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linuxmint / timeshift

System restore tool for Linux. Creates filesystem snapshots using rsync+hardlinks, or BTRFS snapshots. Supports scheduled snapshots, multiple backup levels, and exclude filters. Snapshots can be restored while system is running or from Live CD/USB.
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Custum schedules #57

Open a-pav opened 2 years ago

a-pav commented 2 years ago

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

If a user wants to create their own custom schedule, they're advised to disable all the predefined schedules, and create their own cron job. But disabling all predefined schedules makes --check useless, running it in such case says that Scheduled snapshots are disabled - Nothing to do! This is where things get inflexible.

--check can be of great help in manual commands and specially custom cron jobs. Using it means avoiding creation of unnecessary snapshots, which in turn means 1) no unnecessary interruption of user's workflow and 2) no unnecessary deletion of old (but possibly still valid and useful) snapshots because of exceeding the number of Keep.

An alternative option is to not disable (all) the predefined schedules, and then edit the timeshift-hourly file in /etc/cron.d directory. But this is not a viable option, as timeshift-hourly can be overwritten by timeshift without user's knowledge.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like to be able to use the goodies of --check. And I think the easiest way to make this happen is to introduce a new check box in 'Settings > Schedule tab' like below:

timeshift can keep creating and maintaining the timeshif-hourly file as long as the above checkbox is NOT selected by user.

Describe alternatives you've considered Don't know.

Additional context

I wanted to create a cron job to take system snapshots on every third day of the week, and also minimize the chance of having 'missed snapshots' and etc.

axellpadilla commented 11 months ago

I think the easiest way to solve this will be to add a "start between x and x hours" or "don't start between x and x hours" to solve most problems.

a-pav commented 11 months ago

@axellpadilla That's not terribly different from how Timeshift currently works, and it doesn't help at all in scenarios like wanting to take a snapshot on every third day of the week, for example.

Meanwhile in order to take a snapshot on every third day of the week, I came up with simple a solution. Since /etc/cron.d/timeshift-hourly is created by Timeshift, I created a cron job to delete it on an hourly basis to ensure it doesn't exist:

59 * * * * root rm -f /etc/cron.d/timeshift-hourly

Then I created my own custom cron job for taking snapshots:

0 8,12,16,20 * * sat,mon,wed root timeshift --check --scripted

And in GUI > Settings > Schedule, Daily is selected.

Basically, with /etc/cron.d/timeshift-hourly file being removed, one can write any custom schedule they like, utilizing cron job, --check flag and some tweak made to timeshift's Schedule settings.

axellpadilla commented 11 months ago

You are right, while first option is the easiest (coding less, solving most problems of execution at not desired times), it doesn't completely fix it. Next on line user-oriented, could but to just add a textbox where to type cron times on the GUI, all problems solved. The perfect one would be obviously to add full GUI configurable options.