Back In Time

Scheduler rarely works - can we use anacron instead?

Asked by Mike Fairbank

Firstly thanks for a great app. However I cannot get the scheduler to automate the process of taking snapshots - I have to do it by hand.

I think it is because I switch my computer off when I'm not using it. Is that the problem?

Would using anacron instead of cron fix this? If so, please could this feature be added?

Think of all the energy that could be saved!

Thanks.

Mike F

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Bart de Koning
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Revision history for this message
Bart de Koning (bratdaking) said : 		#1

What is the frequency of backups that you make?

Revision history for this message
Mike Fairbank (michael-fairbank) said : 		#2

I do daily backups. It did work for the first time last night when I left my computer on over-night, but it's never worked on the automatic scheduler before. Usually, I don't leave my computer on over-night.

FYI: I've also recently selected the expert option "enable schedule per included folder", and selected the corresponding field on the "include" tab to "every day".

Revision history for this message
Best Bart de Koning (bratdaking) said : 		#3

That is because the daily option runs a cronjob @daily, if I am not mistaken
that is normally scheduled at 0.00 h
If you leave it on for only a few hours take every hour instead, than you
will definitely not miss the scheduled point.
If you do not backup to a FAT32 partition it will not use a lot of space as
backintime hardlinks unchanged files, and you can use the smart-remove
option to keep only a few snapshots after a certain amount of time.

One advise turn the schedule per included folder off if you did not patch
the snapshot.py by hand: it is still broken in the current version
(the hardlinks do not work, and it takes a lot of time to take snapshots)

Cheers,
Bart

2009/9/2 Mike Fairbank <email address hidden>

> Question #81634 on Back In Time changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/backintime/+question/81634
>
> Status: Needs information => Open
>
> Mike Fairbank gave more information on the question:
> I do daily backups. It did work for the first time last night when I
> left my computer on over-night, but it's never worked on the automatic
> scheduler before. Usually, I don't leave my computer on over-night.
>
> FYI: I've also recently selected the expert option "enable schedule per
> included folder", and selected the corresponding field on the "include"
> tab to "every day".
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are an answer
> contact for Back In Time.
>

Revision history for this message
Bart de Koning (bratdaking) said : 		#4

To answer your question: anacron would be a nice idea to be used for the
daily, weekly or monthly tasks indeed, as it is a shell over cron, however
for the jobs less than a day anacron cannot be used if I am not mistaken...

2009/9/3 Bart <email address hidden>

> That is because the daily option runs a cronjob @daily, if I am not
> mistaken that is normally scheduled at 0.00 h
> If you leave it on for only a few hours take every hour instead, than you
> will definitely not miss the scheduled point.
> If you do not backup to a FAT32 partition it will not use a lot of space as
> backintime hardlinks unchanged files, and you can use the smart-remove
> option to keep only a few snapshots after a certain amount of time.
>
> One advise turn the schedule per included folder off if you did not patch
> the snapshot.py by hand: it is still broken in the current version
> (the hardlinks do not work, and it takes a lot of time to take snapshots)
>
> Cheers,
> Bart
>
>
> 2009/9/2 Mike Fairbank <email address hidden>
>
> Question #81634 on Back In Time changed:
>> https://answers.launchpad.net/backintime/+question/81634
>>
>> Status: Needs information => Open
>>
>> Mike Fairbank gave more information on the question:
>> I do daily backups. It did work for the first time last night when I
>> left my computer on over-night, but it's never worked on the automatic
>> scheduler before. Usually, I don't leave my computer on over-night.
>>
>> FYI: I've also recently selected the expert option "enable schedule per
>> included folder", and selected the corresponding field on the "include"
>> tab to "every day".
>>
>> --
>> You received this question notification because you are an answer
>> contact for Back In Time.
>>
>
>

Revision history for this message
Mike Fairbank (michael-fairbank) said : 		#5

Ok thanks. I've adopted the hourly backup solution you describe and it works, thank you. Yes anacron apparently will not work for periods less than a day.

If you get time please could you consider implementing anacron for backups of daily/weekly/monthly, and cron for the more frequent backups. The hourly solution you describe could be processor/read-write intensive, but the anacron solution would be more environmentally friendly. What do you think?

Revision history for this message
Mike Fairbank (michael-fairbank) said : 		#6

Thanks Bart de Koning, that solved my question.