# &app; Manual

## Introduction

&app; is a simple backup tool for Linux (this is Gnome version). The backup is done by taking snapshots of a specified set of folders.

All you have to do is:

- configure where to save snapshots

- cofigure what folders to backup

- schedule automatic backup: disabled, every 5 minutes, every 10 minutes, every hour, every day, every week, every month

&app; acts as a "user mode" backup tool. This means that you can backup/restore only folders you have write access to (actually you can backup read-only folders, but you can't restore them).

If you want to run it as root you need to use "su" (command line), "gksu" (Gnome) or "kdesudo" (KDE).

A new snapshot is created only if something changed since the last snapshot (if any).

A snapshot contains all the files from the selected folders (except for exclude patterns). In order to reduce disk space it use hard-links (if possible) between snapshots for unchanged files. This way a file of 10Mb, unchanged for 10 snapshots, will use only 10Mb on the disk.

When you restore a file 'A', if it already exists on the file system it will be renamed to 'A.backup.currentdate'.

## Getting Started

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

- Choose System Tools Back In Time .

Command line

- To start &app; from a command line, type the following command, then press Return:

  `backintime [--gnome | --kde4] [ [--snapshots] path | --backup | --backup-job | --snapshots-list | --snapshots-list-path | --last-snapshot | --last-snapshot-path | --help | --version | --license]`

  - --gnome - use GNOME GUI (if installed)

  - --KDE4 - use KDE4 GUI (if installed)

  - path - go directly to the specified file or folder. If the application is already running if pass the path to the running instance. If the main window is not the only window (there is already a dialog) the parameter is ignored.

  - -s, --snapshots - go directly to the specified file or folder and show snapshots dialog. If the application is already running if pass the path to the running instance. If the main window is not the only window (there is already a dialog) the parameter is ignored.

  - -b, --backup - take a snapshot now (if needed).

  - --backup-job - take a snapshot (if needed) depending on schedule rules (used for cron jobs).

  - --snapshots-path - display the path where is saves the snapshots (if configured).

  - --snapshots-list - display the list of snapshot IDs.

  - --snapshots-list-path - display the path to snapshots.

  - --last-snapshot - display last snapshot ID.

  - --last-snapshot-path - display the path to the last snapshot.

  - -h, --help - display a small help and exit.

  - -v, --version - display the version and exit.

  - --license - show license and exit.

## Main Window

The Back In Time main window contains the following elements:

Main toolbar

- Take a new snapshot (if neccesary)

- Update snapshots list

- Edit selected snapshot's name

- Remove selected snapshot

- Settings dialog

- About dialog

- Help

- Quit

Files toolbar

- Go to parent folder

- Current path

- Show/Hide hidden (.*) and backup (*.~) files

- Restore current file/folder

- Copy current file/folder

- Snapshots: show all snapshots for current the file/folder

Snapshots list

- Navigate between 'now' and snapshots

Places list

- Quickly navigate to special folders: home, root, bookmarks and folders to backup

Files list

- Navigate through the file system at the moment specified in snapshots list.

  You can sort the files (by clicking on column headers):

  - by name (folders always first)
  - by size
  - by date

  If you double-click a file it will be opened using gnome file association. Keep in mind that snapshots are 'readonly'.

  If you double-click a folder it will go to that folder.

  If you "right-click" on a file or folder you will see a popup-menu

  - Open: open the item using gnome-open
  - Copy: copy selected item into clipboard (you can paste the file/folder into your file-manager)
  - Snapshots: show all snapshots for the current file/folder
  - Restore (only for snapshots items): restore selected file/folder

## Settings Dialog

When the application starts for the first time (not configured yet) this dialog is displayed automaticaly.

General

### Settings Dialog: General

Where to save snapshots.

You can schedule automatic backups:

- disabled
- every 5 minutes
- every 10 minutes
- every hour
- every day
- every week
- every month

Automatic backup use cron jobs so cron must be running.

Include

### Settings Dialog: Include

Define the folders you want to backup.

Exclude

### Settings Dialog: Exclude

For include folders you can exclude some files and directories.

You can specifiy them directly or using patterns.

Auto-Remove

### Settings Dialog: Auto-Remove

You can automatically remove snapshots older then a specific date or if the free space is less then a specified value.

Smart remove allow you to reduce the number of snapshots using the following rules:

- keep all snapshots from today and yesterday
- keep one snapshot for the last week and one for two weeks ago
- keep one snapshot per month for all previous months of this year
- keep one snapshot per year for all previous years

By default it does not remove named snapshots.

Options

### Settings Dialog: Options

Enable notifications: if there is an error while taking a snapshot it will display a notification popup.

### Settings Dialog: Expert Options

Enable schedule per included folder: if selected include list (include tab) will show a second column ('Schedule'). This column allow you to specify the schedule per folder.

## Snapshots Dialog

Show all snapshots for a specific file or folder.

### Snapshots Dialog

Double-click an item in the snapshots list to open it with gnome file associations.

When you select an item, you can:

- Jump to: close the dialog an go to the selected snapshot in the main window
- Copy the item to clipboard
- Restore it (only for snapshots)

You can compare two different snapshots. By default it use 'meld' to compare files adn folders. Use diff options to change the diff command and it's parameters.

If you "right-click" on a snapshot you will see a popup-menu

- Open: open the item using gnome-open
- Copy: copy selected item into clipboard (you can paste the file/folder into your file-manager)
- Jump to: close the dialog an go to the selected snapshot in the main window
- Restore (only for snapshots): restore selected file/folder
- Diff: compare it with another snapshot

## Integration with Nautilus

It is not are "real" integration with Nautilus but it is simple to setup.

You need to install nautilus-actions. On Ubuntu you can install it with the command:

`sudo apt-get install nautilus-actions`

Now just create an action from System Preferences Nautilus Actions Configuration .

1. Click Add button

### Nautilus Integration: Step 1

2. Menu Item & Action Tab

- %M - Open &app; directly to the specified path
- --snapshots %M - Open &app; an go to SnapshotsDialog for the specifies path

### Nautilus Integration: Step 2

You can set Action Parameters to:

3. Conditions Tab

### Nautilus Integration: Step 3

4. Advanced conditions Tab

### Nautilus Integration: Step 4

5. Click OK button, and you should see the new action in actions list

### Nautilus Integration: Step 5

That's it. Now from Nautilus "Right-click" the file/foder you want and click "Back In Time"

## user.callback

During backup process the application can call a user callback at different steps. This callback is "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/backintime/user.callback" (by default $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is ~/.config). The first argument is the reason:

- 1 - Backup process begins.

- 2 - Backup process ends.

- 3 - A new snapshot was taken. The extra arguments are snapshot ID and snapshot path.

- 4 - There was an error. The second argument is the error code:

  - 1 - The application is not configured.

  - 2 - A "take snapshot" process is already running.

  - 3 - Can't find snapshots folder (is it on a removable drive ?).

  - 4 - A snapshot for "now" already exist.

## About &app;

&app; was written by Oprea Dan (dan@le-web.org). To find more information about &app;, please visit the Back In Time Web page.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, sent a mail to dan@le-web.org.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public license version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation. A copy of this license can be found in the file LICENSE included with the source code of this program.