Installation

This release contains the source code only but no distro packages.

To install the new release from the source code please follow our build & installation instructions

Known major open issues

• #1592: qt5_probing.py may hang with high CPU usage when running BiT as root via cron

Changes

Important note for package maintainers:
We are now using absolute paths to python3 which may impact how you build your package.
You can you use ./configure --python=PYTHON_PATH to configure this.

• Feature: Exclude 'SingletonLock' and 'SingletonCookie' (Discord) and 'lock' (Mozilla Firefox) files by default (part of #1555)
• Work around: Relax rsync exit code 23: Ignore instead of error now (part of #1587)
• Feature (experimental): Add new snapshot log filter rsync transfer failures (experimental) to find them easier (they are normally not shown as "error").
  This feature is experimental because it is based on hard-coded error message strings in the rsync source code
  and may possibly not find all rsync messages or show false positives.
• Fix bug: 'qt5_probing.py' hangs when BiT is run as root and no user is logged into a desktop environment (#1592 and #1580)
• Fix bug: Launching BiT GUI (root) hangs on Wayland without showing the GUI (#836)
• Improve: Launcher for BiT GUI (root) does not enforce Wayland anymore but uses same settings as for BiT GUI (userland) (#1350)
• Fix bug: Disabling suspend during taking a backup ("inhibit suspend") hangs when BiT is run as root and no user is logged into a desktop environment (#1592)
• Change of semantics: BiT running as root never disables suspend during taking a backup ("inhibit suspend") even though this may have worked before in BiT <= v1.4.1 sometimes (required to fix #1592)
• Fix bug: RTE: module 'qttools' has no attribute 'initate_translator' with encFS when prompting the user for a password (#1553).
• Fix bug: Schedule dropdown menu used "minutes" instead of "hours".
• Fix bug: Unhandled exception "TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable" in tools.py function __log_keyring_warning (#820).
  Logging thread removed and logger module correctly initialized as fix. Is "Heisenbug" so 100 % retesting was not possible.
• Build: Use PyLint in unit testing to catch E1101 (no-member) errors.
• Build: Activate PyLint warning W1401 (anomalous-backslash-in-string).
• Build: Add codespell config.
• Build: Allow manual specification of python executable (--python=PYTHON_PATH) in common/configure and qt/configure
• Build: All starter scripts do use an absolute path to the python executable by default now via common/configure and qt/configure (#1574)
• Build: Install dbus configuration file to /usr/share not /etc (#1596)
• Build: configure does delete old installed files (qt4plugin.py and net.launchpad.backintime.serviceHelper.conf) that were renamed or moved in a previous release (#1596)
• Translation: Minor modifications in source strings and updating language files.
• Refactor: Solved circular dependency between tools.py and logger.py to fix #820
• Improved: qtsystrayicon.py, qt5_probing.py, usercallbackplugin.py and all parts of app.py
  do now also use "backintime" as logging namespace in the syslog to ensure complete log output with journalctl | grep -i backintime

Statistics

• Issue progress report
• The language translation coverage increased from from 56 to 72 % since the new developer team started in summer 2022
  (thanks to all our translators and @buhtz to pursue this topic!)

Installation

This release contains the source code only but no distro packages.

To install the new release see: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CONTRIBUTING.md#build--install

Known major issues

• No issues known so far that are caused by this specific release

Changes

• Dependency: Add "qt translations" to GUI runtime dependencies (#1538)
• Build: Unit tests do generically ignore all instead of well-known warnings now (#1539).
• Build: Warnings about missing Qt translation now are ignored while testing (#1537).
• Fix bug: GUI didn't start when "show hidden files" button was on (#1535).

Installation

This release contains the source code only but no distro packages.

To install the new release see: https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/blob/dev/CONTRIBUTING.md#build--install

Known major issues

• https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1535 (fix available and scheduled for v1.4.1)

Changelog

• Project: Renamed branch "master" to "main" and started "gitflow" branching model.
• Refactor: Renamed qt4plugin.py to systrayiconplugin.py (we are using Qt5 for years now ;-)
• Refactor: Removed unfinished feature "Full system backup" (#1526)
• Fix bug: AttributeError: can't set attribute 'showHiddenFiles' in app.py (#1532)
• Fix bug: Check SSH login works on machines with limited commands (#1442)
• Fix bug: Missing icon in SSH private key button (#1364)
• Fix bug: Master issue for missing or empty system-tray icon (#1306)
• Fix bug: System-tray icon missing or empty (GUI and cron) (#1236)
• Fix bug: Improve KDE plasma icon compatibility (#1159)
• GUI Change: View last (snapshot) log button in GUI uses "document-open-recent" icon now instead of "document-new" (#1386)
• Fix bug: Unit test fails on some machines due to warning "Ignoring XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland on Gnome..." (#1429)
• Fix bug: Generation of config-manpage caused an error with Debian's Lintian (#1398).
• Fix bug: Return empty list in smartRemove (#1392, Debian Bug Report 973760)
• Fix bug: Taking a snapshot reports rsync errors now even if no snapshot was taken (#1491)
• Fix bug: takeSnapshot() recognizes errors now by also evaluating the rsync exit code (#489)
  Fixes related problem: Killing rsync was not handled gracefully (by ignoring the rsync exit code)
• Fix bug: The error user-callback is now always called if an error happened while taking a snapshot (#1491)
• Fix bug: D-Bus serviceHelper error "LimitExceeded: Maximum length of command line reached (100)":
  Max command length is now 120 instead of 100 (#1027)
• Feature: Introduce new error codes for the "error" user callback (as part of #1491):
  5: Error while taking a snapshot.
  6: New snapshot taken but with errors.
• Feature: The rsync exit code is now contained in the snapshot log (part of #489). Example:
  [E] Error: 'rsync' ended with exit code -9 (negative values are signal numbers, see 'kill -l')
• Fix bug: Treat rsync exit code 24 as INFO instead of ERROR (#1506)
• Breaking change: Minimal Python version 3.8 required (#1358).
• Removed: Handling and checking of user group "fuse" (#1472).
• Feature: Exclude /swapfile by default (#1053)
• Feature: Rearranged menu bar and its entries in the main window (#1487, #1478).
• Feature: Configure user interface language via config file and GUI.
• Documentation: Removed outdated docbook (#1345).
• Build: Introduced .readthedocs.yaml as asked by ReadTheDocs.org (#1443).
• Dependency: The oxygen icons should be installed with the BiT Qt GUI since they are used as fallback in case of missing icons
• Fix bug: Add support for ChainerBackend class as keyring which iterates over all supported keyring backends (#1410)
• Translation: Strings to translate now easier to understand for translators (#1448, #1457, #1462, #1465).
• Translation: Improved completeness of translations and additional modifications of source strings (#1454, #1512)
• Translation: Plural forms support (#1488).
• Removed: Translation in Canadian English, British English and Javanese (#1455).
• Added: Translation in Persian and Vietnamese (#1460).
• Added: Message to users (after 10 starts of BIT Gui) to motivate them contributing translations (#1473).

Changelog

• New feature: Command line argument "--diagnostics" to show helpful info for better issue support (#1100)
• GUI change: Remove Exit button from the toolbar (#172)
• GUI change: Define accelerator keys for menu bar and tabs, as well as toolbar shortcuts (#1104)
• Desktop integration: Update .desktop file to mark Back In Time as a single main window program (#1258)
• Improvement: Write all log output to stderr; do not pollute stdout with INFO and WARNING messages anymore (#1337)
• Bugfix: RTE "reentrant call inside io.BufferedWriter" in logFile.flush() during backup (#1003)
• Bugfix: Incompatibility with rsync 3.2.4 or later because of rsync's "new argument protection" (#1247). Deactivate "--old-args" rsync argument earlier recommaned to users as a workaround.
• Bugfix: DeprecationWarnings about invalid escape sequences.
• Bugfix: AttributeError in "Diff Options" dialog (#898)
• Bugfix: Settings GUI: "Save password to Keyring" was disabled due to "no appropriate keyring found" (#1321)
• Bugfix: Back in Time did not start with D-Bus error
  "dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NameHasNoOwner:
  Could not get owner of name 'net.launchpad.backintime.serviceHelper': no such name"
  (fixes client-side part of #921 - system D-Bus part of the Udev serviceHelper is still under investigation).
• Bugfix: Avoid logging errors while waiting for a target drive to be mounted (#1142, #1143, #1328)
• Bugfix: [Arch Linux] AUR pkg "backintime-git": Build tests fails and installation is aborted (#1233, fixed with #921)
• Bugfix: Wrong systray icon showing in Wayland (#1244)
• Documentation update: Correct description of profile.schedule.time in backintime-config manpage (#1270)
• Translation update: Brazilian Portuguese (#1267)
• Translation update: Italian (#1110, #1123)
• Translation update: French (#1077)
• Testing: Fix a test fail when dealing with an empty crontab (#1181)
• Testing: Fix a test fail when dealing with an empty config file (#1305)
• Testing: Skip "test_quiet_mode" (does not work reliably)
• Testing: Improve "test_diagnostics_arg" (introduced with #1100) to no longer fail
  when JSON output was mixed with logging output (part of #921, fixes #1233)
• Testing: Numerous fixes and extensions to testing (#1115, #1213, #1279, #1280, #1281, #1285, #1288, #1290, #1293, #1309, #1334)

CHANGELOG

• Fix bug: Tests no longer work with Python 3.10 (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1175)

CHANGELOG

• bump version, forgot to push branch to Github before releasing

Changelog

• Merge PR: Fix FileNotFoundError exception in mount.mounted, Thanks tatokis (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1157)
• Merge PR: qt/plugins/notifyplugin: Fix setting self.user, not local variable, Thanks Zocker1999NET (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1155)
• Merge PR: Use Link Color instead of lightGray as not to break theming, Thanks newhinton (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1153)
• Merge PR: Match old and new rsync version format, Thanks TheTimeWalker (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1139)
• Merge PR: 'TempPasswordThread' object has no attribute 'isAlive', Thanks FMeinicke (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1135)
• Merge PR: Keep permissions of an existing mountpoint from being overridden, Thanks bentolor (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/pull/1058)
• Fix bug: YEAR missing in config (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1023)
• Fix bug: SSH module didn't send identification string while checking if remote host is avilable (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/1030)

Bugfix release

Changelog:

• Fix bug: TypeError in backintime.py if mount failed while running a snapshot (#1005)

Final major release of Version 1.2.0

Changelog:

• switch to Qt5
• rewrite huge parts
• add unit-test for most important parts
• a lot more, I can't remember ;o)

Please find the full Changelog here

Fix a critical bug which allow shell injection

EDIT: This issue has been assigned CVE-2017-16667

Changelog:

• fix critical bug: shell injection in notify-send (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/834)

Fix some minor bugs and backport from 1.2.0

Changelog:

• fix bug: stat free space for snapshot folder instead of backintime folder (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/733)
• backport bug fix: backintime root crontab doesn't run; missinng line-feed 0x0A on last line (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/781)
• backport bug fix: can't open files with spaces in name (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/552)

This release fixes a critical bug which could be used to escalate permissions. @mgerstner identified a race condition in Polkit CheckAuthorization. It was reported as CVE-2017-7572

Changelog:

• backport bug fix: polkit CheckAuthorization: race condition in privilege authorization (CVE-2017-7572)

Again a Bug Fix release. I messed up the last release and BiT didn't take manual snapshots anymore. Sorry for the troubles.

Changelog:

• Fix bug: manual snapshots from GUI didn't work (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/728)

This is a bug-fix release for Back in Time. I pushed the last release a bit overhasty which broke automatic snapshots. Sorry

Changelog

• backport bug fix: start a new ssh-agent instance only if necessary (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/722)
• Fix bug: OSError when running backup-job from systemd (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/720)

Bug fix release fixing a critical bug which could make a system unboot-able if restoring filesystem-root as root without 'Full rsync mode' and with ACL and/or xattr activated.

Couple other bug fixes have been backported from 1.2. series, too.

Changelog

• backport bug fix: udev schedule not working (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/605)
• backport bug fix: Keyring doesn't work with KDE Plasma5 (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/545)
• backport bug fix: nameError in tools.make_dirs (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/622)
• backport bug fix: use current folder if no file is selected in files view
• Fix critical bug: restore filesystem-root without 'Full rsync mode' with ACL and/or xargs activated broke whole system (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/708)

Maintenance release which fixes two bugs in 1.1.10

Changelog:

• Fix bug: remove x-terminal-emulator dependency (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/515)
• Fix bug: AttributeError in About Dialog (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/515)

I'm happy to announce the release of BackInTime 1.1.10! A lot of things did happen for BackInTime 🙌

• first of all I moved BIT from Launchpad to GitHub. Code hosting and bug tracking is now on GitHub. Translations stays on Launchpad.
• we now have unittests which will help to prevent future bugs (thanks to Dorian, Alexandre, Aurélien and Gregory from IAGL)! This unittests will be checked with every new commit on travis-ci.org (thanks to Taylor).
• an unfinished new_snapshot can now be continued if possible. This will speed up the process a lot if a previous snapshot failed.
• GUI will now start much faster when using slow destinations (e.g. a NAS). The snapshots list will be loaded after the GUI comes up.
• I added a custom icon for the 'show hidden folders' button. The old + was very confusing.
• navigation with Nautilus shortcuts (e.g. ALT + ←) and Next/Previous Mouse Buttons are now possible.
• and of course lots of bug fixes

Full Changelog:

• Fix bug: failed to remove empty lock file (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/505)
• Add Icon 'show-hidden' (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/507)
• Add Modify for Full System Backup button to settings page, to change some profile settings
• Fix bug: Restore the correct file owner and group fail if they are not present in system (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/58)
• add get|set_list_value to configfile
• Fix bug: QObject::startTimer error on closing app
• subclass ApplicationInstance in GUIApplicationInstance to reduce redundant code
• speed up app start by adding snapshots to timeline in background thread
• add warning on failed permission restore (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/58)
• add unittest (thanks to Dorian, Alexandre, Aurélien and Gregory from IAGL)
• Fix bug: FileNotFoundError while starting pw-cache from source
• continue an unfinished new_snapshot if possible (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/400)
• Fix bug: suppress warning about failed inhibit suspend if run as root (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/500)
• Fix bug: UI blocked/greyed out while removing snapshot (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/487)
• Fix bug: pw-cache failed on leftover PID file, using ApplicationInstance now (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/468)
• Fix bug: failed to parse some arguments (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/492)
• Fix bug: failed to start GUI if launched from systray icon
• Fix bug: deleted snapshot is still listed in Timeline if using mode SSH (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/493)
• Fix bug: PermissionError while deleting readonly files on sshfs mounted share (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/490)
• Add Nautilus-like shortcuts for navigating in file browser (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/483)
• speed up mounting of SSH+encrypted profiles
• Fix bug: creat new encrypted profiles with encfs >= 1.8.0 failed (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/477)
• Fix bug: AttributeError in common/tools.py if keyring is missing (https://github.com/bit-team/backintime/issues/473)
• Fix bug: remote rename of 'new_snapshot' folder sometimes isn't recognized locally; rename local now (https://answers.launchpad.net/questions/271792)
• Move source code and bug tracking to GitHub