich sehe hier und da kleinere Fehler ... Danke, alles Gute. Have a great day. Regards rk

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Review current draft of the application logo
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Oct. 8, 2025

Oct. 8, 2025

Hello folks, we do have a very promising draft for a Back In Time's own application logo. What do you think? <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1961#issuecomment-3372469272> Regards, Christian

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Release - Back In Time 1.5.6
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Oct. 5, 2025

Oct. 5, 2025

Hello, please allow me to announce the latest release of version 1.5.6. This is a hotfix release targeting the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 13 "Trixie" fixing four minor issues. Full release notes: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.6> Regards, Christian Buhtz

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Restoring a backup from old pc to new pc
by André Fettouhi Aug. 26, 2025

Aug. 26, 2025

Hello, I have been using backintime to do backups of my workstation. It has now become time to retire that machine and start using a new one (getting the final parts for the new machine today). My backups are been stored on my TrueNAS server via SSH. I've looked at the documentation under how to restore backups but it really doesn't seem to cover my case of restoring to a fresh install on a new PC. How would I restore my backups from my old pc to my new pc with backintime? Kind Regards André Fettouhi

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Back In Time 1.3.3-4 -> which *-keyring?
by sawbona＠gmx.net Aug. 12, 2025

Aug. 12, 2025

Hello: My Linux box runs BiT 1.3.3-4, the latest version available in the repositories. [code] $ apt list | grep installed | grep backintime --- snip --- backintime-common/stable,stable,now 1.3.3-4 all [installed] backintime-qt/stable,stable,now 1.3.3-4 all [installed,automatic] $ [/code] Have used it for the longest time, saved my files more than once. Thanks to all those involved for that. That said, I have something to which I need some insight into: 1. I understand that BiT will use whatever available keyring it finds. 2. For reasons, it turns out that my system has more than one keyring available: [code] $ apt list | grep installed | grep keyring --- snip --- debian-archive-keyring/stable,stable,now 2023.3+deb12u2 all [installed] devuan-keyring/stable,stable,now 2023.05.28 all [installed] gnome-keyring/stable,now 42.1-1+b2 amd64 [installed] python3-keyring/stable,stable,now 23.9.3-2 all [installed,automatic] python3-keyrings.alt/stable,stable,now 4.2.0-1 all [installed,automatic] $ [/code] I'm not a fan of gnome 'anything' and as a result I only have one gnome application installed: gnome-disk-utility, which is actually quite handy. Recently, wondering if gnome-keyring was used by gnome-disk-utility, I asked aptitude ... [code] $ aptitude why gnome-keyring i backintime-common Depends python3-keyring i A python3-keyring Depends python3-secretstorage (>= 3.2) i A python3-secretstorage Recommends gnome-keyring | libkf5wallet-bin (>= 5.97) | keepassxc $ [/code] ... only to find out that it is (indirectly) used by backintime-common. ie: backintime-common >depends> python3-keyring >depends> python3-secretstorage >recommends gnome-keyring |or| libkf5wallet-bin (>= 5.97) |or| keepassxc As libkf5wallet-bin seems to be a transitional package which can be removed (if it were installed), the only options for BiT would be gnome-keyring or keepassxc. But it happens that if I purge gnome-keyring, BiT won't work and keepassxs is not installed. Q1: why are gnome-keyring and keepassxc 'recommended' packages and not dependencies? Just asking, seems odd. Q2: how could I safely (and not breaking anything) switch from gnome-keyring to keepassxc? The less gnome I have, the better. Thanks in advance. Best, JHM

3 8

(Fwd) Re: Back In Time 1.3.3-4 -> which *-keyring?
by sawbona＠gmx.net Aug. 4, 2025

Aug. 4, 2025

Hello: On 4 Aug 2025 at 18:53, Maytham Alsudany wrote: > > ... switch from gnome-keyring to keepassxc? > ... installing keepassxc and removing gnome-keyring should work? Once I was advised that keppassxc required network access, it ceased to be an option. > ... should also be able to have none of these options installed and it should work ... But, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, it does not. [quote] The thing is that when I saw that gnome-keyring was a *recommends* I purged it. But then BiT would not work, so I had to re-install it and things went back to normal. [/quote] It would seem (?) that the issue at hand is related to this bug report: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- backintime-qt: Fails to access the keyring with python3-keyring 23.2.0-1 <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=998105> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is all well over my head. Nevertheless, I will see if I can understand what the mentioned patch is about. <https://salsa.debian.org/jmw/pkg-backintime/-/merge_requests/9> That said, and as long as BiT works with gnome-keyring installed, I will have to wait and see if the reported bug actually gets fixed in Debian upstream (still present in Bookworm) and then enabled in the Devuan repositories. Thanks for your input. Best, JHM

1 0

Re: Back In Time 1.3.3-4 -> which *-keyring?
by sawbona＠gmx.net Aug. 4, 2025

Aug. 4, 2025

Hello c.buhtz: On 4 Aug 2025 at 9:29, c.buhtz(a)posteo.jp wrote: > I don't have a clear answer ... Don't worry, you do enough already. > Maybe someone else on the list ... Of course. Let's see if any one of the contributors to the original bug report have time to post something. At least there is a clear idea with respect to what the problem is. > ... also refer to the FAQ. > ... get an idea about our workflow, priorities ... I am a long time user of BiT. Memory is hazy but it must have been when I installed Devuan Jesse or ascii. That being the case, I am quite aware of where it was and how you chaps stepped in. The torch was passed on, very grateful both to those who came before you and for your taking up the slack. Thanks for your input. Best, JHM

1 0

Opinion about restore config dialog
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 26, 2025

July 26, 2025

Hello Folks, I am interested in your opinions. Maybe I simplify this topic to much and miss something. A fresh installed and not configured BIT will ask if you want to restore an existing configuration (from a backup somewhere else). The dialog [1] [2] to select backup folder containing the config that should be restored is the topic here. The dialog shows a directory tree to encourage the user to select the folder containing the config file. I wonder if this dir tree widget is even useful in this context. The dialog runs an extra thread in background search the file system for config files. That thread updates the related tree entries, so that the QLabel below that tree widget can display information of profiles found [1] or if nothing was found [2]. So why not throw away that tree widget and just present the search result of the thread running in the background? The user just need to wait some seconds in the beginning until the search for config files is finished. Maybe add an extra button with a DirSelectDialog behind. It would simplify the code. It would remove the threading logic and tree-model-filterproxy-logic of the tree widget. Any suggestions and thoughts about it? Regards, Christian [1] -- <https://translate.codeberg.org/media/screenshots/bit_dlg_import_config_foun…> [2] -- <https://translate.codeberg.org/media/screenshots/bit_dlg_import_config.png>

3 3

Disabled - Source Code docu at Read The Docs
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 12, 2025

July 12, 2025

Hi, I want to inform and ask for opinions and vetos. On Read The Docs I disabled the automatic build (via Sphinx) of the source code docu [1]. My self I don't use it, not even on my local machine. I am surfing through the original code files. To my knowledge there is also no other developer using it. BIT is an end user application and not a library or package where you need to check how to use the API. Every build of that docu is wasting resources, energy and CO2. Beside the green-thinking, there is also the organization behind Read The Docs. They offer the service for free. As always I am open for opinions and arguments. Best, Christian Buhtz [1] -- <https://backintime-dev.readthedocs.org/>

1 0

Back In Time 1.6.0 is near
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 6, 2025

July 6, 2025

Dear all, The upcoming version 1.6.0 is getting close. All issues, planned for this milestone, have been closed, only a few RPs are pending [1]. One last feature is in the works: support for gocryptfs as a replacement for EncFS. What changed since latest stable release 1.5.5? The major highlight of 1.6.0 will be gocryptfs support, replacing EncFS, which is known to have security flaws [2]. Other major changes: - The command-line interface has been completely reworked. Most commands and switches are now deprecated and replaced. - Terminology changed: what used to be called a "snapshot" is now a "backup". - Minimum required Python version increased to 3.11. - Many other features and fixes are listed in the CHANGELOG [3]. Under the hood A lot of code was refactored and cleaned up. Extensive testing is necessary and required before release. I encourage you to test the latest dev branch and would highly appreciate any feedback or bug reports. Some git metrics, comparing latest "dev" with latest release "v1.5.5": - 106 commits - 175 files changed - 55.086 insertions, 45.169 deletions Thank you to all persons contributing feedback, ideas, bug reports and solutions. Best regards, Christian Buhtz [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/milestone/34> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1734> [3] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGES>

1 0

Change permissions on newly created backup directories to more restrict"0700"?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 26, 2025

June 26, 2025

Hey folks, I am interested in your opinions. Currently the backup destination folder get its permissions from the operating systems umask settings. There is a 14 year old issue (<https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/377>) requesting to change that behavior. Are there any concerns or objections against that BIT set by default the permissions to 0700 (rwx------) for the backup destination? Regards, Christian

2 1

ssh-agent and TravisCI
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 26, 2025

June 26, 2025

Hello, we do have pending PR with a failing test on TravisCI but passing test on local machines. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2170> The ssh-agent is somehow involved. David and me, we are out of ideas. Maybe someone of you has an idea? I think about just skipping that test on Travis. Regards, Christian

1 0

EncFS passwords: Where do they come from?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 24, 2025

June 24, 2025

Hello Folks, I try to dive into a specific topic related to Back In Time. Even after reading the code it is not clear for me how this works. Maybe one of you know it or wan't to dive into the code also? ;) I configured an encfs profile with password. Restart the system. Yes! Open the BIT GUI and I will be asked for a password. I type in the password and everything is fine. Closing and reopening the GUI. No question for password. It seems the password is somehow cached? Two major question about that behavior: 1. How and where is it cached? 2. How does BIT knows it is cached? Where in that code can I find it. It is hard to place debug-print statements because several processes (e.g. password.py) seem to be involved in that. Thanks in advance Christian

1 0

Makefile problem
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 17, 2025

June 17, 2025

Hello, I do have a problem with the Makefile (in "common") and maybe some of you have more experience with it. In the latest dev version, the Makefile in "common" [1] does call a script named "build_manpages.sh" [2]. That script does call "asciidoctor". If "asciidoctor" is not installed that script gives an error message (and "exit 1"). I do see this error message when calling "./configure & make". But "make" itself does not recognize that error. The exit code of "make" does not indicate that there was an error. If there are other errors while "make" is running the last message usually will look like this: make: *** [Makefile:19: install] Error 2 But when that error about the missing asciidoctor occur make does not give that error message at the end. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I think I miss some shell magic and Unix basics here. ;) Regards, Christian Buhtz [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/74e2030e017f9126eb5b75c643c1241…> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/doc/manpages/build_manpages…>

2 2

Release - Back In time 1.5.5
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 5, 2025

June 5, 2025

Hello, please allow me to announce the latest release of version 1.5.5. This is a hotfix release targeting the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 13 "Trixie". Full release notes: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.5> Regards, Christian Buhtz

1 0

Upcoming hotfix release 1.5.5
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 2, 2025

June 2, 2025

Hello, I just want to announce that I'll release a hotfix in the next days, with version number 1.5.5. The bug [1] is contained in latst release 1.5.4 and affects users creating a fresh SSH profile using an SSH key with a passphrase. A fix is in the making[2]. The bug is brought to attention of Debian [3]. And I am assuming that 1.5.5 will be allowed, despite the current Hard Freeze [4][5], to be released within upcoming Debian 14 "Trixie". Regards, Christian Buhtz [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2164> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2163> [3] -- <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1106754> [4] -- <https://release.debian.org/trixie/freeze_policy.html#summary> [5] -- <https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2025/05/msg00004.html>

1 0

Quick update on the project
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 16, 2025

May 16, 2025

Hello Folks, I just wanted to share a quick update on what's been happening in the project lately. I'm not sure if anyone is monitoring the issues and pull requests (PR), but there has been a lot activity over the past few weeks. Most of the PRs where merged within less then one week. Usually, we have a rule to keep a PR open for at least one week to cool done. In my experience, this greatly improves their overall quality. However, I shorten this period for some of the PRs because they where blocking others, and I tried to avoid merge conflicts. The ongoing larger task, is improving the man page. But before refining the text, I focused on simplifying and making the command line interface (CLI) more consistent. I reduced the number of commands from 17 to 10. I also adjusted some argument/flags. Renamed or removed commands and flags are still there for backwards compatibility. They are hidden in --help output but will trigger a deprecation warning when used. The plan is to fully remove them in two or three years, after the release of Debian 14. That's all for now. Regards, Christian Buhtz

2 1

Feedback about new commands "list" and "last"
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 11, 2025

May 11, 2025

Hello Folks, I'll would like to have some feedback about an ongoing modification of the command-line interface of BIT. Please let me know what you think. Can you think of better naming for commands and switches. Maybe something totally different? There are 4 commands I do replace with 2 commands "list" and "last" as follows: - backintime snapshots-list: backintime list - backintime snapshots-list-path: backintime list --path - backintime last-snapshot: backintime last - backintime last-snapshot-path: backintime last --path This is still implemented in an pending PR #2135. I also do have an alternative in mind, which would reduce everything to only one command, with more switches. - backintime snapshots-list: backintime show - backintime snapshots-list-path: backintime show --path - backintime last-snapshot: backintime show --last - backintime last-snapshot-path: backintime show --last --path Regards, Christian Buhtz The Issue: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2130 The PR: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2135

2 1

benchmark-cipher - Deprecated and remove
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 4, 2025

May 4, 2025

Hello Folks, I would like to put this topic on the table. BIT has a feature available via command "benchmark-cipher". I tend to deprecate and remove it. See details in the issue. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2120> Someone else has good reason against this plan? Regards, Christian Buhtz

1 0

Should Back In Time inhibit suspend or idle mode by default?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 1, 2025

May 1, 2025

Hello, I stumbled across a bunch of old issues related to power management, DBus and inhibiting suspend mode. I was doing some refactoring in this area. So the question [1] comes up, I was also asking at Mastodon [2]: "Should Back In Time inhibit suspend or idle mode by default?" Some opinions or Vetos about it? Thank you and best wishes, Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2108> [2] -- <https://fosstodon.org/@backintime/114415822192466615>

2 3

Please take a look at this new logo draft
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 1, 2025

May 1, 2025

Hello, we have someone offer a drafts about a new logo. Please be kind to him and don't drive him away. :D https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1961 Regards, Christian

1 0

Wayland: What does QWindow.winId() returns on Wayland?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp April 8, 2025

April 8, 2025

Hey Folks, I might have an issue related to Wayland. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2084#issuecomment-2786470236> I am not sure how urgent it is in context of the upcoming Debian stable. I don't have Wayland at hand. Can someone with Wayland modify add the debug-print-code I mention in the Issue and tell me what your Wayland returns? Thanks in advance, Christian

1 0

About dialog - Redesign
by buhtz＠posteo.de April 5, 2025

April 5, 2025

Hi Folks, I tried to improve and extend the about dialog. What do you think? https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2082 Regards, Christian

1 0

backintime-qt-root 1.5.3 consumes all memory
by Tim Evans April 5, 2025

April 5, 2025

Have just upgraded to 1.5.3 on my Dell laptop (Fedora 41--Linux harrier 6.13.9-200.fc41.x86_64). Trying to start the graphical user interface as root user ('backintim-qt-root' at shell prompt)--as I have done since starting with BiT more than a year ago. This generates runaway processes that after three or four minutes consumes all memory. Other apps get killed and eventually the whole system stops. Nothing graphical ever appears. This does not happen if I start the GUI as a non-root user, via the drop down apps menu entry for BiT. Only when I start it from the command prompt. Interesting, there is no such behavior on my Fedora desktop. I have downgraded to 1.5.2 for the time being.

1 1

"Snapshot" is now "Backup" and other modifications (Review Request)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp April 1, 2025

April 1, 2025

Hello together, I worked on two issues regarding the translatable source strings appearing in the GUI. Before uploading this to the translation platform I would like to have a second pair of eyes taking a look on it. Please review my Pull Request: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2074 As discussed earlier I modified the term "snapshot" into "backup" and rephrased some of the strings because of that. Second I neutralized strings containing a "you". i removed the "you" and tried to make BIT sounding more serious. Thanks in advance, Christian Buhtz

1 0

Release - Back In time 1.5.4 is out
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 24, 2025

March 24, 2025

Hello, please allow me to announce the fresh release of version 1.5.4. The Auto-remove and Smart-remove have been renamed into Remove & Retention. The related tab in the GUI was reworked, with clearer labels and tooltips. And the user manual now gives more details and examples about how this feature works. Scheduling capabilities are extended with offset minutes for hourly schedules. The completeness of translations increased dramatically to 84%. Four languages (Slovak, Greek, Faroes, Croatian) are reactivated and rescued from being removed. Also The license and copyright information now follow the REUSE.software and SPDX standards. Additionally, several other adjustments, improvements, and fixes have been made. It will be the last release in 1.5 branch. Please note that this might be the last release with full support for EncFS encryption. Full release notes: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.4> Regards, Christian Buhtz

1 0

I have just cloned version 1.5.4-rc1
by Jeff Silverman March 24, 2025

March 24, 2025

Hello, There is a comment to let you know if I am using the latest version. This is to let you know that I am using version 1.5.4-rc1 Jeff Silverman jeffsilverm(a)gmail.com

2 1

I have a python problem when installing backintime 1.5.4-rc2
by Jeff Silverman March 24, 2025

March 24, 2025

Hello, I have a strange problem while testing my installation of backintime 1.5.4-rc2 *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ make test /home/jeffs/.local/bin/pytest *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-8.3.2, pluggy-1.5.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common *collected 13 items / 20 errors * ============================================================================== ERRORS =============================================================================== *_________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_applicationinstance.py _________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_applicationinstance.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_applicationinstance.py:18: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *______________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_argparser.py ______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_argparser.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_argparser.py:12: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_____________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_backintime.py ______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_backintime.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_backintime.py:12: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_______________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_backup.py ________________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_backup.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_backup.py:12: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_______________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_config.py ________________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_config.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_config.py:17: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *___________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_config_crontab.py ____________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_config_crontab.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_config_crontab.py:21: in <module> import pyfakefs.fake_filesystem_unittest as pyfakefs_ut E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyfakefs' *_____________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_configfile.py ______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_configfile.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_configfile.py:15: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_____________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_diagnostics.py _____________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_diagnostics.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_diagnostics.py:16: in <module> import diagnostics # testing target diagnostics.py:24: in <module> import config config.py:41: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_____________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_encfstools.py ______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_encfstools.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_encfstools.py:11: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *________________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_mount.py ________________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_mount.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_mount.py:18: in <module> import pyfakefs.fake_filesystem_unittest as pyfakefs_ut E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyfakefs' *_________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_plugin_usercallback.py _________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_plugin_usercallback.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_plugin_usercallback.py:23: in <module> import pluginmanager pluginmanager.py:13: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_______________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_restore.py _______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_restore.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_restore.py:17: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_________________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_sid.py _________________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_sid.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_sid.py:16: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *_____________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_snapshotlog.py _____________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_snapshotlog.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_snapshotlog.py:11: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *______________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_snapshots.py ______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_snapshots.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_snapshots.py:23: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_snapshots_autoremove.py _________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_snapshots_autoremove.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_snapshots_autoremove.py:31: in <module> import pyfakefs.fake_filesystem_unittest as pyfakefs_ut E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyfakefs' *______________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_sshtools.py _______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_sshtools.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_sshtools.py:18: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *____________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_takeSnapshot.py _____________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_takeSnapshot.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_takeSnapshot.py:17: in <module> from test import generic test/generic.py:27: in <module> import tools tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *________________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_tools.py ________________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_tools.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_tools.py:28: in <module> import pyfakefs.fake_filesystem_unittest as pyfakefs_ut E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyfakefs' *____________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_uniquenessset.py ____________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/common/test/test_uniquenessset.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_uniquenessset.py:15: in <module> import pyfakefs.fake_filesystem_unittest as pyfakefs_ut E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pyfakefs' *====================================================================== short test summary info ======================================================================* ERROR test/test_applicationinstance.py ERROR test/test_argparser.py ERROR test/test_backintime.py ERROR test/test_backup.py ERROR test/test_config.py ERROR test/test_config_crontab.py ERROR test/test_configfile.py ERROR test/test_diagnostics.py ERROR test/test_encfstools.py ERROR test/test_mount.py ERROR test/test_plugin_usercallback.py ERROR test/test_restore.py ERROR test/test_sid.py ERROR test/test_snapshotlog.py ERROR test/test_snapshots.py ERROR test/test_snapshots_autoremove.py ERROR test/test_sshtools.py ERROR test/test_takeSnapshot.py ERROR test/test_tools.py ERROR test/test_uniquenessset.py !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interrupted: 20 errors during collection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ======================================================================== *20 errors*in 0.45s ========================================================================= make: *** [Makefile:615: unittest] Error 2 *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ echo $PYTHONPATH *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ python --version Python 3.12.3 *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ which python /usr/bin/python *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ ls -l /usr/bin/python lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 Jun 13 2023*/usr/bin/python* ->*python3* *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ which python3 /usr/bin/python3 *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ ls -l /usr/bin/python3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Aug 7 2024*/usr/bin/python3* ->*python3.12* *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ ls -l /usr/bin/python3.12 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8019136 Feb 4 06:48*/usr/bin/python3.12* *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ /usr/bin/python3.12 --version Python 3.12.3 *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ python Python 3.12.3 (main, Feb 4 2025, 14:48:35) [GCC 13.3.0] on linux Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information. >>> import pyfakefs >>> import dbus >>> print(dbus.__file..) File "<stdin>", line 1 print(dbus.__file..) ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> print(dbus.__file__) /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/dbus/__init__.py >>> print(pyfakefs.__file__) /usr/local/lib/python3.12/dist-packages/pyfakefs/__init__.py >>> print(pyfakefs.__version__) 5.8.0 >>> What makes this strange in my mind is that if I use a little bash magic, then testing works fine. *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$for P in test/test*.py; do echo "|+|+|+|+| $P |+|+|+|+|+|"; python -m pytest $P; done |+|+|+|+| test/test_applicationinstance.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 19 items * test/test_applicationinstance.py................... [100%] ======================================================================== *19 passed*in 0.11s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_argparser.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 21 items * test/test_argparser.py..................... [100%] ======================================================================== *21 passed*in 1.01s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_backintime.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 3 items * test/test_backintime.py... [100%] ========================================================================= *3 passed*in 3.21s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_backup.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 15 items * test/test_backup.py............... [100%] ======================================================================== *15 passed*in 0.54s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_config_crontab.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 3 items * test/test_config_crontab.py... [100%] ========================================================================= *3 passed*in 0.08s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_configfile.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 54 items * test/test_configfile.py...................................................... [100%] ======================================================================== *54 passed*in 0.09s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_config.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 17 items * test/test_config.py................. [100%] ======================================================================== *17 passed*in 0.32s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_diagnostics.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 5 items * test/test_diagnostics.py..... [100%] ========================================================================= *5 passed*in 0.15s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_encfstools.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 1 item * test/test_encfstools.py. [100%] ========================================================================= *1 passed*in 0.06s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_languages.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 2 items * test/test_languages.py.. [100%] ========================================================================= *2 passed*in 0.01s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_lint.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 6 items * test/test_lint.pyssssss [100%] ======================================================================== *6 skipped*in 0.01s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_mount.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 7 items * test/test_mount.py....... [100%] ========================================================================= *7 passed*in 0.11s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_plugin_usercallback.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 9 items * test/test_plugin_usercallback.py......... [100%] ========================================================================= *9 passed*in 2.36s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_restore.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 11 items * test/test_restore.py.........ss[100%] =================================================================== *9 passed*,2 skippedin 1.44s ==================================================================== |+|+|+|+| test/test_schedule.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 2 items * test/test_schedule.py.. [100%] ========================================================================= *2 passed*in 0.01s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_sid.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 43 items * test/test_sid.py........................................... [100%] ======================================================================== *43 passed*in 0.19s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_singleton.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 3 items * test/test_singleton.py... [100%] ========================================================================= *3 passed*in 0.01s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_snapshotlog.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 10 items * test/test_snapshotlog.py.......... [100%] ======================================================================== *10 passed*in 0.09s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_snapshots_autoremove.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 20 items * test/test_snapshots_autoremove.py.................... [100%] ======================================================================== *20 passed*in 0.16s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_snapshots.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 45 items * test/test_snapshots.py.........................................ssss[100%] =================================================================== *41 passed*,4 skippedin 0.33s =================================================================== |+|+|+|+| test/test_sshtools.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 36 items * test/test_sshtools.pysssssssssssssssssssss..s.ssssss..... [100%] =================================================================== *8 passed*,28 skippedin 0.49s =================================================================== |+|+|+|+| test/test_takeSnapshot.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 18 items * test/test_takeSnapshot.py.........sssssssss[100%] =================================================================== *9 passed*,9 skippedin 1.52s ==================================================================== |+|+|+|+| test/test_tools.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 64 items * test/test_tools.py................................................................ [100%] ======================================================================== *64 passed*in 1.47s ========================================================================= |+|+|+|+| test/test_uniquenessset.py |+|+|+|+|+| *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/common plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 7 items * test/test_uniquenessset.py....... [100%] ========================================================================= *7 passed*in 0.06s ========================================================================= *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/common$ Also, CONTRIBUTING.md has an instruction to test the GUI, this doesn't do anything (as of this writing) *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/qt$ make test make: Nothing to be done for 'test'. *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/qt$ pwd /home/jeffs/software/backintime/qt *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/qt$ make test make: Nothing to be done for 'test'. *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/qt$ But in fact, you have some tests in there. And here I run into the same problem. There is something that pytest does to the PYTHONPATH or something like that. This works: *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/qt$ python -m pytest test/ *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-7.4.4, pluggy-1.4.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/qt plugins: pyfakefs-5.8.0 *collected 9 items * test/test_lint.pysssss[ 55%] test/test_statedata.py.... [100%] =================================================================== *4 passed*,5 skippedin 0.03s ==================================================================== ** But this does not: *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/qt$ pytest test/ *======================================================================== test session starts ========================================================================* platform linux -- Python 3.12.3, pytest-8.3.2, pluggy-1.5.0 rootdir: /home/jeffs/software/backintime/qt *collected 5 items / 1 error * ============================================================================== ERRORS =============================================================================== *______________________________________________________________ ERROR collecting test/test_statedata.py ______________________________________________________________* ImportError while importing test module '/home/jeffs/software/backintime/qt/test/test_statedata.py'. Hint: make sure your test modules/packages have valid Python names. Traceback: /usr/lib/python3.12/importlib/__init__.py:90: in import_module return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level) test/test_statedata.py:13: in <module> import statedata # noqa: E402 statedata.py:20: in <module> import tools # noqa: E402 ../common/tools.py:63: in <module> import dbus E ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'dbus' -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Captured stderr -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING: 'import keyring' failed with: ModuleNotFoundError("No module named 'keyring'") *====================================================================== short test summary info ======================================================================* ERROR test/test_statedata.py !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interrupted: 1 error during collection !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ========================================================================= *1 error*in 0.10s ========================================================================== *jeffs@frmwrk16*:~/software/backintime/qt$ My understanding is that running python the with -m pytest option is equivalent to running pytest, obviously, my understanding is wrong. Thank you for your kind assistance. Jeff Silverman jeffsilverm(a)gmail.com

2 1

Archive Snapshots to Removable Disk?
by Tim Evans March 17, 2025

March 17, 2025

I'd like to archive one or more snapshots to removable disk from time to time. Not sure simply copying the snapshot's directory over would be the right way to do this? So, I created a one-off profile with the snapshot's destination on the removable disk. Ran it manually (via the GUI). Then, when I tried to unmount the removable disk, it was reported "busy." Could only unmount the disk after closing the BiT graphical interface. Presumable, there's some reference to it in BiT's internal database that keeps the disk busy while the GUI is running. What happens when the GUI restarts and doesn't find that snapshot? Yes, I know I can run rsync manually to do this sort of thing, Is that the best, standalone, way of archiving a snapshot? Thanks.

2 1

Your opinion: Wording in tabs of Manage profiles dialog
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 13, 2025

March 13, 2025

Hello together, I plan re-organize the Manage profiles dialog (formally known as Settings). To create some space in its tab-bar I would like to join the Include and Exclude tab. But I am looking for a good label for those new tab. A simple "Include & Exclude" does not help because it is to long. What do you think about "Selection"? In German than it would be "Auswahl". Do you see other alternatives? Regards, Christian

2 1

BIT - Credits as a translator
by Mališa Jevremović March 10, 2025

March 10, 2025

Hello! I read on the this github page <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1915> that I should let somebody know if and how I would like to be credited as a translator. I am not sure how or who i should contact for this. I hope somebody here would advise me. Thanks in advance! Mit freundlichen Grüßen, / With kind regards, Herr/Mr Mališa Jevremović Email: *maki.malisa(a)gmail.com <maki.malisa(a)gmail.com>*

2 1

Release 1.5.4 is scheduled for March 25th
by Christian Buhtz March 10, 2025

March 10, 2025

Hello, the release of version 1.5.4 is scheduled for March 25th. That version will make it into the upcoming Debian 13 "Trixie" and all its derived GNU/Linux distributions. The second release candidate is still open for testing [1]. The translation completeness increased but there is still some work to do [2]. Regards, Christian Buhtz [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.4-rc2> [2] -- <https://translate.codeberg.org/engage/backintime/>

1 0

Release Candidate 1.5.4-rc1 targeted for Debian 13 "Trixie"
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 25, 2025

Feb. 25, 2025

Hello, I am happy to announce a new Release Candidate in preparation for the Back In Time release version 1.5.4 which is targeted for the upcoming Debian release version 13 (Trixie) this summer. Please report back if you use it, even if no issues are found. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.4-rc1> This version is set to be released with Debian 13 (Trixie) this early summer and will remain available for the long lifetime of that Debian version. EncFS, used for encrypted profiles, has been marked as deprecated and is schedule for removal in 2026. The Smart & Auto remove GUI has been reorganized and renamed into "Remove & Retention", with improvements to the user manual section. Its behavior remains unchange. An offset minute can now be configured for hourly schedule options. Some config file fields have been moved to a newly introduced state file. License and copyright information is now provided in machine-readable SPDX format, following the REUSE standard. # Contributors This version received extensive support from contributors (in alphabetical order): - @bremnere - David Gibbs @fallingrock - graysky @graysky2 - Samuel More @mooresamuel - Iván Rodríguez @ivanrdgz03 - Peter Sevens @sevens - David Wales @daviewales - Dylan Wilson @dylan-wilson-usq - Also not to be forgotten are the many people who supported the project by testing it, providing feedback, reporting issues, and analyzing problems. # Known major issues open - qt_probing.py may hang with high CPU usage when running Back In Time as root via cron (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1592) - File permissions handling and therefore possible non-differential backups (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/988 & https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/994) # Changelog * Changed: More clear and intense warning about EncFS deprecation and removal (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1904) * Changed: Updated desktop entry files * Changed: Move several values from config file into new introduce state file ($XDG_STATE_HOME/backintime.json) * Changed: Completed license information to conform the REUSE.software and SPDX standards. * Breaking Change: Auto-remove rules "Free inodes" and "Free space" disabled by default (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1976) * Fix!: Smart-remove rule "Keep one snapshots per week or the last week" use calendar weeks * Fix: The width of the fourth column in files view is now saved * Fix: Snapshot compare copy symlink as symlink (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1902) (Peter Sevens @sevens) * Fix: Crash when comparing a snapshot with a symlink pointing to a nonexistent target (Peter Sevens @sevens) * Fix: Crash (KeyError) opening language setup dialog with unknown locale/language * Feature: Open user manual (local if available otherwise online) via Help menu * Feature: Toolbar context menu to display the buttons in different combinations with icons and text (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1105, https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2002) (Samuel Moore @s4moore) * Feature: Add offset minutes to hourly schedules (David Gibbs @fallingrock) * Doc: Remove & Retention (formally known as Auto-/Smart-Remove) with improved GUI and user manual section (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2000) Regards, Christian Buhtz on behalf of the maintenance team

1 1

(no subject)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 24, 2025

Feb. 24, 2025

Hello together, While the new year was coming I thought about summarizing what happened the last year in this project. But because I found way to much stuff, now please allow me to summarize the project progress since 2022 when the new team took over. # Releases, Features & Bugs The first release with the new team involved was 1.3.3 in January 2023. Since then we did seven additional releases, with 1.5.3 in November 2024 as the last.[9] Scrolling through the changelog, most of the entries are related to refactoring code and housekeeping work around the projects infrastructure and documentation. But we also fixed a lot of bugs and improved several other details. - Diagnostic and debug output was improved to support us analyzing bugs. - Continuous improvement of the test suite and usage of linters to force code quality. - Some aspects of the GUI are modified, for example the "Settings" dialog, now renamed to "Manage profiles" dialog. - BIT was adapted to rsyncs new behavior regarding argument protection. - Error handling and logging was improved. - Some bugs around X and Wayland are dealt with. - Migration of Qt from version 5 to 6. - Begin with deprecation of EncFS because of security issues. - The user manual migrated to MkDocs and might be easier to edit for non technical users. - And a lot more ... # Managing Issues, Pull Requests and the overall workflow In the first year (all) ~400 issues where triaged and until now cut into half.[1] All modifications, even those by maintainers, are handled with pull requests (PR).[2] PRs are used to force quality and find errors. In the best days a PR will get reviewed and approved by a second person. But we are seriously lacking reviewers and testers. But we also had several active contributors in different areas, providing bug fixes and new features. To manage on organize issues and PRs, labels and milestones are used. The later is nice to prioritize things. Therefore others can get a good overview of what is coming next. # Facing problems Some PRs are just AI crap. It is not much yet. But it cost some time to identify and deal with it. Every "contributor" throwing unreviewed and untested AI code to our project, is reported to our code hoster. # Translation This is going very well. Moved from Canonical Launchpad to Weblate hosted at Codeberg.org.[3] Weblate is a web frontend, easy to use by non technical users. I did a lot of acquisition in the community, translation forums, and other channels to recruit translators. There where round about 350 translatable strings in the beginning. Because of additional text but also optimization, e.g. break down multi-line text, these are now round about 430 strings. Nearly [10] all strings have screenshots attached to them to give translators more context. # Pulic relation I tried to do public relations for the project in several areas to attract contributors. We got some news articles.[4][5] Wherever it is appropriated I do announce that the project is back alive, and asking for translators and testers. Our traffic statistic at our Microsoft GitHub repo shows constantly round about 100 unique visitors each day. I also tried to attract new contributors and offering mentoring to newbies. I use "Help wanted" and "Good first issue" labels. I updated our documentation for newbies.[6][7] Beside the mailing list, the project now has a Mastodon account[8]. I always tried to establish and keep contact to distro and package maintainers. Regards, Christian [1] -- <https://codeberg.org/buhtz/spielwiese/src/branch/main/bit.md> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CONTRIBUTING.md#what-happen…> [3] -- <https://translate.codeberg.org/engage/backintime/> [4] -- <https://linuxnews.de/back-in-time-is-back/> [5] -- <https://lwn.net/Articles/996720/> [6] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CONTRIBUTING.md> [7] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/FAQ.md#how-to-review-a-pull…> [8] -- <https://fosstodon.org/@backintime> [9] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases> [10] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/2028>

1 0

du command slow over multiple snapshots
by William Seligman Feb. 5, 2025

Feb. 5, 2025

I'll start by acknowledging that is not a bug in backintime. If this is the wrong place to ask this question, please consider leaving a suggestion to where I should ask. I've set up a Linux server to serve as a repository for remote backintime backups for several systems. I'm trying to create a report, for each system's backup, of the amount of disk space used for the latest snapshot (easy, I'll show the command below), and total disk space used for all the snapshots for that system. To the disk space used for the latest snapshot (or any particular snapshot), there's no difficulty. For example: /usr/bin/du -sx /pool/backup/backintime/mysystem.example.com/user/1/last_snapshot/backup/* The problem comes when I want to see the total disk use for `mysystem.example.com`. This command gives the correct answer, as far as I can tell: /usr/bin/du -sx /pool/backup/backintime/mysystem.example.com/ The problem is that while the answer appears to be correct, as the number of snapshots increases, the du command takes longer and longer to execute. For some of the backups with a large number of files, it takes hours for that one du command to execute. My guess is that this has something to do with how du is handling the hard links in order to get that correct answer. Based on my fiddling around, it appears that du is visiting every snapshot directory and going through all of files it finds, even if there are only a few files that differ between snapshots. The result appears to be that if that first `du` command takes ten minutes due to the number of files in the snapshot, the second `du` command takes ten minutes * the number of snapshots. Is my guess correct? Or is this due to something else? Is there any work-around? The purpose of this report I'm creating is to understand how much actual disk space is being used over time for backintime backups. If I found that new snapshots were taking up a lot of space, it would mean the system's user was refreshing a lot of large files in-between snapshots. I'd want to re-evaluate the frequency of their backups or how long backintime retained the snapshots. AlmaLinux 9.5 backintime 1.3.2 I obtained backtime via the EPEL repository: dnf install backintime-qt Disk has: # df -h /pool Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/POOL-pool 17T 5.1T 11T 33% /pool # df -hi /pool Filesystem Inodes IUsed IFree IUse% Mounted on /dev/mapper/POOL-pool 262M 58M 205M 22% /pool -- -- Bill

3 3

Remove & Retention: Improved GUI and added user manual section
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 1, 2025

Feb. 1, 2025

Hi, As discussed earlier I improved the GUI about the Auto-/Smart-Remove feature, now known as Remove & Retention. I also added a section to the user manual. The goal was only to investigate, document and clarify how that feature currently work. To minimize the risk of bugs, the behavior should be kept as it is in this initial step. Despite this step sounds minimal it was much more work than I though in the beginning. The modifications are not merged yet but available via my PR. Feedback is welcome. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/2000> The relevant docu section can be found here in its markdown format: <https://github.com/buhtz/backintime/blob/fix/1976retention/doc/manual/src/r…> Looking forward to your feedback. Regards, Christian

1 0

configuration to execute a plain copy - not a full backup
by FPA Jan. 25, 2025

Jan. 25, 2025

Hello, I'm wondering is it possible configure BiT in a way so that it executes just a plain copy, not a full backup of a file when the file in [Source} is newer then in Destination]? I'm trying to figure that out but didn't find a solution for that. Any help is much appreciated. TIA Back-in-Time v1.4.1-1 - Linus Mintv21.1

2 1

Auto-remove: Request opinions about new GUI and behavior
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 27, 2024

Dec. 27, 2024

Hello Folks, I investigated the current auto-/smart-remove behavior and documented it. I found inconsistent behavior and minor bugs. There is a lot potential to improve and refactoring. Before starting with this I would like to request your opinions and suggestions about the next steps. I prepared a Mockup of the new auto-remove dialog-tab. It should explain all details. It also should be easier to understand for the users. If not please let me know. The overall goal is to make the behavior consistent and easier to understand without the need to read a user manual. So please have a look at this issue for details: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1945#issuecomment-2550610014> I would prefer ongoing discussion in the issue. But of course feel free to use another channel, too. Thank you and regards, Christian

2 6

Distinctive application logo for Back In Time
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 18, 2024

Dec. 18, 2024

Hello, it is a known and long standing topic that Back In Time need its own logo. Beside technical details also license and copyright issues need to be taken into account. The later was often a problem in the past. I created a new (meta) issue outlining all relevant details, including technical and legal aspects to consider. I would appreciate it if someone would review them. I maybe have forgotten something to consider. The goal of this issue is to use it in the designer community (e.g. Inkscape) to ask for contributions. https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1961 Regards, Christian

1 0

New Mastodon account @backintime@fosstodon.org
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 6, 2024

Dec. 6, 2024

Hello, Back In Time now has a Mastodon account @backintime@fosstodon.org [1] that will be used additionally to this mailing list as an announcement channel. Because I was not able to get a free (and working) email account for the project I used my own email to register this Mastodon account. Regards, Christian [1] -- <https://fosstodon.org/@backintime>

2 1

Should BIT warn about "system files" in the backup?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 5, 2024

Dec. 5, 2024

Hello, this is related to a user reporting problems with BIT. But backups his hole system. <https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/1h6x9ci/debian_12_apt_glibc_238_no…> I often encounter problem reports by users backup system files and restoring them back. We do know that BIT and any other backup solution is not intended to do things like this. An image software is better suited for use cases like this. I wonder if BIT might warn users if they try to add files/directories outside from $HOME to there include list? Or simply when starting BIT in root mode the first time there could be a one-time-warning mentioning that BIT is not intended for full system backups and an image software should be used instead. What do you think? Regards, Christian

2 1

Force Bash and/or Sh shell on remote host?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 27, 2024

Nov. 27, 2024

Hello, I need your opinion and expertise in this case. I like to know if my approach to solve the problem is a good idea or not. We have two issues about the problem that the shell (fish & hetzner) on the user's remote server does not support our (bash/sh compatible) commands. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1905> <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1745> Beside this issues I also discussed several approaches to a solution in the German Debian forum. <https://debianforum.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=190714> First of all it is not possible to support "exotic" or all kinds of shells. My solution would be to force the bash and/or sh shell on the remote host using a command structure like this ssh user@server bash -c "foobar" If "bash" is not on the server there will be a clear error message we can redirect to the users. And when setting up a new SSH backup profile several checks are done on the remote server. Checking the availability of bash/sh shell could be one of that checks. Converting our inline shell commands to POSIX conform ones is not a solution. Not all shells in the wild are POSIX conform. To my knowledge most of the inline shell scripts used by BIT are bash conform. Not sure if sh would do it, too. Because of that I would prefer to force bash only in the beginning until we tested everything with sh, too. Regards, Christian

2 3

Your gut feeling about auto remove?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 27, 2024

Nov. 27, 2024

Hello, Please take this as a user survey and answer out of your gut ignoring technical details or wording and translation issues. Looking onto the "Auto-remove" tab you do see this option. "Keep one snapshot per week for the last N weeks" Does this take the current week into account even if it is not yet complete (e.g. today it is Thursday)? Regards, Christian

5 7

Difference between mountLockAquire() and mountProcessLockAcquire()
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 23, 2024

Nov. 23, 2024

Hello, can someone explain to me the difference between the two methods mountLockAquire() and mountProcessLockAcquire() in class MountControl in common/mount.py? I don't get it. I was refactoring common/mount.py::MountControl.checkLocks() and also added some unit tests (PR #1942 [3]). Regards, Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/common/mount.py#L823> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/common/mount.py#L780> [3] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1942>

1 0

Backintime "fix" for slow backups
by Stephen Carr Nov. 23, 2024

Nov. 23, 2024

Dear Bit-Team I have been using BIT for years then in the last month backups took 3 hours and not the usual 20 to 30 minutes. I installed 1.5.3 with no change in the speed - then I remembered that I had tweaked the configuration. Luckily you store the conf file with the backup data so it did a diff of an older (fast) conf and a slow conf. What I had done was enabled nice with rsync (there is a warning) in Expert Options. Backups ate back to the usual 20-30 minutes. Any chance of reporting the clock time taken for a backup and store in in the info file? Thanks Stephen carr

2 2

Is BiT suitable for archive backups of Timeshift snapshots?
by zahlman Nov. 20, 2024

Nov. 20, 2024

Currently, I have a separate partition for `/home`, and I allow Timeshift to store snapshots there. I have external media, but they're rarely connected - so they wouldn't be suitable targets for Timeshift's normal operation. I had the thought that from time to time it would be a good idea to back up my Timeshift snapshots explicitly on another physical drive. Naively, I tried running BiT as root (since the `timeshift` folder is owned by root), and setting up a profile to back up `/home/timeshift`, with no exclusions (reasoning that everything in there is there for a reason and might be needed if it were used for a system restore). I pretty promptly ran into the issue described in https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1003, which surprised me because if the log file is in `/root/.local` then it should be underneath `/home/timeshift`. But I guess that the snapshot contains symlinks to things in the running system and rsync tries to follow those. More worryingly, *the drive was still active* after I received the error message in the terminal (and the GUI stopped updating, and a "failed" marker file appeared in the backup folder). It was still active for several seconds after I quit BiT. (Fortunately this was on a new drive with tons of room, so no risk of exhausting the disk.) I also found https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1583 which makes it sound like maybe this isn't supposed to be possible, if people are arguing to exclude "snapshots" by default.... Is backing up `/timeshift` folders a supported use case? Are specific file-pattern exclusions necessary; and wouldn't they cause a problem with restoring from the backup (or rsyncing back to the original snapshot folder)? Would it have actually worked despite the one error message, such that I should have just let it run (it seems like rsyncing literally millions of files, most of them being hard links, would have been rather slow)? Are symlinks a problem, and if so how would I work around it? Karl Knechtel {:>

2 2

Release 1.5.3
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 13, 2024

Nov. 13, 2024

Hello, Please allow me to announce the new and fresh release of Back In Time. The minimum supported Python version has been raised to 3.9. The user manual has migrated to a new format and build system, now including sections on user callbacks and detailed example scripts. The code base has undergone extensive refactoring. FCron support has been added. The English strings in the GUI have been optimized. Serbian language is now available in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. Interlingua (Occidental) has been introduced as a new language. The libnotify-bin (notify-send) dependency has been removed, as Back In Time now uses DBus for notifications. See the release info and changelog for more details: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.3> <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGES> Best, Christian Buhtz and the Back In Time team.

1 0

Article about Back In Time on Linux Weekly New (LWN)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 11, 2024

Nov. 11, 2024

Hello, I got in contact with an author from LWN and was interviewed about the project. As the result now we do have a fresh article about it: <https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/996720/d992c6a549e414f4/> Regards, Christian

3 2

This weekend: Release 1.5.3
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 8, 2024

Nov. 8, 2024

Hello, If no one else knows a reasons against it I will release 1.5.3 this weekend 3 weeks after its release candidate. After it I will have a closer look at a pending PR implementing gocryptfs support as a replacement for EncFS. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1897> The plan is to release version 1.6.0 with gocryptfs support as soon as possible. Regards, Christian

1 0

Wording: "Snapshot" or "Backup"?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 6, 2024

Nov. 6, 2024

Hello folks, I am interested in your opinions about this. Looking into my foggy memory it seems that I somehow asked this question before. But I couldn't find out when and where. So my apologize if this is a duplicate. In my experience around BIT I would say that the term "Backup" is more appropriate for what we currently call "Snapshot". So I would like to change that. - For someone not knowing BIT (e.g. potential new users and translators) the term "Backup" is clearer. - Snapshot might be understood by some people as an image of the file system. - When writing about BIT (in Issues, Forums, etc) most of the time I do use the term "backup" out of the stomach without thinking about it. I do understand that "Snapshot" is kind of fancy and points to the timeline feature. But I would prefer to use the technical correct term "Backup" instead of a marketing term. What do you think? Regards, Christian

4 3

Release Candidate for Back In Time 1.5.3
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 1, 2024

Nov. 1, 2024

Hello, I am happy to announce a new Release Candidate in preparation for the Back In Time release version 1.5.3. Please report back if you use it, even if no issues are found. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.3-rc1> Changes: - Extensive code refactoring. - Added support for FCron. - Improved text labels in the graphical interface. - User manual updated. - Serbian language now available in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts. - New language: Interlingua (Occidental). - Minimum supported Python version raised to 3.9. - Removed dependency on libnotify-bin; now using DBus for notifications. We encourage everyone to test this Release Candidate, as it helps ensure a higher-quality final release. Without testing and feedback, creating an RC would be pointless. Your input is essential to improving the project! Thank you very much for support! Christian Buhtz

3 2

First steps to GoCryptFS support
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Oct. 8, 2024

Oct. 8, 2024

Hello, I am pleased to announce that GoCryptFS is on its way to replacing EncFS. David Wales (@daviewales) has resumed the preliminary work of Germar Reitze (@germar) and has opened a pull request [1]. What we need most now are code reviews and testing. Thank you, Christian, one of the maintainers, currently doesn't have much time to review it thoroughly and is therefore grateful for any extra set of eyes. [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1897>

1 0

Does someone manage (un)mounting via user-callback scripts?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Sept. 24, 2024

Sept. 24, 2024

Hello, Does someone of you manage mounting and unmouting via user-callback scripts and provide this as an example? Or can someone imagine a possible use case where it would make sense do manage mounting via user-callback script? But without root rights. Thanks Christian

2 1

User-callback example scripts: Where to store them?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Sept. 23, 2024

Sept. 23, 2024

Hello, I would like to integrate the "user-callback" repo into the "backintime" repo. There are some example scripts in that repo. The question is where they should be stored in the "backintime" repo. Currently there is the folder "doc/manual" containing the user manual. That manual will also include a section about user-callback. So it might be a good idea to store the example scripts inside it; e.g. "doc/manual/user-callback-examples". Or another location? We also do have an open Debian bug report asking for that scripts to being installed somewhere. Where should they go on a Debian system? https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=985257 What do you think? Thank you for your opinions and input. Christian

2 1

Error '"com.ubuntu.DeviceDriver.PermissionDeniedByPolicy: net.launchpad.backintime.UdevRuleSave"
by yctct＠yctct.com Sept. 22, 2024

Sept. 22, 2024

Hi Bit maintainers, In Backintime GUI, when I click on the folder icon under 'Where to save snapshots' in the 'General' of Main Profile[3], an error message pop ups in small window: com.ubuntu.DeviceDriver.PermissionDeniedByPolicy: net.launchpad.backintime.UdevRuleSave I saw the error was already reported by a user on the repository[1]. Also, aryoda wrote: > It would also be helpful to post this log output here (for other users > with the same problem to find this issue and because I am curious ;-) Here is the output of journalctl: $ journalctl --since "30 minute ago" | grep -i backintime [...] Sep 22 10:29:35 redacted python3[2345]: backintime-qt (redacted/1): ERROR: Failed to get crontab lines: 1, no crontab for redacted Sep 22 10:29:35 redacted python3[2345]: backintime-qt (redacted/1): ERROR: com.ubuntu.DeviceDriver.PermissionDeniedByPolicy: net.launchpad.backintime.UdevRuleSave [...] I also reported the error to Trisquel GNU/Linux maitainers. I use Trisquel. https://trisquel.info/en/forum/backintime-error-when-i-try-update-snapshot-… $ backintime -v backintime 1.2.1 $ uname -a Linux x220 5.15.0-121-generic #131+11.0trisquel30 SMP Sun Sep 15 21:38:45 UTC 2024 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux Let me know if more information would be useful to you. Roman https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1719

2 1

Migrating to Codeberg?
by Mark Johnno Sept. 19, 2024

Sept. 19, 2024

Hello bit maintainers & contributors, would migrating to Codeberg from Github be a possibility? I was a bit reluctant to ask this question because I am not a maintainer, and this decision belongs to the maintainers, that said, I have reported some bugs and feedback via Github's issue in the past - and I am really appreciated the responses and questions from maintainers. I no longer can do so because I deleted my Github account. I am no longer confortable using Github (i.e. a proprietary software running on the servers of a privately owned company). I would be confortable again to report (small) hiccups I see (BiT works really well overall) if the repository was hosted on the server of non-profit, for example Codeberg e.V., running a copyleft-licensed software, e.g. Forgejo. If you are wondering what the migration takes, this https://docs.codeberg.org/advanced/migrating-repos/ documents how to migrate from Github to Codeberg (or any other Gitea/Forgejo instances). There is a feature to migrate Issues ("the migration tool can not only migrate your repository data, but also metadata like issues, labels, wiki, releases, milestones, etc"). Again, I imagine the decision belongs to maintainers. Please take this email as an input to the conversation on whether BiT should migrate away from Github.

2 2

"Cannot render with an inactive painter" ?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Sept. 17, 2024

Sept. 17, 2024

Hello, Does someone still experience the error "Cannot render with an inactive painter" in Back In Time version 1.3.4 or higher? The question is in relation to that issue. https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1404 Issue can be closed if the error is gone. Best, Christian

1 0

Request to review PR "Reset cached SSH password when changed" (#1859)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Sept. 15, 2024

Sept. 15, 2024

Hello Folks, There is an open but read to merge pull request I would like to have reviewed by someone else. David Wales improved the behavior around cached SSH passwords. Because I am not much into that topic I would be glad if someone else could have a look on it before I am merging it. The PR https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1859 Related Issue https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1852 Thanks in advance, Christian Buhtz

1 0

New user manual
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Sept. 12, 2024

Sept. 12, 2024

Hello Folks, with a lot of help from Kosta Vukicevic (stcksmsh) I am in the middle of migrating our user manual from "Sphinx" to "MkDocs" build system. Please see this (test) URL for the new manual: https://backintime-buhtz.readthedocs.io And in comparison this current (old) one: https://backintime.readthedocs.io The content has not changed yet, just the layout and the build system. The advantage is that MkDocs is easier to handle from the perspective as an author (markdown based, live preview via local webserver) and maintainer. It is also an opportunity to move the manual repository "bit-team/doc" into the main repository "bit-team/backintime". The new manual instance is currently build from "buhtz/backintime" repo's branch "RTDmkdocs". When the setup is final we can start to integrate new content in the manual. Let me know what you think about it? Best, Christian Buhtz

2 1

Why is host/user/profile in the snapshot path?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Sept. 10, 2024

Sept. 10, 2024

Hello, the values "host", "user" and "profile" are not fixed in the settings/manage profiles dialog, but they are always used in the snapshot path. Does someone has an idea why it is that way? Is there a technical reason we this needs to be done? Would it hurt, if this fields would just disappear? Ignore backwards compatibility for this question. Related issues: "Allow customisation of the backup location path" <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1795> "Allow disabling of Host/User/Profile etc nesting" <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1304> Best, Christian Buhtz

3 3

Can't access snapshot folder (because of permission problems?) on headiess server
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Aug. 20, 2024

Aug. 20, 2024

Hi, this is the first time I try to configure and run BIT (v1.5.2 from git repo) on a headless server. I get the errors like that in the debug output: DEBUG: [common/snapshots.py:851 backup] Cannot start snapshot yet: target directory not accessible. Waiting 1s. INFO: [common/snapshots.py:861 Snapshots.backup] Waited 29 seconds for target directory to be available WARNING: [common/snapshots.py:866 Snapshots.backup] Can't find snapshots folder! I am assuming that my BIT config is correct, but I am not sure. I am assuming that my permissions are not correct. But they do look OK for me and I can create files and folders in it. backup@OLAF:/mnt$ ls -ld /mnt/Nerys drwxrwxr-x 4 admin backup 4096 18. Aug 13:26 /mnt/Nerys backup@OLAF:/mnt$ ls -l /mnt/Nerys insgesamt 20 drwx------ 2 root root 16384 17. Aug 17:23 lost+found backup@OLAF:/mnt$ touch /mnt/Nerys/foo backup@OLAF:/mnt$ mkdir /mnt/Nerys/bar backup@OLAF:/mnt$ ls -l /mnt/Nerys insgesamt 20 drwxr-xr-x 2 backup backup 4096 18. Aug 13:26 bar -rw-r--r-- 1 backup backup 0 18. Aug 13:32 foo drwx------ 2 root root 16384 17. Aug 17:23 lost+found Any ideas? Best Christian

2 4

Someone with experiences in CircleCI, WoodpeckerCI or other CI
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Aug. 12, 2024

Aug. 12, 2024

Hello, do we have someone who is experienced in CI systems like CircleCI or WoodpeckerCI? Microsoft GitHub Actions is not on option and out of discussion. Our TravisCI is working but not reliable. This weekend I merged several PRs but TravisCI didn't work because the jobs are "queued" for ever and never started. This is just one of the problems I often have. I know that CircleCI is a commercial product but they offer FreePlans for FOSS projects. WoodpeckerCI is offered by codeberg.org and totally free for us. We can stick to TravisCI. But if we have someone with experience in another CI I would like to test it. We just need someone translating our travis config into the other CI system. Best, Christian

1 0

Release 1.5.2 in upcoming Ubuntu 24.10 (Oracular Oriole)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Aug. 11, 2024

Aug. 11, 2024

Hello, I am glad to announce release version 1.5.2 of Back In Time. This release just fixes some bugs. See the changelog and release section for more details. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGES> <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.2> Yesterday that release arrived in Debian unstable and because of that will be included in the upcoming Ubuntu release 24.10 (Oracular Oriole) at October 10th. Best, Christian Buhtz and the Back In Time team.

1 0

Release 1.5.0
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 26, 2024

July 26, 2024

Hello, I am glad to announce release of version 1.5.0 of Back In Time today. This release increase the Qt version used from 5 to 6. As a new feature SSH proxy (aka jump host) can be used. For more details see the changelog. EncFS is marked as deprecated (#1734). BIT warns if Cron is not running. See the changelog and release section for more details. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CHANGES> <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.5.0> Several new contributors where involved in this release. Thank you to all of them, several issues could be fixed and the code quality increased. Also several new translators and former translators updating their translations to fit to the latest development. Thank you to them the increased to 82 %. And thank you to the users for reporting issues and giving feedback. Best, Christian Buhtz and the Back In Time team.

1 0

Question about symlinks
by Artem July 12, 2024

July 12, 2024

Hello. I try to use BackInTime 1.4.1-1 for synchronizing files between two machines. Some synchronized files/folders located in different places (for example on other drive mounted in /media/user/...). Therefore i made symlinks to them and added to BackInTime include list. Also I enabled 'Copy links' in 'Expert options'. Taking snapshot works well, but restoring not quite - program replaces symlinks with restored files. How to tell it to replace real file on which symlink points to? Logfile: https://pastebin.com/uSzpX9Hi

3 4

Review of messages to users about EncFS-deprecation
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 26, 2024

June 26, 2024

Hello folks, I do need some help to review some simple message to our users. We discussed in the past about removing or replacing EncFs and now have an meta issue about it. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1734> One of the first steps to get this done is to implement some kind of deprecation warnings for the users into the next upcoming release. <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1735> That issue contain drafts of three messages for users appearing in three different situations or locations in the GUI. It would be nice if you could review them and give me some feedback. I would like to implement this as soon as possible until the end of July, to get the strings translated and prepare for the next release in the end of July to reach the next Ubuntu release. Thanks in advance, Christian Buhtz

1 0

Transition: Removal of encryption feature until year 2029/30
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 4, 2024

June 4, 2024

Hello, We decided to deactivate and finally remove EncFS from Back In Time gradually over the next five years in a user-friendly manner. There is a Meta-Issue about the details, reasons and time plan [1]. We warmly invite you to participate in the process by providing feedback and suggestions on how to proceed and highlighting any potential issues we may not have considered. Beside the details one main point of discussion is not finally decided. We appreciate if you would give us feedback and your thoughts about it. In the current state of discussion it is preferred not to replace EncFS with an alternative library (e.g. GoCrypt) but to use encryption on file system level (e.g. LUKS) and improve BIT in a way to easier handle file systems like this. The discussion started in a previous thread here in the mailing list [2]. Beside the Meta-Issue [1] mentioned there are two open issues related to the first step in this process. One is about formulating the deprecation warnings and information for the users [3]. The other is about doing research if we need to and how we can improve BIT to handle encrypted file systems (e.g. LUKS) managed by the operating system [4]. [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1734> [2] -- <https://mail.python.org/archives/list/bit-dev@python.org/message/D2GXCCVUAV…> [3] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1735> [4] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1736>

1 0

Announcement: Removal of the "debian" Folder
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 4, 2024

June 4, 2024

Dear Debian and PPA Package Maintainers, We would like to inform you that the "debian" folder is going to be removed from the upstream repository. This change affects all deb-based packages that you maintain and build. If you have been using the "debian" folder, for example, to offer a PPA, you can continue to use it. However, please adjust your workflows accordingly and ensure that the folder is now managed independently in your own repository. Related PullRequest: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1733> Related Issue: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1548> Best regards, Christian Buhtz

1 0

Where to put images for README.md, FAQ.md, CONTRIBUTING.md and other docs in our Github repo?
by BiT dev May 15, 2024

May 15, 2024

To fix an issue I want to add a screen shot to our FAQ.md. Into which folder shall I put the screen shot file in our Github repo? I would suggest one of these names as new folder under root - assets - images - pics - res(ources) What are your proposals? PS: Moving all *.md into a separate repo would also work (to separate code from docs) but requires more work to do I guess (move files + add and change links)

3 7

Does Back In Time need encryption?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 7, 2024

May 7, 2024

Hello, this is an X-Post [1]. The background of this discussion is about marking EncFS as deprecated because of security issues and remove it in some years if no contributor jumps in to replace it with something else (e.g. GoCrypt). It's just a thought that came to mind. It's not a concrete suggestion. But of course, I'm interested in your opinion on it. Isn't it one of the key features of BIT, compared to other backup tools, that you can access the backup itself without using your backup tool? The backup is just a bunch of files and folders you can use and investigate with your regular file system tools. But when you use EncFS (or another way of encryption) this features is lost. I have not used EncFS in the wild. I might be wrong. If EncFS really is the reason for losing this feature I ask myself if it wouldn't be "better" for BIT to really remove EncFS and not replace it with something else. It would give BIT a more focused set of features and behavior. Encryption is another job a user should achieve with another tool; e.g. encrypted file system container or an encrypted filesystem (some LUKS magic). I am aware that there are lot of backup tools out there offering encryption. But these tools producing a backup in a format that can be used (and restored) only with the backup tool itself. So this is a another group of users targeted here. Marking EncFS as deprecated and reading the reactions of users about it will give us an idea about how much needed such a feature is. Best, Christian Buhtz [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1549#issuecomment-2095373077>

4 4

Stopping bit leaves new_snapshot directory
by David Gibbs April 12, 2024

April 12, 2024

Guys: Today I was running a manual backup and realized i wanted to change a setting ... so I killed the running backup using the GUI, made the change, and kicked it off again. After a while, I started getting a flood of notifications from notify-send like this: [E] Error: rsync: [generator] link "/media/davidg/backupdrive/backintime/L127014/davidg/1/new_snapshot/backup/home/davidg/applications/Postman/app/resources/app/node_modules/neo-async/forEachOf.js" => ../../20240411-120001-713/backup/home/davidg/applications/Postman/app/resources/app/node_modules/neo-async/forEachOf.js failed: File exists (17) I looked at the backup drive and saw the new_snapshot directory from the previous backup still existed. I removed the directory, restarted the backup, and it worked fine. I looked through the code to see if we trapped the termination signal but couldn't find anything. Perhaps we should be trapping that signal and deleting the new_snapshot directory if the backup is terminated? David

1 2

Re: mod Fw: Snapshot directory duplicated, permission denied
by Mark Johnno March 23, 2024

March 23, 2024

Hello Christian and all, Thank you for the questions. > Might it be that you used an older BIT than 1.2.1 before? Or another Ubuntu version? I don't remember what was the version of BiT on my system before I upgraded. I was on Trisquel Nabia, based on Ubuntu 20.04; now I am on Trisquel Aramo, based on Ubuntu 22.04. > Or you used that SSD on another machine, too? No. I use this SSD to back up one BiT profile (from one machine only). > Compare the permissions, user- and group names you via "ls -ld" $ ls -ld /media/redacted_username/time-machine drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Feb 26 20:42 /media/redacted_username/time-machine $ ls -ld /media/redacted_username/time-machine1/ drwxrwxrwx 5 redacted_username redacted_username 4096 Sep 3 2023 /media/redacted_username/time-machine1/ Any clue on why a duplicate was created? What are the recommended permissions for /time-machine Mark. On Thursday, March 7th, 2024 at 3:59 PM, c.*****(a)posteo.jp <c.****teo.jp> wrote: > Dear Johnno, > > bit-dev admin here. > > Thanks for your message. I checked on my site and can confirm that you > are a member of the mailing list. > > But there is no held message from you because you didn't sent to the > list itself ("bit-dev(a)python.org") but to "bit-dev-join(a)python.org". The > latter is only for subscribing and other commands. > Send again to "bit-dev(a)python.org" please and it should work. > > Regarding to your original message. Your version of BIT (1.2.1) is quit > outdated and very old. It is the same with Ubuntu 20. Be aware that > Canonical use the term "LTS" for marketing reasons. Ubuntu LTS is not > that LTS and stable as you might think. If you need something stable you > could stick to "Debian stable". > > Might it be that you used an older BIT than 1.2.1 before? Or another > Ubuntu version? > > Or you used that SSD on another machine, too? > > Compare the permissions, user- and group names you via "ls -ld" > > $ ls -ld /media/redactedusername/time-machine1 > $ ls -ld /media/redactedusername/time-machine > > I am not aware of a change that could cause that behavior. But I am not > into all details of BIT. > > I suggest to make a manual backup of that folders. And then modify the > folder permissions. > > Thanks Christian > > Am 07.03.2024 13:56 schrieb Mark Johnno: > > > Hello BiT contributor, > > > > I sent a message a week ago which I think was not approved (yet) - see > > below. > > > > Is there something wrong with the message? > > > > Thanks for reading my mail. > > Mark. > > > > > ------- Forwarded Message ------- > > > From: Mark Johnno lua8ds(a)proton.me > > > > > > Date: On Wednesday, February 28th, 2024 at 6:39 PM > > > Subject: Snapshot directory duplicated, permission denied > > > To: bit-dev-join(a)python.org bit-dev-join(a)python.org > > > > > > > Hi everyone, > > > > > > > > The directory where snapshots live was duplicated - coincidentally that is the first time I plug my external SSD (where snapshots live) to my computer after an upgrade from Trisquel Nabia 10.0 (based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)) to Aramo 11.0 (Jammy Jellyfish). > > > > > > > > This is the usual path to BiT on the external SSD: > > > > /media/redactedusername/time-machine/backintime/ > > > > > > > > This is the duplicated path: > > > > /media/redactedusername/time-machine1/backintime/ > > > > > > > > $ backintime backup > > > > > > > > Back In Time > > > > Version: 1.2.1 > > > > > > > > Back In Time comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. > > > > This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it > > > > under certain conditions; type `backintime --license' for details. > > > > > > > > INFO: Lock > > > > INFO: Take a new snapshot. Profile: 1 Main profile > > > > ERROR: /media/redactedusername/time-machine/backintime/x220/redactedusername/1 does not exist > > > > notify-send -t 30000 Back In Time () : Main profile Can't find snapshots folder. If it is on a removable drive please plug it. Waiting 30 seconds. > > > > ERROR: /media/redactedusername/time-machine/backintime/x220/redactedusername/1 does not exist > > > > [...] > > > > WARNING: Can't find snapshots folder! > > > > INFO: Unlock > > > > > > > > I can list all the snapshots of the duplicated directory: > > > > $ ls /media/redactedusername/time-machine1/backintime/x220/redactedusername/1/ > > > > Display all 586 possibilities? > > > > > > > > I do not have permission to list: > > > > $ ls /media/redactedusername/time-machine/ > > > > ls: cannot open directory '/media/redactedusername/time-machine/': Permission denied > > > > > > > > Has something changed with the version of BiT distributed with Jammy Jellyfish from the one available with Focal Fossa? I am wondering whether I should update the permission of /media/redactedusername/time-machine/ but I am also wondering why a duplicate /media/redactedusername/time-machine1/ was created. This duplicate confuses me - I am not sure what to do. > > > > > > > > Any help would be welcomed. > > > > > > > > Joh.

2 3

Impact of not having "dbus.mainloop.pyqt6"
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 11, 2024

March 11, 2024

Hi, what is the impact for BIT if "dbus.mainloop.pyqt6" is not available? It is imported in "qt/serviceHelper.py". It seems that BIT still starts. Is the service helper related to systray notifications? Kind Christian

2 2

pyqt6 on ubuntu?
by David Gibbs March 10, 2024

March 10, 2024

Folks: I just tried to build & install bit on my kde neon (ubuntu jammy) machine using deb's, but it couldn't find the python3-pyqt6 package. Any suggestions on how to install the package so apt won't complain? Thanks! David

4 7

Compare Snapshots
by lioh.moeller＠gmx.net March 8, 2024

March 8, 2024

Hi all, I would like to compare two Snapshots. Within the compare options there is listed false as default command. But even if I change it to let's say diff, the compare function does not seem to do anything. Greetings Lioh

2 2

Backintime (root) not working
by sgcarr＠gmail.com Feb. 26, 2024

Feb. 26, 2024

Description On 25 February I noticed that backintime (root) had not done any backups since 18 February so I attempted to do manual snapshots using both options all I got was "Done No backup needed.". I even set the logging option to All - there was no data. That was with version 1.4.1 so I manually installed version 1.4.3. the problem persisted. I am running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. The problem was resolved by doing a reboot - I went to check bactintime (root) and it was working - it took 30 minutes. The have been no problems with the non root backintime backups. My suspicion is that a reboot occurred during a backintime (root) backup . The reboot may have been requested a Ubuntu update, I rarely reboot the cystem. I have the configuration option set so that only one backup job at a time can be active. Is backintime (root) capable of handling interruptions caused by a reboot? Is there a lock file that is only cleared after a reboot or completion of a backup? I am willing to do some testing by disabling root backups for a while and then manually start a snapshot and reboot the system while snapshot is running or before the root backup starts - the non root job seems to run first. Thanks to all Stephen Carr

2 1

git: Can not see upstream tags on my local repo
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 8, 2024

Feb. 8, 2024

Hi Folks, hope that someone with git experience can help me here. The upstream BIT repo do has several tags [1]. The "latest" is "v1.4.3". But I can not see this tag in my local repo. There "v1.3.1" is the latest. My forked repo has "v1.3.3" as latest [2]. I have two remotes: $ git remote -v origin git@github.com:buhtz/backintime.git (fetch) origin git@github.com:buhtz/backintime.git (push) upstream git@github.com:bit-team/backintime.git (fetch) upstream git@github.com:bit-team/backintime.git (push) Most of the time I do sync my fork via the GitHub frontend and its "Sync fork" button. In my local repo I do "git fetch --all --prune --tag" and can see that "origin" and "upstream" are checked for new data. That is how I do it. But the tags are not up to date on my local repo. But the commits are. Any idea? Kind Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/tags> [2] -- <https://github.com/buhtz/backintime/tags>

2 1

Announcement: New BiT version 1.4.0 released today
by BiT dev Feb. 1, 2024

Feb. 1, 2024

Dear BiT friends, we have published a new stable BiT release today and as always we are happy to get your feed-back. https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.4.0 Installation instructions: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CONTRIBUTING.md#build--inst… Best regards BiT developer team

2 3

SSH encrypted / EncFS: Some exclude patterns are blue
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 25, 2024

Jan. 25, 2024

Hi Folks, do some of you use BIT with "SSH encrytped" (EncFS) mode? I don't. But I discovered today that some exclude patterns in the settings dialog are highlightend with blue colors. And I don't understand why. I have opened an Issue with screenshots and some code links about it. https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1618 Kind Christian

2 1

Vagrantfiles for Debian 12 and BiT dev
by Michael Büker Jan. 17, 2024

Jan. 17, 2024

Hi all, I'm attaching my newly tested Vagrantfiles for Debian 12 with the backintime dev branch installed (an some minimal configuration in place, so BiT doesn't ask to set up a profile at start), and with buthz' qt6 branch for testing. We don't have an online place to collect these yet, right? Enjoy :) Michael

3 7

Please announce "Good first" and "Help wanted" Issues
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 9, 2024

Jan. 9, 2024

Hello folks, I would like to point you to Issues (bug tickets and feature requests) which are suitable for beginners and novices. They are tagged as "GOOD FIRST ISSUE" and "HELP-WANTED". <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/labels/GOOD%20FIRST%20ISSUE> <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/labels/HELP-WANTED> Beside jumping in yourself please consider announcing this Issues in your community. You might know some people who try to contribute to FOSS projects but still looking for a good first issue. Myself I do announce some of this issues from time to time at reddit. Thanks in advance Christian

1 0

RfC: New repo for collecting reusable issue support scripts and instructions?
by BiT dev Jan. 9, 2024

Jan. 9, 2024

I have a private list of bash and other scripts to support users that opened issues. Should we create a new repo (eg. named "support") to collect those things? It would help - to make it reusable for all of us - make issue support easier by just linking to a script or instructions

3 5

Request to test Qt6 migration
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 8, 2024

Jan. 8, 2024

Hello, I am working on migration of BIT from Qt5 to Qt6 because the support for version 5 ends this year. It would help a lot if you could test this version for bugs related to the migration. Play around with BIT, try to open the windows and dialog. But don't do this on your productive machine. Use a test machine or virtual environment. Clone the specific branch from my BIT fork: $ git clone --branch qt6migration https://github.com/buhtz/backintime.git Follow the install instructions for developers and don't forget to install dependencies (e.g. PyQt6): <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CONTRIBUTING.md#build--inst…> In short: $ cd backintime/common $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install $ cd ../qt $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install There is an issue related to the migration: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1301> I would prefer reports directly to that ticket instead of the mailing list. By the way: If you know how feel free to contribute Qt related unit tests. Currently the GUI code is not covered by any tests. Thanks a lot. Christian

2 3

Working "vagrantfile" for Opensuse Tumbleweed?
by BiT dev Dec. 25, 2023

Dec. 25, 2023

Hi, I am trying to reproduce https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1580 but could not setup a VM via vagrant (mainly: no ready-to-use Gnome-Desktop available at vagrant and gnome segfaults after manual installation via terminal). Could someone with a working "vagrantfile" provide it here please? THX a lot

2 4

New User Question: Running BiT Snapshots via Command Line/Script
by Tim Evans Dec. 12, 2023

Dec. 12, 2023

I have just set up Backintime here, have set up some profiles, and am running snapshot jobs from the GUI; they seem to work fine. Running on a laptop (Fedora 39) with snapshots directed to an NFS-mounted Network Stoarage Applicance (NAS). I do not wish to add an external disk to the laptop, for laptop portability reasons. The laptop is (1) not always turned on and (2) not always at home where the NAS is available, so I need to run the jobs manually and can't use cron jobs. Ideally, I'd like to be able to run the jobs at the bash command line prompt; even better would be to run them via a script. Where/how can I find the full command line that runs a snapshot defined in a profile? Thanks.

3 4

BIT 1.4.1-1: Restore process is not what I expected. Have I misunderstood it ?
by LateJunction Dec. 7, 2023

Dec. 7, 2023

I am having difficulty in setting up backintime-qt to function as I expect; I would appreciate advice from experienced users. I’m running BIT 1.4.1-1 under Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon (based on Ubuntu Jammy), with Kernel 6.2.0-37. Hardware is 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11600, with 32 GiB. /Root and /Home are on separate NVME SSDs. Back up is to a 1TB 7200 rpm HDD. An nVidia 3060 GPU with 12 GiB of memory is installed. This post is about the process of restore, which seems to operate different to my expectation. That expectation is that a file which exists in the ‘original’ location in the file system at the time of restore will be overwritten by the file of the same name from the ‘full’ backup. This will in turn be overwritten by any later files of that file name in the sequence of incremental backups, from oldest to most recent, no matter how many incremental backups there are. The final state of the file will be identical to the newest incremental backup prior to the restore operation. There will be just a single file ‘A’ in the original location.. This is the process that every backup application, using incremental backups, appears to work, according to my understanding of the application descriptions that I have read on Google and YouTube. In contrast. the Man Page, for BIT, under the heading ‘DESCRIPTION’ says: “When you restore a file ‘A’, if it already exists on the file system it will be renamed to ‘A.backup.currentdate’.” I understand ‘currentdate’ to mean ‘current date and time to a sufficient resolution for file name to be unique’ – probably to the millisecond. The manual page statement then implies that after the restore, my data set will contain a file ‘A’ plus as many versions of the file A.backup.currentdate’ as there are unique versions of File A in the incremental backups. This could be 10’s to hundreds of additional file versions for EVERY file in my data set which has been changed in the period from the initial, or ‘full’ backup, to the last incremental backup. This could result in the original file location being filled to capacity, at which point I assume the restore will be terminated. This is not what I want and, more to the point, doesn't seem to be generally desirable. What have I misunderstood?

5 5

Responses to my requests to this mailing list
by Tony Hamilton Dec. 7, 2023

Dec. 7, 2023

I have learned in the last 30 minutes or so that there are responses to my requests to this mailing list. The page I had been solely reliant upon, showing the latest post, does not allow me to see any of these responses, so I had concluded - with disappointment - that there were none. I now know better and apologise for having given the impression that I was ignoring advice I had previously been given. Perhaps it is self-evident to everybody else that I should have been referring to the 'recent activity' page - but it wasn't to me. So perhaps one might draw a conclusion about the end-user effectiveness of this this mailing-list system by 'HyperKitty' - hmm ?

2 2

BIT 1.4.1-1 new install: Why did I lose backups?
by LateJunction Dec. 6, 2023

Dec. 6, 2023

I am having difficulty in setting up backintime-qt to function as I expect; I would appreciate advice from experienced users. I’m running BIT 1.4.1-1 under Linux Mint 21.2 Cinnamon (based on Ubuntu Jammy), with Kernel 6.2.0-37. Hardware is 11th Gen Intel Core i5-11600, with 32 GiB. /Root and /Home are on separate NVME SSDs. Back up is to a 1TB 7200 rpm HDD. An nVidia 3060 GPU with 12 GiB of memory is installed. Yesterday I was able to set up and run BIT to give me backups under profiles 1 and 2 – i.e. in the Advanced section of the Manage profile s window I was able to define snapshots with the Advanced Profile entry set to 1 and then to 2, with different Includes and Excludes of my /Home folder. This was all with the Profile entry at the top of this windows set to ‘Main profile’ – which was the only option I had. After this I then added a profile (which I named) using the Add function and set up a 3rd, different set of includes and excludes. This seemed to execute as I expected. Today, when I looked at the backups, those for ‘Profile 1’ and the named profile that I set up yesterday are nowhere to be found on my system – why is that? This is worrying. The named profile which I had set up and which did run yesterday was large; it backed up the same data as my own, entirely manual backup method using FreeFileSync. I didn’t see the point of having both sets of backups, so I deleted the manually created one. Now I am, for a short window, entirely without this important data backed-up. This does not inspire confidence in BIT. I am further confused by the operation of BIT: I cannot tell (aside from looking at the log for a selected snapshot) which snapshot is the ‘Full’ backup and which are the incremental backups – they are all labelled as ‘snapshots’. I cannot understand how to create a new ‘full’ backup to replace an earlier ‘full’ backup. I need to do this because the data I am producing on my computer is important and complicated: accordingly I have been creating manual backups, using FreeFileSync, on average about every 20 minutes (or less) for about 15 hours a day, every day. If I don’t create a new ‘full’ backup with BIT at least daily I will end up with between 50 and hundreds of incremental backups in the worst case. Restoring such a backup archive is just impractical. What should I be doing differently? I have only just realised that my method of using FreeFileSync, as an incremental backup tool, essentially continually updates an original full backup, ‘on the fly’, so that a restore merely requires me to copy just 1 data set back to the original location. The weakness of this model is that it cannot handle the situation where increment ‘n-1’ is in fact preferable to increment ‘n’ : ‘n-1’ has been overwritten by ‘n’. Any comment? Finally, the backups that are running – accounting for about 44 GiB of data - have taken just over 4 hours to run. I can do a complete manual update of my whole system, including the files in /Root, totaling about 695 GiB, in about 30 minutes using FreeFileSync. What am I doing wrong that BIT takes so long, even with checksums, on this reasonably quick computer?

3 2

Why doesn’t BIT make an incremental backup?
by LateJunction Dec. 6, 2023

Dec. 6, 2023

I created a ‘full’ backup against my most important folder tree – about 250 GiB, containing about 50K items. It took far longer than I expected, but did complete. I did not use checksum. I did specify that the folder tree was to be checked for changes every 12 minutes. I then made a single file change as a test – an important change to an important file. 4 hours later BIT had still not made an incremental backup, but rsync has been running, consuming about 1% of my reasonably fast CPU throughout that time. A simple running of FreeFileSync comparing the current folder tree with the full backup made 4 hours ago immediately shows the one file I changed, but BIT has not seen it – meaning that this change might be lost if I restore my ‘original’ folder tree now. This loss of data is not what I expected. Why does it happen? I also notice that BIT did not backup a file of type .kra~ (a Krita file). This too appears to be an example of data lost by BIT. Why did that happen?

4 3

How to respond to an email request from aBIT developer without using email?
by Tony Hamilton Dec. 6, 2023

Dec. 6, 2023

In response to a bug report I submitted (concerning BIT repeatedly snap shotting an unchanged file) I received an email from Christian Buhtz: "Please do not answer via mail but use the formatting options of Microsoft GitHub using code blocks. This makes it much easier for us to read your terminal output." OK, I understand the request and accept my mistake - I'm not an expert in anything. But now I am in deeper trouble: the expression "...use the formatting options of Microsoft GitHub using code blocks." uses well-formed, grammatically correct, English but its meaning is completely beyond me. Where do I go to get this translated into something I might understand? More-over, if I must not use email, what other form of communication should I use to provide the requested information - this mailing list? But how would I be sure that the information goes to the person requesting it? I am further admonished by: "IT seems to me you don't carefully read what we write. We invest our spare time to help you here. So please take your time and read." This is an entirely reasonable and valid request, which I whole heartedly support (I used to have worldwide responsibility for managing the delivery of technical support for a computer system manufacturer 40 years ago). But it is somewhat unfair - I do read everything, when I am aware that it is available, but I do not always fully understand everything I am asked to do. The world of technology has moved on a bit from when I retired almost 30 years ago.

2 1

What is the meaning of the leading 11 charcaters in each line of the Last Log View ?
by LateJunction Dec. 6, 2023

Dec. 6, 2023

For example, the leading 11 characters in a number of my BIT snapshot logs are: cf...p..... Where is the meaning of these characters defined/explained? I can't se any information in the help file, the user documentation of the FAQs.

4 3

File deletions : how does BIT handle them?
by LateJunction Dec. 6, 2023

Dec. 6, 2023

A significant number of the folders which are 'included' in one of my BIT profiles contain files of which some might be deleted after the first 'full' snapshot is taken. Examining the contents of the files created by BIT within any snapshot, I do not immediately see how BIT defines a file as having been deleted since the previous snapshot. So what prevents BIT restoring a file which has validly been deleted since the previous snapshot? Any restore operation must start with restoring the first, 'full' backup and then restoring, in date/time order, the subsequent incremental backups. This will inevitably restore the deleted file, which I might not want. I cannot specify to BIT that it is to restore backups that were created only after the file deletion, else the majority of the files in the initial, 'full' backup will not be restored. So, how is file deletion handled?

3 2

Why does BIT make incremental backups containing files which have not changed?
by LateJunction Dec. 3, 2023

Dec. 3, 2023

One of the profiles I have created backs-up a folder whose contents are important and which are subject to a lot of changes. I set the backup interval in the profile schedule to be 30 minutes. Unusually there have been no changes in this folder in the last 24 hours, but BIT has created an incremental backup, on schedule, since then which contains just a single file - the same file every time. It is not a file I can change because it is password protected and I do not have the password. I have compared every incremental backup version of this file with the original, using the diff command. No change is detected in any of the incremental backups. Why it BIT selecting just this one, unchanged, file in each incremental backup?

1 0

Modification of a profile: how does BIT handle this?
by LateJunction Dec. 2, 2023

Dec. 2, 2023

If I edit a profile - particularly if I change the specification of Includes and/or Excludes, after BIT has created the first, full, backup, how does BIT decide how to change the list of files it will handle in subsequent incremental backups? Surely a restore process will end up creating a restored set of files which differ to the original - won't it ? So, should a change in the profile require another full backup? If so, how many of the existing backup snapshots (full plus incremental) be deleted ?

1 0

BIT 1.4.1-1: Ignorant new user: Where is Help file for backintime-qt?
by LateJunction Nov. 30, 2023

Nov. 30, 2023

I'm going to be asking a lot of dumb questions to help me make my install of BIT of greater value - so your patience will be most appreciated. The first is to ask where I can find the help file for backintime-qt and how would I install it on a Ubuntu-based distro? The response to clicking on the Help menu and then selecting Help (F1) is to be informed I'm looking at the Help pages for the command line version of backintime, not the GUI version (which I am using). Clearly, somehow, I have messed up the install. I installed BIT using my package manager (Synaptic).

2 2

Translation: file(s) and/or folder(s)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 10, 2023

Nov. 10, 2023

Hello, I have another question about improving an English source string. Please have a look at this source string and the two screenshots in the lower right. https://translate.codeberg.org/translate/backintime/common/en/?checksum=ef3… That question dialog appears when the user select "Restore to..." for example. Please focus on the first sentence beginning with "Do you really want to". It talks about "file(s)". But "folder(s)" are missing in that string. The user can restore "one/multiple folder(s) and/or one/multiple file(s)". Of course it looks wired having such a string in the UI. Technically it is possible to check the count of files and folders used in the list element in that dialog. But even this is a bit to much code just to present the correct string. So what can we do? Can we just ask: "Do you really wan to restore the following element(s) into new folder /foobar?" The "element(s)" could be easily replaced with the correct plural form using "ngettext()": ngettext('element', 'elements', len(paths)) There are some more strings using just "file(s)" in that dialog. I would like to here your opinions. Kind Christian

2 1

Do we have sentences in the Auto-Remove dialog?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 8, 2023

Nov. 8, 2023

Hello, I would like to ask for your opinions. Please see this Auto-Remove dialog of BIT and the elements starting with "Keep...". https://translate.codeberg.org/media/screenshots/bit_settings_auto-remove.p… Are these sentences? So they should have a full stop (dot) at the end? Am I right? Kind Christian

2 1

RfC (dev process): When to close an fixed issue?
by BiT dev Nov. 5, 2023

Nov. 5, 2023

I have just created issue #1553 ([https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1553)](https://github.com/bit… for which we already have received an PR that fixes the issue. Which timing should we follow to close an issue? a) When the issue is fixed in the "dev" branch b) When the issue is fixed AND an contained in a release The timing may be of importance when users search for "open" issues. Currently we apply a) (mostly ;-)

3 3

"Full system backup"?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Sept. 17, 2023

Sept. 17, 2023

Hello, does anyone know about a feature called "Full system backup"? I found something about it in the code: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/b578fc595dbe55288b709691eb26250… But I can't find it in the GUI, even not as root. Kind Christian

4 5

Correct way of concatenating two strings that must be translated?
by BiT dev Aug. 29, 2023

Aug. 29, 2023

Disclaimer: I am no gettext/translation specialist but want to create the best code for supporting our translators :-) What is the correct Python code snippet to create a new string by concatenating two (or more) strings while ensuring that the final result is translated correctly? Example (may not work): msg_prefix = "Hello" msg_body = "world" msg = _(msg_prefix + msg_body) or msg_prefix = _("Hello") msg_body = _("world") msg = msg_prefix + msg_body or ... ? And even more complicated if I want to insert a formatted variable too...: msg_prefix = _("Welcome {name}".format(name=login_name)) msg_body = _("at {location}".format(name=address)) msg = msg_prefix + msg_body or ... ? I think we should collect some code snippets for these common cases (e.g. in our discussed new repo "dev-tools")

2 1

Remove English variants from translations
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Aug. 26, 2023

Aug. 26, 2023

Hello, I hope some native speakers are around. BIT does offer translation for "Canada" and "United Kingdom" English. I'm not a pro here but would assume with our GUI in mind that there is no difference between "English" (US) and that two variants. When I look into the translation files (temporary link: [1]) there really is no difference. But their translation is not 100% complete; UK is at 64% and Canada at 25%. I would like to remove them because there is no need for a translation from "English" into one of that two variants. What do you think? Kind Christian [1] -- <https://translate.codeberg.org/projects/backintime/common/>

3 3

[German] Missing Wikipedia article
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Aug. 25, 2023

Aug. 25, 2023

Hello folks, this goes to the German nativ speakers. Back In Time does not have an entry in the German Wikipedia. So if one of you will give it a try? Just use the English article as a reference. When the article is created then we are allowed to add BIT to the German list of backup softwares (another wikipedia article). Thanks in advance. Christian

2 1

rsync 3.2.6 : Output of -VV
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Aug. 13, 2023

Aug. 13, 2023

Hello, does someone of you have rsync 3.2.6 at hand without installing an extra VM? Can please show me the exact output of "$ rsync -VV" then? Thanks Christian

2 1

Unittests failing
by jnk.gregorczyk＠gmail.com Aug. 13, 2023

Aug. 13, 2023

When following: cd common ./configure && make make test I'm getting ModuleNotFoundError: No module named '_dbus_bindings' in all 15 tests. I have both python3-dbus and python3-dbus.mainloop.pyqt5 dependecies satisfied.

3 5

I want to contribute to BIT project
by jnk.gregorczyk＠gmail.com Aug. 9, 2023

Aug. 9, 2023

Hello, I'm Jan from Poland and I want to join your project. I don't have commercial experience as a developer. I love the idea of open source and can't wait to write code which is free and actually used by someone. I'm new to opensource, so please be nice to me. Greetings, Jan

3 3

DistroSea: Virtual machines in a browser
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 26, 2023

July 26, 2023

Hi Folks, did I mentioned this before? https://distrosea.com/ https://linuxnews.de/distrosea-linux-online-ausprobieren/ This is a service where you can start several different GNU Linux distros inside the browser. Haven't worked with it much. But might be a tool for us doing tests with BIT. Kind Christian

1 0

User opinions about rearrange menu bar and its entries
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 25, 2023

July 25, 2023

Hello, we think about rearrange the menu bar in BIT's main window. Would be great if we could get some user opinions about it. You can add your comments to the related issue at Microsoft GitHub: <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1482> or just answer here on the mailing list. Thanks in advance Christian

1 0

Where to place "Setup language" feature / Rearrange menu bar
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 23, 2023

July 23, 2023

Hello, I'm very interested in the opinions of our users of Back In Time. So please feel free to comment this. I opened an Issue with better illustrations: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1482 I wasn't able to find a good place for a "Setup language" feature to give the user the opportunity to modify the UI language. First I had the idea to add a new "Language" entry in the menu bar. But this menu will have 46 entries (44 translations, 1 english-source, 1 "system default") which is to much for a monitor. Multi column menus are to hacky. Because of that I would like to create a simple modal dialog and place all language options there. Not sure if I would use a list control or radio buttons or something else. A drop down menu in main window might be an option. But I don't like this idea. Because users will setup the language just one time. But this control will stay on the main window (toolbar) for ever. And in a dropdown menu people are not aware of the "great fact" that BIT do over 44 translations. ;) We also don't have an application specific settings dialog. All settings are related to a snapshot profile. In the end I would like to have an application specific submenu in the menu bar and place a "Setup language" entry in there opening the dialog. The linked Issue is about that rearrangement of the menubar. Kind Christian

2 2

How do your syslog/journalctl entries look like?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 23, 2023

July 23, 2023

Hello, can someone show me an example of a syslog and/or journalctl entries related to Back In Time please? I want to be sure that I'm not the problem here before opening an Issue. ;) Thanks Christian

2 6

Reliable way to determine working Qt5 without risking a SIGABRT (causing a Python core dump)?
by BiT dev July 15, 2023

July 15, 2023

I summarize my investigation results here to make it visible and hope, someone can find a solution for this later (beyond the proposed work-around)... Problem description: ------------------- BiT uses the "QApplication" Qt5 class for its GUI. In the context of the new feature "Diagnostics about Qt5 theme" https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1469/files#r1254526865 and my upcoming PR to fix all systemtray icon issues @buhtz and me could not find a reliable way to determine if a "QApplication" can be instantiated without causing a Python crash (SIGABRT with core dump) in some cases where Qt5 is unable to initalize itself (e.g. on a headless console-only system or if a non-supported Qt5-plugin is configured). Note: A core dump is snapshot of certain memory regions of the process at the time it crashed. It can be analyzed postmortem using debuggers like GDB. Symptoms: -------- Qt5 aborts Python with this output: > python3 qapp_test.py qt.qpa.xcb: could not connect to display qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found. This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem. Available platform plugins are: eglfs, linuxfb, minimal, minimalegl, offscreen, vnc, xcb. Aborted (core dumped) Minimal reproducible code example: --------------------------------- # File: qapp_test.py # try: from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QSystemTrayIcon app = QApplication(['']) if QSystemTrayIcon.isSystemTrayAvailable(): print("systrayicon works") except: print(f"Exception {repr(e)}") Reason: ------- Qt5 uses the Macro "qFatal()" if a QApplication class instance cannot be created: https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtglobal.html#qFatal which sends a SIGABRT ("abort") signal on Linux: https://codebrowser.dev/qt5/qtbase/src/corelib/global/qlogging.h.html#168 https://www.qtcentre.org/threads/59684-qFatal-is-killing-my-application-wit… TODO Find the exact Qt5 code for this. I could see the SIGABRT in the core dump... This SIGABRT signal is sent from the Python app process to the parent (Python3 Interpreter) and cannot (!) be handled in Python (e.g. via "signal.signal(signal.SIGABRT, signal.SIG_IGN") because Qt5 seems to exit the process immediately. https://docs.python.org/3/library/signal.html > A Python signal handler does not get executed inside the low-level (C) signal handler. > Instead, the low-level signal handler sets a flag which tells the virtual machine > to execute the corresponding Python signal handler at a later point Possible work-around: -------------------- Proposed by @buhtz: Spawn a sub process with above example code and check for the SIGABRT signal (or perhaps an expected return code or output). Impact: - Lower Performance (GUI startup time, diagnostics creation, systray icon creation) - The behaviour of Qt5 may not be the same as in the parent process (e.g. some missing explicit settings) -> to be investigated later

2 2

Approach to attract translators
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 13, 2023

July 13, 2023

Hello together, I would like to discuss ways how to approach translators for Back In Time. I opened an Issue about this: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1473 Since we migrated to our new platform (https://translate.codeberg.org/engage/backintime) and me asking around on reddit and somewhere else we stepped from 48% to nearly 58% completeness. Kind Christian

1 0

Back In Time in a Docker Container (as possible solution for proprietary NAS devices from Synology, Western Digital & Co)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 7, 2023

July 7, 2023

Hello folks, I want to add this piece of information somewhere public so someone can find it via web search. I'm not enough into it's details to add this to our FAQ or somewhere into the manual. There exists a Docker Container using Back In Time [1]. It's Dockerfile do use a forked rep [2]. Just out of interest I contacted the creator and asked him about the use case. He explained that it was easer for him to setup BIT on a Synology NAS this way. So I remembered that we do have Issues with proprietary devices like this mentioned in our FAQ [3]. Maybe this can help someone. If anyone does try it out and can tell something about it please report back. Kind Christian [1] -- <https://hub.docker.com/r/intelliops/backintime> [2] -- <https://github.com/belsander/backintime> [3] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/FAQ.md#hardware-specific-se…>

3 2

Version 0.9 at YouTube
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 6, 2023

July 6, 2023

Hello folks, acidentially I found a quite old YouTube video. Looks like a VHS-ripped TV show (named "Category5.tv") or something like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrsBgfz9xDk They do show version 0.9 of Back In Time. Kind Christian

2 1

How is qt/qtsystrayicon.py invoked?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp July 6, 2023

July 6, 2023

Hello folks, maybe someone can clear me up here. I need some help with an investigation. We have the file "qt/qtsystrayicon.py" in the repo containing "class QtSysTrayIcon" and also a "if __name__ == '__main__':" section. I tried to find out how this class is used but couldn't find something about it. I was using grep and also checked the Makefiles. But I also can say that on my productive system BIT does have an icon in the systray while a backup job is running. But I don't know how it gets there. Thanks for helping out. Kind Christian

2 1

Translation platform
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 21, 2023

June 21, 2023

Hello together, I would like to announce our new platform to support the translation of the Back In Time interface by non technical users. Even that our code repository is hosted at Microsoft GitHub we now do use the Weblate instance of the alternative code hoster Codeberg.org. https://translate.codeberg.org/projects/backintime/common/ Translations can be "suggested" without having an account. If you like to have an account you need to create it at Coderberg.org. The account creation at translate.coderberg.org is a bit awkward today but will be improved. Beside translating yourself please feel free to ask in your peer group if you know native speakers of other languages. You can also add new languages if you want; e.g. yesterday someone added Vietnamese. If you have expertise in foreign languages or linguistic please feel free to join the discussion. I tried to contact the former known translators known by their mail in the po-files or by their contact information at Launchpad (the platform used in the past for translations). I also made some advertise at Reddit and other forums. Currently we have an open PR (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1455) discussion removing some languages (e.g. Javanese) or language variants (Canadian and British English). Kind Christian Buhtz

1 1

How does anacron work with BIT
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 15, 2023

June 15, 2023

Hello, can anyone understand and tell how anacron work with BIT (on Debian 11)? I can not find something in /etc/cron.* . There is a something in ~/.localshare/backintime/anacron/... But this looks like timestamp files and not anacron jobs. Kind Christian

3 2

Issue statistic July 2023
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp June 14, 2023

June 14, 2023

Hello, it is some month ago I generated the last issue statistic. Sorry about that. The new one can be found here: <https://codeberg.org/buhtz/spielwiese/src/branch/main/bit.md> There is a new view comes from an idea by Jürgen. Now we can see the mean lifetime of an Issue per Month or Year. The values are sometimes very "dramatic" because some Issues where open for a lot of years. I don't have automated statistics about pull requests currently. But looking into Microsoft GitHub I count 21 new pull requests created in the year 2023. Of that 19 new PRs, 3 are still open and 16 are closed (2 of them not merged). Thanks a lot for helping, contributing and reviewing.

2 1

Qt / qt.qpa.plugin: What is xcb for?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 23, 2023

May 23, 2023

Hello, I'm testing the migration from PyQt5 to PyQt6. Starting "backintime-qt" I got this error message in the terminal. qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found. Searching the BIT code via "git grep" it seems this message is not generated by BIT but by an underlying PyQt6/Qt6 component. First question is what this plugin is for and if we need it? Maybe we can switch that off somehow? Looking into Debians package description [1] it is something with "Deepin Desktop Environment" (I don't use). So I'm confused why and how this is involved with Back In Time. I couldn't find a trail in the BIT code about it. Maybe someone here can light me up? I found some discussions about that error message but they are in the context of building Qt6 from scratch. [2] [3] Kind Christian [1] -- <https://packages.debian.org/unstable/qt5dxcb-plugin> [2] -- <https://stackoverflow.com/q/68036484/4865723> [3] -- <https://forum.qt.io/topic/127696/qt-qpa-plugin-could-not-load-the-qt-platfo…>

2 3

Docker: Python 3.6, git and Bash
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp May 13, 2023

May 13, 2023

Hello Folks, is someone able to deal with Docker? I'm not experienced here but now how to install it on Debian and how to run a Python REPL with a specific Python version. I install on Debian 11 sudo apt install docker docker.io Then I run the container sudo docker run -it --rm python:3.6 Now where I need help. I don't want to run the REPL. I want to begin in a bash shell because I need to do "git clone" (or mounting something from host?) and need to run unittest scripts. Has anyone a tip for me? I assume my problems root in the fact that I lack of deeper understanding of Docker concept and its UI. Kind Christian

2 2

Do we have scheduled date for the next BiT release?
by BiT dev May 4, 2023

May 4, 2023

some bug fixes are e.g. required for ARCH/AUR installations... BTW: I have still not completed my sys tray icon fixes (wayland is a beast and I setting up all test OS envs is much work) but I could finish this one release later (and after my upcoming vacations :-)

2 1

Diagnostics information in debug output
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 17, 2023

March 17, 2023

Hello Folks, I realized that our nice "--diagnostics" output is not integrated by default in BIT. But my opinion is it should be. But the original JSON output (see at the end of this mail) is a bit to much I would say. But I'm not sure. I'm interested in your opinions. For the "--debug" output I would use the log format like this: DEBUG: [...] Diagnostics - "backintime" name: "Back In Time" version: "1.3.3-dev" .... DEBUG: [...] Diagnostics - "host-setup" platform: ... DEBUG: [...] Diagnostics - "python-setup" python: ... sys-path: "/usr/...", "/usr/..." DEBUG: [...] Diagnostics - "external-programs" rsync: ... I assume this can be realized with less code. Any suggestions about it? Here is an example of diagnostic output in JSON format. { "backintime": { "name": "Back In Time", "version": "1.3.3-dev", "latest-config-version": 6, "local-config-file": "/home/UsernameReplaced/.config/backintime/config", "local-config-file-found": true, "global-config-file": "/etc/backintime/config", "global-config-file-found": false, "started-from": "/usr/share/backintime/common", "running-as-root": false, "user-callback": "/home/UsernameReplaced/.config/backintime/user-callback", "keyring-supported": true }, "host-setup": { "platform": "Linux-5.10.0-21-arm64-aarch64-with-glibc2.31", "system": "Linux #1 SMP Debian 5.10.162-1 (2023-01-21)", "os-release": "Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)", "display-system": "x11", "locale": "de_DE, UTF-8", "PATH": "/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games", "RSYNC_OLD_ARGS": "(not set)", "RSYNC_PROTECT_ARGS": "(not set)" }, "python-setup": { "python": "3.9.2 default Feb 28 2021 17:03:44 CPython GCC 10.2.1 20210110", "python-executable": "/usr/bin/python3", "python-executable-symlink": true, "python-executable-resolved": "/usr/bin/python3.9", "sys.path": [ "/usr/share/backintime/qt/plugins", "/usr/share/backintime/common/plugins", "/usr/share/backintime/plugins", "/usr/share/backintime/common", "/usr/lib/python39.zip", "/usr/lib/python3.9", "/usr/lib/python3.9/lib-dynload", "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/dist-packages", "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages", "/usr/lib/python3.9/dist-packages" ], "qt": "PyQt 5.15.2 / Qt 5.15.2" }, "external-programs": { "rsync": "3.2.3", "ssh": "OpenSSH_8.4p1 Debian-5+deb11u1, OpenSSL 1.1.1n 15 Mar 2022", "sshfs": "3.7.1", "encfs": "1.9.5", "shell": "/bin/bash", "shell-version": "GNU bash, Version 5.1.4(1)-release (aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu)" } }

2 2

Milestones and priorities
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 16, 2023

March 16, 2023

Hello Folks, I have to apologize. I started to use the Milestones feature of Microsoft GitHubs Issue section. I did this because I like the progress bars in the milestones. ;) Then I remembered that we still have priority tags (low, medium, high). This is a bit interfering, I know. So I stopped with the milestones and would like to discuss. My intention was to have nice looking progress bar and to reference the issues to something like a roadmap or timeplan. Time is relative! I created just three broad milestones. 1. One for the next release (1.3.4) within the next 6 to 18 months. 2. One for the release after the next release (6-24 months). 3. One for far away features that might be implemented or maybe never will be implemented (24 months and further). The time and dates are not fix. It is just a number. And I assume that 2 and 3 can be divided into smaller and more granulated milestones as the development progress. Sidenote: There is still an exception coming up. Depending on how Debian reacts on the Issue #1410 (keyring stuff) we might do a new point release (1.3.4) in the next days. That fast it can go. ;) I'm interested in your thoughts. Kind Christian

2 1

Ubuntu 22.04 LTS : Rsync bug
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp March 15, 2023

March 15, 2023

Hello Folks, just for your information. The rsync package in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS was updated from 3.2.3 to 3.2.7. This triggers the known and still fixed rsync-incompatibility bug [1] in Back In Time because BIT in Ubuntu 22.04 LTS still is quit old and not able to handle the "new argument protection" introduced with rsync 3.2.4. It seems that rsync itself doesn't follow Semantic Versioning. It was a big change of behavior and should have been a minor update (Version number 3.3 instead of 3.2.4). On the other site the Ubuntu folks should have read the changelog more carefully. At the end currently BIT is "broken" [2] in Ubuntu 22.04. The solution is to use BIT from upstream repo or PPA. Or using the workaround described in the bug [1]. I opened a question about update policy at Ubuntu rsync [3] and also informed the rsync upstream maintainer about the situation. Kind Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1247> [2] -- <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rsync/+bug/2009756> [3] -- <https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rsync/+question/705772>

2 2

New Debian package description
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Feb. 21, 2023

Feb. 21, 2023

Dear folks, I would like to rewrite Debians package description of Back In Time. That descriptions appear in the apt repository, in the package tracker etc. [1] If you see a non-English description this comes from Debians own translation team. We don't have to take care of it. They are automatically notified when the original text is updated. That is the current text: Description: simple backup/snapshot system (common files) Back In Time is a framework for rsync and cron for the purpose of taking snapshots and backups of specified folders. It minimizes disk space use by taking a snapshot only if the directory has been changed, and hard links for unmodified files if it has. The user can schedule regular backups using cron. I suggest to use the Wiki section on GitHub [2] to develop a new version of this text and to keep track of modifications in the Wikis history unit we have consense. I just offered a new version. A bit shorted and simpler. The original source is in a GitLab repository of Debian Salsa instance [3]. The descriptions for the CLI and the Qt package are separated in that file. I can make an PR against that repo when we have consense about a new version. Kind Christian [1] -- <https://packages.debian.org/en/sid/backintime-common> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/wiki/Work-in-progress:-Rewrite-Debia…> [3] -- <https://salsa.debian.org/jmw/pkg-backintime/-/blob/debian/debian/control>

1 0

FYI about vagrant: Hashicorp public gpg key must be updated (when using apt) - NO_PUBKEY AA16FCBCA621E701
by BiT dev Feb. 13, 2023

Feb. 13, 2023

If you get an error message like this $ sudo apt update ... Err:2 https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com focal InRelease The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY AA16FCBCA621E701 ... W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com focal InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY AA16FCBCA621E701 W: Failed to fetch https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/dists/focal/InRelease The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY AA16FCBCA621E701 you have to install the new gpg public key according to the official installation instructions: https://www.hashicorp.com/official-packaging-guide In my case (Ubuntu 20.04) this did work: wget -O- https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com/gpg | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/hashicorp-archive-keyring.gpg I don't know how to verify for sure (100 %) if this new key is not compromised (eg. by a hacked web site) since there is no other reliable channel to find the expected fingerprint (hints welcome :-)

1 0

Oops: Release v1.3.3 shows "1.3.3-dev" with "backintime --version"
by BiT dev Feb. 4, 2023

Feb. 4, 2023

I think our released version 1.3.3 does still show the "dev" postfix when asking for the version number via "backintime --version": https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/8495f9dc3953343a0352bb3ffbdcfab… I think we currently have no automated release process that fixes (or at least validates) the version number in the config.py file, haven't we?

2 3

RfC: Maintain separate "package maintainers NEWS" file for each release?
by BiT dev Feb. 2, 2023

Feb. 2, 2023

As lesson learned from our current rollout of v1.3.3 I suggest to maintain a separate "Package Maintainer NEWS" file which shall contain pkg maintainer relevant changes like - changed dependencies - installation path changes - unexpected file and folder renamings etc. Any opinions (also on the best file name for this)? Optionally we could maintain a list of known BiT packages incl. a link to the pkg maintainer web sites in our wiki or FAQ to direct users with packaging-related issues to the according responsible pkg. maintainer. I have asked for community support to compile such a list in one of our issues: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1401#issuecomment-1412915694

2 2

Re: FYI Renaming default branch from "master" to "main"
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 23, 2023

Jan. 23, 2023

In-Reply-To=<e5d8cb0e8110f79c8fe0cfb9a508c4b6%40posteo.de> Hello, renaming is done. Be aware to update your local repositories or re-clone them; also your forks on GitHub. Beside the new "main" branch I created the "dev" branch. In the past I used the name "develop" but found out it is unusual and a bit to long. I think "dev" is easier (for some of us). :D Hope this is OK. I also updated the target branch in all existing and open Pull Requests. I created a new Pull Request updating version numbers, changelog and mention the "dev" branch in the README.md. @Jürgen: I know you work on some FAQ and maybe README. Maybe this will cause a merge conflict. But some md-files are a secure learning case I think. ;) I assume your upcoming docu changes should go into "main" too? I suggest to merging it into "dev" and then picking the changes form there into "master". I would do that via "git checkout my.file dev". I never used git's cherry pick before. This is one exception of the only-release-commits-in-main because "main" do produce the landing page via its README.md. Kind Christian

2 4

"make uninstall"?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 21, 2023

Jan. 21, 2023

Hello, haven't I asked this before somehow? ;) We can install BIT from source repo via "make install". But it seems there is not "make uninstall". How can I uninstall? Kind Christian

2 2

Request for review of a bug report on debian (#985260 cron jobs error not mailed to user)
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 21, 2023

Jan. 21, 2023

Hey folks, can someone please who knows good about cron have a look at this bug report. https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=985260 The users expect that he would got a mail if there is a syntax error in one of his user-callback scripts running by cron. I'm not sure if this should be the default behaviour and which component is responsible for sending mails. For the letter I assume cron should do this. So I assume this bug is not related to Back In Time. Am I wrong? Kind Christian

3 3

How diagnose logs?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 21, 2023

Jan. 21, 2023

Hey Folks, there is a fresh bug on launchpad [1] which brings up the opportunity for me to learn something. In short about the bug: I assume the LOCK file is somewhere. But I don't know where BIT stores it. Maybe one of you can jump in and help. And I didn't found the LOCK-file topic in our FAQ. Would be great to add this there, too. Back to the main topic of that mail. It is an often experience situation for me when dealing with log files and debug output. In relation to that specific issue let me ask some questions please. - The reporter use "systemctl status cron" to show us cron output. But BIT isn't a systemd unit. How can I ask the system for BIT releated syslog output? Next time I can answer the user with "Please execute 'xyz' in the shell and post me the output.". - Where does BIT store its LOCK files? It seems to me this information is not present in debug output. But I'm not sure. Kind Christian [1] -- <https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/backintime/+bug/2003326>

3 2

Latest Back In Time release (1.3.3) merged into Debian
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 20, 2023

Jan. 20, 2023

Hello, I like to announce that our latest release joined the Debian "unstable" branch. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/backintime Based on my humble understanding I would say that BIT 1.3.3 would make it into the next stable Debian release (Version 12 namely Bookworm). Kind Christian

2 1

FYI Renaming default branch from "master" to "main"
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 13, 2023

Jan. 13, 2023

Hello together, I just want to inform you that in the next days we will rename the branch "master" into "main" and make that the new default branch on Microsoft GitHub. There is no need for a warning or countdown. ;) I tested it with my own fork and found out it is much easier then I thought. When you have your own fork from bit-team/backintime on GitHub they keep connected no matter how the default branches are named. If possible and if it doesn't interrupt any task you currently work on it must be the easiest to delete your fork and fork again. But I assume there will be no problem if you keep your fork. It is up to you. If you cloned from the upstream repo bit-team/backintime into your own machine and you want to keep that clone you should do a bit git magic like this: git branch -m master main git fetch origin git branch -u origin/main main git remote set-head origin -a That is how GitHub itself "told" me. It renames your local branch and "reconnect" it to the remote branch. I don't understand the 4th command. ;) Greetings Christian

1 0

Where to store picture files for FAQ and README in the "backintime" repo?
by BiT dev Jan. 13, 2023

Jan. 13, 2023

I am working on a FAQ issue and intend to add some screen shots to our FAQ which is now under version control in the same repo as our source code: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1394 https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/master/FAQ.md#how-to-use-synolo… We currently do not reference any picture file, neither in the README.md nor in the FAQ.md. Where shall we store these picture files (mainly screen shots I guess)? I suggest creating a sub folder "doc" in the "backintime" repo root. This would correspond to my upcoming PR with developer documentation the sub folder "doc-dev". Proposals welcome :-)

2 1

ANN: Back In Time 1.3.3 released
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Jan. 12, 2023

Jan. 12, 2023

Hello, on behalf of the maintaining team I'm happy to announce the Back In Time release version 1.3.3 [1]. Germar also made that release available on Launchpad [2] via the testing-PPA ("ppa:bit-team/testing"). The Debian release is also on its way [3]. I hope it can happen before Debians Freeze phase starting on 23th January. Thanks to the Team, to Germar, all Contributors and Users. Kind Christian Buhtz [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/releases/tag/v1.3.3> [2] -- <https://launchpad.net/backintime/1.3/1.3.3> [3] -- <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1027823>

3 6

Travis: How to skip builds
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 23, 2022

Dec. 23, 2022

Hi Folks, just something I learned about TravisCI. The badge on our README.md currently shows an "error". But there wasn't one. On my last PR Travis started its job but I got there an canceled them manually. This was because of saving credits and carbon. I only updated some text files and not python code. To prevent that the TravisCI support told me to use skip messages inside commit messages to prevent this. https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/customizing-the-build/#skipping-a-build Just write "[skip travis]" somewhere else. I'll try this next time. Christian

1 0

Re: Why pkexec and not sudo?
by Germar Reitze Dec. 19, 2022

Dec. 19, 2022

pkexec uses the default authentication agent on every distro. So if you call a GUI-app on a desktop it will ask you for your password in a nice interface that looks like all the rest of your desktop environment. If you call it on a headless machine it will ask for you password on the terminal. sudo can just ask at the terminal. Back in the days when BiT had two GUI for Gnome and KDE we used gksudo and kdesudo to do the job. After removing the Gnome GUI and migrate the KDE GUI into Qt I needed a common way to launch the GUI on all desktop environments. pkexec does exactly this.The permission escalation with PolKit is something different. It allows to run sub-routines with higher permissions but keep the main app at user level.

1 0

Why pkexec and not sudo?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 18, 2022

Dec. 18, 2022

Hello folks, this is a general question about something that I can't get into my head. And I have less knowledge about that part of a GNU/Linux system. What is the difference of pkexec and sudo? What is the advantage of using pkexec to run BIT as root? Kind Christian

2 1

Use a distinctive app icon for BiT?
by BiT dev Dec. 18, 2022

Dec. 18, 2022

Currently BiT uses a standard icon as app icon: "document-save" A unique distinctive icon would great as visual "trademark". I have found one issue discussing this (stil open): https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/215 Are there icon designer listening here who want to come along with proposals? I think I could add this icon to the resource bundle to get rid of missing app and sys tray icons...

5 6

Issue statistic December 2022
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 11, 2022

Dec. 11, 2022

Hey folks, here you can find the current Issue statistic for Back In Time. <https://codeberg.org/buhtz/spielwiese/src/branch/main/bit.md> I tried to realize Jürgens proposal from the last time. Kind Christian

2 1

Correct way to execute BiT CLI as root (to show system tray icon)?
by BiT dev Dec. 7, 2022

Dec. 7, 2022

We have BiT qt GUI (root) but no corresponding starter script for BiT CLI (root). Is there any documentation or recommendation how to start it? Background: I want to test if sudo backintime --profile-id 1 --debug backup-job shows the sys tray icon if I start it as root. What is the recommended way of starting "backintime" as root so that the sys tray icon appears?

3 8

FAQ: "Modify for Full System Backup"
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Dec. 2, 2022

Dec. 2, 2022

Hello Folks, there is a FAQ entry talking about a button or menu entry named "Modify for Full System Backup". I couldn't find it anywhere. Does someone can find it? Or is it gone and we can drop that FAQ entry? https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/wiki/FAQ#what-is-the-effect-of-modif… Kind Christian

2 3

Back In Time mentioned in german computer magazin ct 13/2022
by BiT dev Nov. 28, 2022

Nov. 28, 2022

I was archiving my "old" magazines and have found an article about BiT and other backup software for linux desktops here: https://www.heise.de/tests/Fuenf-Backup-Programme-fuer-Linux-im-Test-712719… Short link: https://www.heise.de/-7127194 We could create a list of publications and authors (eg. for future press contacts for new releases)...

1 0

Document weak dependencies when spawning sub processes?
by BiT dev Nov. 23, 2022

Nov. 23, 2022

I have just managed to identify a bug preventing the sys tray icon to be shown (together with the issue reporter) https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1236#issuecomment-1324079326 and it turned out that a required CLI tool (`xdpyinfo`) was not installed which is used to check if X11 is running https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/713590f45cb83d1192a104ec77b7356… https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/713590f45cb83d1192a104ec77b7356… I think we should work through all source files and document required CLI tools. This is not only required to prevent bugs but also for package maintainers.

3 4

BiT mentioned in Linux Magazin 12/2022 article (German only)
by BiT dev Nov. 12, 2022

Nov. 12, 2022

https://www.linux-magazin.de/ausgaben/2022/12/bitparade/ It is behind a paywall for the next 10 months. We could drop a comment about the maintenance status...

2 2

No longer unmaintained :)
by Michael Büker Nov. 10, 2022

Nov. 10, 2022

Hi all, just something small to cheer us up: The devloper of restic keeps the most comprehensive list/database of Linux backup software here: https://github.com/restic/others Until recently, it listed backintime as "unmaintained". This has changed now, because of the work we're doing :) --> https://github.com/restic/others/pull/73 Have a nice week! Michael

3 2

FYI: New issue label "EncFS" created
by BiT dev Nov. 10, 2022

Nov. 10, 2022

for issues with EncFS file system

1 0

Temporary reduce TravisCI jobs
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 9, 2022

Nov. 9, 2022

Hi Folks, it is just an idea because our credits on TravisCI are free but not unlimited. Each PR and each new commit on such a PR do create 5 testing jobs (in fact running containers) eating our Travis credits. I propose to deactivate 4 jobs and just keep Python 3.10 on AMD64 as the one and only testing job until we prepare the next release. For myself I sometimes create PR's against my own forked repo to run TravisCI with my own credits just to be sure. What do you think? It could spare a lot of credits. Kind Christian

3 3

Re: Introducing: Christian Buhtz
by Germar Reitze Nov. 8, 2022

Nov. 8, 2022

Hi, I'm Germar Reitze from Germany in my early 40s. I'm an architect (the one for buildings made of bricks and concrete 😉). I never had a professional IT background but as an autodidact I started coding when I was 8 and I love to train my IT skills. I started using BackInTime in 2008. But in those days there was no way to use a NAS in a good way. I was forced to mount the NAS with Samba or NFS and sync to that share. This was quite inefficient and slow. So after learning Python I started hacking an SSH option for BiT. Because it worked out better than I thought, I asked Oprea Dan (the founder of BiT) if he would like to merge the code. He gave me lots of good hints on how to improve my code. Round about one year later he asked me if I'd like to take over the whole project. Since than I invested a lot of time, effort and even money to improve BiT. But in the last 3-4 years I did not find the time anymore to contribute to BiT. Also I changed my personal backup suit from BiT to borg-backup mainly because of the deduplication feature and the append-only mode. I'm really happy to see a team forming for BiT. I will help as far as I can to support you. I had some problems in the past month (mainly because my gmail account for this project stopped silently to refresh as my fetchmail script didn't use OAUTH). But I fixed that and joined the mailinglist. So I'm looking forward to see the project moving further. Kind Regards, Germar

2 2

Launchpad translations (po files) in "common" mix-up CLI and GUI texts
by BiT dev Nov. 8, 2022

Nov. 8, 2022

I just saw that the PO files seem to contain also texts used only in the qt GUI but the "po" files are stored only in "common" so we have no clear separation of BiT CLI vs. GUI. Formally "qt" depends on "common" and "common" does just contain "more translations than needed for the CLI". Have there any known problems with that? If there should be a urgent problem it would be a lot of work to separate the texts again into separated "po" files for CLI and GUI...

2 1

Travis CI contributed OSS credits for BiT
by Germar Reitze Nov. 6, 2022

Nov. 6, 2022

Hi, I just got the confirmation from Travis CI Support that they will contribute 25k OSS credits to build and test BiT. Each build will take 10 credits on Linux. When our credits begin running low again, I can reach back to the Support team to gain more credits. Thanks a lot to the friendly people at travis-ci.com Regards, Germar

2 2

Skipped/empty test functions
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 6, 2022

Nov. 6, 2022

Hello, I setup my localhost ssh to make all skipped tests run. But there are still 13 skipped tests. I checked and found out that they are simply not implemented. They looking like this: @unittest.skip('Not yet implemented') def test_rsyncPrefix(self): pass That's it. I would like to "transform" those tests to an Issue ticket about "not implemented tests". Just collect all such skipped and empty tests in an issue. And then deleted that code to make unittest run without errors, fails, warnings or skips. Beside that tests I also assume that there is much more untested code.

2 1

Docu: Code reference
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 6, 2022

Nov. 6, 2022

Hello together, it seems that BIT does use Sphinx. I can see the reStructuredText in the codes docstrings. But I can't find the HTML docu generated from that docstrings. Not sure what the correct term is here for documentation that was generated out of docstrings: "Reference"? Does anyone know if there is such a docu? If not is anyone able to generate such a docu quick and dirty from the current main branch and can send it to me or somewhere else? It doesn't have to go into the official repo yet. It just would help me a lot to better understand the code and the structure of the project. I have used Sphinx a bit but I'm not quit familiar with it. And I won't touch Sphinx. ;) Btw: I am aware of the separate docu repo: https://github.com/bit-team/doc But it seems to me that this only is kind of a "User manual" and does not reference to the code. Kind Christian

4 6

FYI: PR #1353 (Arch Linux build fails) and PR #1355 (invalid ESC sequences and PEP8 warnings) merged into master and tested with SUCCESS
by BiT dev Nov. 6, 2022

Nov. 6, 2022

I did run our unit tests on HEAD of master (6fc658dd54f139b20f858e5089d0baa860bb8300) on - Manjaro KDE Plasma - Arch KDE Plasma - Arch console-only with success (all unit test succeed). I am in contact with the Arch AUR pkg maintainer "graysky" to retest it (internally only - not as release candidate): https://aur.archlinux.org/pkgbase/backintime#comment-888281 @buhtz > QPainter::begin: Paint device returned engine == 0, type: 2\nQWidget::render: Cannot render with an inactive painter I could NOT reproduce the QPainter output you have mentioned in a comment of #1353 (neither in Arch console-only nor via SSH on Arch console-only - Arch was a fresh VM installation!) so I would ignore this problem until it pops up again or you can hunt it down on your machine.

1 0

Issue #988: Why was "new permission handling" was introduced?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 4, 2022

Nov. 4, 2022

Hey Folks, I do not understand all details of the issue #988 "New permissions handling in 1.2.0 causes re-backup of files that haven't changed" [1] and don't ask for that details here. But does someone know why this "new" method of permissions handling was introduced by Germar? What was the intention behind it? Are there known problems with the "old way" before? Greetings Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/988>

3 5

Proposal (RfC): New Github repo for technical documentation?
by BiT dev Nov. 4, 2022

Nov. 4, 2022

I am just diving deeper into Wayland and would like to create and publish a kind of summary doc as markdown file for us. Do we already have a Github repo for this kind of technical/development documentation? The "doc" repo seems to contain the end user documentation and I wouldn't put dev docs in there. I propose to add a new repo called "tech_docs" (or "dev-docs")... Any ideas/wishes/objections/proposals? PS: The generated API doc (via Sphinx) could also be published in the new repo regularly (eg. for each release). The API doc sources are stored in the common/doc-dev folder in Github (but not the generated API doc itself!).

3 5

test2
by moonkid＠posteo.org Nov. 4, 2022

Nov. 4, 2022

test2

1 0

Request for review and testing: #1351 fix rsync incompatiblity
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Nov. 4, 2022

Nov. 4, 2022

Hello folks, I finally create my PR [1] to fix BIT's incompatibility with newer rsync versions [2]. All details can be found in the PR. IMHO it is final and stable. No need to treat it as a "Draft". But because of the possible high consequences and side effects I request you to do your own tests with that code. I still did manual systematic tests with different distros and rsync versions but of course I could have missed something. To do your own testings you have to clone from my fork and use the "fix/rsync1247" branch from it [3]. Kind Christian [1] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1351> [2] -- <https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1247> [3] -- <https://github.com/buhtzz/backintime/tree/fix/rsync1247>

1 0

Mini Gadgets – The Best Mini Gadgets to Use
by albertroy587＠gmail.com Nov. 3, 2022

Nov. 3, 2022

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1 0

FYI: I have added a new issue label "security"
by BiT dev Nov. 2, 2022

Nov. 2, 2022

... for security and vulnerability related issues like https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/694

2 1

Github contributors with commit rights: Future working model to assure code quality?
by BiT dev Oct. 30, 2022

Oct. 30, 2022

Dear bit-team members, I have received commit right by Germar (THX!) and just pushed my first direct commit (just changing the README file). This brings up the question of how we collaborate in the future to assure code quality. At least I must admit that "night shifts" do not always lead to correct and "error-free" solutions in my code ;-) I suggest: 1. Documentation-only commits can be pushed directly 2. Code changes shall be send via PR to establish a 4-eyes principle ("review"): - Apply the "approve" workflow in PRs - Review comments are used for discussions and feed-back - A PR can be merged by an bit-team member (even by the PR opener) if - all changes are approved - discussions have stabilized without an explicit "merge veto" - In case of controverse "merge veto's" we need a way to solve this in a constructive way eg. (@emtiu as "esacalation instance" or a democratic vote)

2 1

FYI: I have added a new label "Wayland"
by BiT dev Oct. 30, 2022

Oct. 30, 2022

... to the "backintime" repo to tag issues that occur on Wayland since I have already seen several bugs with wayland (icon etc.). Used for the first time to tag this issue: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1349

2 1

Warning about Udev and DBus
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Oct. 29, 2022

Oct. 29, 2022

Moin, from time to time I see warnings like this Failed to connect to Udev serviceHelper daemon via D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown I can reproduce it in a VM with a fresh Debian testing and BIT from upstream master repo. Which package is might be missing here? This is the full terminal output user@Barclay ~/backintime/common (master)$ ./backintime Back In Time Version: 1.3.2 Back In Time comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `backintime --license' for details. WARNING: Failed to connect to Udev serviceHelper daemon via D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown WARNING: D-Bus message: The name net.launchpad.backintime.serviceHelper was not provided by any .service files WARNING: Udev-based profiles cannot be changed or checked due to Udev serviceHelper connection failure

3 7

Travis CI says: Owner bit-team does not have enough credits
by BiT dev Oct. 26, 2022

Oct. 26, 2022

I always wanted to say these words: We push to much ;-) https://app.travis-ci.com/github/bit-team/backintime/requests I don't know the billing schema of Travis CI but perhaps we can reduce the build by focusing on certain branches and events... @Michael: Do you have the login credentials for Travis CI to check this? Or: We find a decicated sponsor...

3 3

Definition Of GPU – Features, Specifications, Size & More
by mileseli9＠gmail.com Oct. 25, 2022

Oct. 25, 2022

Definition Of GPU GPU is the acronym for Graphics Processing Unit and represents exactly the coronary heart of a snap shots card, much like the CPU does in a PC. Apart from the heart, your mind is likewise in price of carrying out all of the complex calculations that allow us to enjoy our video games on the display. Usually it is the piece of silicon that had both AMD and NVIDIA or Intel manufacture( in which the transistors are recorded). To put it generally, it's miles the so-called pics card chip. This idea is crucial from the factor of view of utility when you consider that, as we've got referred to, a GPU isn't a graphics card in itself. On the opposite hand, a pix card does integrate a GPU under its belt. In addition, it desires a PCB, resistors, SMDs, capacitors, voltage drivers, phase regulators, VRAM, display outputs, and extra. Main Features And Specifications A GPU is based on a silicon chip that is a series of tens of millions of transistors under a selected structure and has committed capabilities for each model. The importance of the idea itself comes to us from APUs (as an instance) wherein in addition they residence a GPU, best they accomplish that on a far smaller substrate and hand in hand with a CPU. The Technical traits of a GPU depend on the specific version; it relies upon at the precise chip, so we will handiest generalize whilst speaking about the concept. The Average Size of a GPU The length of GPU is an awful lot large than a CPU die, and these days, it isn’t easy to get them below 100 mm2, even inside the maximum advanced lithographic procedures. It consists of a substrate size that is normally among three and 4 instances the place of the chip, in particular due to the quantity of factors linked to it. It is a very basic interposer to wire connections with the chip . GPU connects the bus, the VRAM, the manipulate alerts, voltages, and clocks with our protagonist. The maximum advanced GPU techniques is a vertical scaling known as 2.5D IC. It remains a separate unit and ought to be dealt with as such. Currently the design is being puzzled considering that soon we will be not able to speak about one GPU according to pictures card.@https://www.techiesstar.com/gpu/

1 0

Increase BiT version number now to indicate DEV status?
by BiT dev Oct. 24, 2022

Oct. 24, 2022

Our VERSION file at Github currently indicates "1.3.2" https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/master/VERSION but it differs from the code of git tag "v1.3.2" due to our further development. Also the dev version has still a hard-coded "version 1.3.2": https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/4b09eba80237d64b84a3ed2c4aba1c4… In the CHANGES file we already call the HEAD of master "Upcoming Release" (without any version number). ============================================================================================= How about updating the version number in VERSION file and config.py now to "1.3.3_dev" or similar to make it easier for us to recognize if a reported issue is related to the released 1.3.2 or a dev version from Github? ============================================================================================= This makes at least supporting Arch Linux easier since their packages are quite often directly pulled from Git (using a tag, commit ID or nothing) and I need to know the source code base for debugging... Possible process for the future: For a final release - both version number locations must be updated again, the release created - and then immediately a new dev version number set (potentially on a new branch than master).

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Working vagrant file for Arch Linux with a desktop (Xfce, KDE Plasma or Gnome)?
by BiT dev Oct. 22, 2022

Oct. 22, 2022

Has anybody of you a working vagrant file for me to quickly setup Arch with a desktop? I want to check and fix some BiT issues and working on the cmd line ain't no fun for this but neither Plasma nor Xfce will work whatever I try. I can login but get a black screen after seeing a rotating gear for a few seconds. Guest extensions are installed... THX!

1 0

Status report: Open Issues and Labels
by Michael Büker Oct. 22, 2022

Oct. 22, 2022

Hi, everyone! I have some great news :) When this new team got started in June, the backintime repo had roughly: - 430 open Issues, of which there were - 250 unlabelled Issues Over the past ~three weeks, I've managed to whittle this down to: - 310 open Issues, of which there remain - 150 unlabelled Issues We currently have 20 Labels, all of which I created myself. That means that I've "touched" all of the 160 Issues that are currently open and labelled. This has given me a decent overview of current problems with the code, though obviously, there are still 150 Issues to go. If you'd like to help, some of the best ways are to: - check out unlabelled Issues and suggest labels / duplicates / resons to close / related Issues in a comment, - look at Issues marked "Bug" (but not "Reproduced"), and try to reproduce them, - look at Issues marked "Discuss" and see if you'd like to give an opinion, - look at Issues marked "High" and see if you can figure out what the hell is going on ;) I'm happy with the direction in which the project is moving. We have a lot in front of us, but it doesn't seem so impossible anymore :) Cheers! Michael

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Add support for parallel BiT installation of OS distro and Github version?
by BiT Oct. 21, 2022

Oct. 21, 2022

The OP of the issue "No BiT icon on Wayland" https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1244 has raised another issue that I'd like to discuss here: When and wy shall we install into /usr/bin vs /usr/local/bin? @buhtzz already researched the differences (see https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/8658/136851) and the bottom line is: 1. /usr/bin should be used for distro package installations 2. /usr/bin/local should be used for non-distro-packaged installations Our current `make install` target installs into /usr/bin which is correct only if a package maintainer is going the package the files then. Questions: 1. Should we add more `make` targets to support different installation folders? Eg. `make install-distro` + `make install-local` 2. Shall we support parallel installations of BiT since currently we cannot install BiT without overwriting the distro installation (`make install`)? Eg. for testing a bug fix or a release candidate it would be helpful. 3. What is the impact of supporting parallel installations (2.)? I see at least - add additional desktop files with different names for the local installation - changing paths in scripts and desktop files - solving the problem that two different serviceHelper D-Bus daemons cannot work on the same service URI 4. How urgent is this?

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Why BIT use complex include/exclude patterns?
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Oct. 15, 2022

Oct. 15, 2022

I try to understand why BIT does call rsync that way it does. Here is one example: rsync --recursive --times --devices --specials --hard-links --human-readable --links --perms --executability --group --owner --info=progress2 --no-inc-recursive --rsh=ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=240 -o LogLevel=Error -o IdentityFile=/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa -p 22 --delete --delete-excluded -v -i --out-format=BACKINTIME: %i %n%L --chmod=Du+wx --exclude=/tmp/tmpis8vc03n/.local/share/backintime/mnt/1_61639 --exclude=/tmp/tmpis8vc03n/.local/share/backintime --exclude=.local/share/backintime/mnt --include=/tmp/tmpns6f8qt7/ --include=/tmp/ --exclude=.gvfs --exclude=.cache/* --exclude=.thumbnails* --exclude=.local/share/[Tt]rash* --exclude=*.backup* --exclude=*~ --exclude=.dropbox* --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/dev/* --exclude=/run/* --exclude=/etc/mtab --exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb --exclude=lost+found/* --exclude=/tmp/* --exclude=/var/tmp/* --exclude=/var/backups/* --exclude=.Private --include=/tmp/tmpns6f8qt7/** --exclude=* / user@localhost:"/tmp/tmp80iu7iq1/foo/backintime/test-host/test-user/1/new_snapshot/backup" It seems to me that the "source" is "/", the whole file system. Am I right? Why is that? Why not only specify explicite the folders the user want to include? The "real source" is "/tmp/tmpns6f8qt7/" which is included via "--include". But also its parent "/tmp/" is included. Why is that? But also "everything" (because of "*") is excluded. I think I need a break. ;)

2 2

How to trigger errors in gui
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Oct. 15, 2022

Oct. 15, 2022

Hello, it wasn't that easy then I thought. :D I would like to give an error message to the user who is using the GUI. But not from the GUI code but from the cli backend. To be specific: In "snapshots.py::Snapshots.remove()" I want to fire an error and it should be displayed not only in terminal but in the GUI. It doesn't matter if it is a error-message-window or just a error-tooltip in the systray. I tried logger.error('my message') The message appears in the terminal but not in the GUI. On a first shot I would say a quick & dirty solution would be to check the return value here in the qt code: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/bcf4b9097842beb8c700f9f9c542ecd… and then calling errorHandler() https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/bcf4b9097842beb8c700f9f9c542ecd… But isn't there a more generic/automatic solution? Kind Christian

3 4

Improve handling of duplicated issues to keep all affected users informed
by J. A. Oct. 11, 2022

Oct. 11, 2022

Hi all, my current understanding of our issue handling of duplicates in Github is that we 1. add a link to the related issue (or vice verce) 2. close the issue as "duplicate" so that only one survives This has two disadvantages: 1. The OP (original poster) of the duplicated issue will not be informed about the progress of the surviving issue unless the OP posts at least one comment or explicitly subscribes to the surviving issue. This means eg. that the OP would (worst case) not even participate in testing a fix. 2. We cannot create reports issue reports on duplicated issues (eg. to count them or to keep them out of the statistics since they skew them). I suggest to - add and use a "Duplicate" tag to those closed issues (solves 2. above) - manually inform users about important milestones (like "fix posted - please test") in the linked duplicates; this must be done manually... (solves 1. above). Any opinions? Any suggestions esp. to solve 1. better (with less manual work)?

3 3

Next Debian freeze at 12. January 2023
by c.buhtz＠posteo.jp Oct. 8, 2022

Oct. 8, 2022

Hi Folks, I just realized that the next Debian freeze is terminated at 12th January next year. Freeze means that all packages in that debian repository prepared for the next release are freezed at the current state. Until that date only security and major bug fix are gone make it into the repo. So for BIT this is a good deadline to face the next release fixing the current high priority bugs. According to the rsync-incompatibility-problem (#1247) I see no big problem to fix it until then including intensive testing. I suspect that BIT will leave the Debian repo if this bug isn't fixed. About the other known problems I'm not enough into them to judge how much time that will take. Kind Christian

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by jacklesner046＠gmail.com Oct. 6, 2022

Oct. 6, 2022

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