Back in Time v1.4.3 (Jan 30, 2024)

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!)

Back in Time 1.4.1 (Oct. 1, 2023)

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

• #1553: RTE: module 'qttools' has no attribute 'initate_translator' (encFS when prompting the user for a password)

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).

Statistics

• Issue progress report
• The language translation coverage increased from 38 to 56 % since the new developer team started in summer 2022
  (thanks to all our translators and @buhtz to pursue this topic!)

Back in Time 1.4.0 (Sept. 14, 2023)

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

• #1553: RTE: module 'qttools' has no attribute 'initate_translator' (encFS when prompting the user for a password)
• #1535 (fix in 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).

Release 1.3.3 (Jan 3, 2023)

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)

Back in Time 1.3.2

CHANGELOG

• Fix bug: Tests no longer work with Python 3.10 (#1175)

Back in Time 1.3.1

CHANGELOG

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

Back in Time 1.3.0

Changelog

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

Back in Time 1.2.1

Bugfix release

Changelog:

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

Back in Time 1.2.0

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

Back in Time 1.1.24

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 (#834)