Source : http://www.le-web.org
Back In Time is a simple backup system for Linux inspired from “flyback project” and “TimeVault”. The backup is done by taking snapshots of a specified set of directories.
Currently there are two GUI available: Gnome and KDE 4 (>= 4.1).
All you have to do is configure:
- Where to save snapshot
- What directories to backup
- When backup should be done (manual, every hour, every day, every week, every month)
Table Of Contents
- Screenshots
- Documentation
- Getting Started
- Main Window
- Settings Dialog
- Snapshots Dialog
- Integration with Nautilus
- FAQ
- Change Log
- Download
- Ubuntu Hardy & Intrepid repository
Screenshots
| Gnome |
| Main Window | Settings Dialog | Snapshots Dialog | Snapshots Dialog (2) |
 |  |  |  |
| KDE 4 |
| Main Window | Settings Dialog | Snapshots Dialog | Diff Options Dialog |
 |  |  |  |
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Documentation
Why did I write the application ? When I read about Apple’s TimeMachine I thought it’s nice tool to have. I searched for equivalent applications for Linux and I find TimeValut and FlyBack. I didn’t feel very comfortable with TimeVault, especialy with it’s timeline. FlyBack was almost what I was looking for: I wanted a Places/Bookmarks column and I wanted snapshots only when something changed (just to reduce the number of snapshots).
Keep in mind that Back In Time is just a GUI. The real magic is done by rsync (take snapshots and restore), diff (check if somethind changed) and cp (make hardlinks).
Back In Time acts as a “user mode” backup system. 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).
A new snapshot is created only if something changed since the last snapshot (if any).
A snapshot contains all the files from the selected directories (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.’.
For automatic backup it use “cron” so there is no need for a daemon, but “cron” must be running.
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Getting Started
You can start the application in the following ways:
- Applications Menu: System Tools > Back In Time
- Command line:
backintime [ [--snapshots] path | --backup | --version | --help ]
- path: go directly to the specified file or directory
- -s, –snapshots: go directly to SnapshotsDialogs
- -b, –backup: take a snapshot now (if needed)
- -v, –version: show version and exit
- -h, –help: show a small help and exit
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Main Window
| Gnome | KDE 4 |
| |
The main window is divided in 3 lists:
- Timeline: allow you to navigate between ‘now’ and snapshots
- Places: allow to quickly navigate to special folders: home, root, bookmarks and directories to backup
- Files: allow to navigate through the file system at the moment specified in timeline list. Files can be opened (double-click) using gnome file association. Keep in mind that snapshots are ‘readonly’. You can sort items by name (folders always first), by size or by date.
If you right-click and item in the file list you will see the following menu:
- Open the item using gnome-open
- Copy selected item (you can paste it into your file-manager)
- Snapshots: show all snapshots for the current file/directory
- Restore (only for snapshots items) selected file/directory
Main toolbar (the one on the left) items are:
- Take a new snapshot now
- Set snapshot name
- Remove snapshot
- Show configure dialog
- Show about dialog
- Show help
- Quit the application
Files toolbar (the one on the right) items are:
- Go to parent directory
- Current path
- Show/Hide hidden (.*) and backup (*~) files
- Restore current file/directory
- Copy current file/directory
- Show all snapshots for the current file/directory
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Settings Dialog
| Gnome | KDE 4 |
| |
Where to save snapshots is self-explaining.
What to backup define the directories you want to backup. From this directories you can exclude some files/directories using exclude pattern. By default it exclude hidden (”.*”) and “*.backup*” files/directories.
Automatic backup can be set to: none (default), every 5 minutes, every 10 minutes, every hour, every day, every week, every month. If your backup directory is on a removable drive (ex: usb-drive) it is recommended to set automatic backup to none and take manual snapshots when the drive is plugged.
You can automatically remove snapshots older then a specific date or if the free space is less then a specified value. By default automatic remove don’t remove named snapshots.
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Snapshots Dialog
Show all snapshots for a specific file or directory.
Double-click an item in the snapshots list to open it with gnome file associations.
When you select an item, you can (from right-click menu or from toolbar and buttons):
- jump to
- copy to clipboard
- compare it with another snapshot (by default it use meld, but you can change this from ‘Diff Options’)
- restore it (only for snapshots)
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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 menu: Preferences > Nautilus Actions Configuration.
Step 1. Click Add button
Step 2. Menu Item & Action Tab
Parameters:
- %M: go to specified path
- –snapshots %M: go to SnapshotsDialog
Step 3. Conditions Tab
Step 4. Advanced conditions Tab
Step 5. Click OK button, and you should see the new action in actions list
Ubuntu Hardy & Intrepid repository
I setup a small repository to make updates easier.
You need to add the following line to your apt sources file (/etc/apt/sources.list)
deb http://www.le-web.org/repository2 stable main
and then add the GPG key information:
wget http://www.le-web.org/repository2/le-web.key
sudo apt-key add le-web.key
Then to install the the application for Gnome:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install backintime-common backintime-gnome
or KDE4 (>= 4.1):
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install backintime-common backintime-kde4
