The GUI, the bad and the ugly

So this is hopefully the last release candidate before RTM.

Usually, at this stage, we wouldn't add new features, but restic 0.17 made a killer feature that was quite easy to implement.
The feature allows to run commands and backup their stdout, while getting the error codes from said command (I look at you mysqldump !)
It has been implemented as backup_opts.source_type: stdin_from_command and backup_opts.stdin_from_command: your command parameters in the config file.

Another minor feature is --housekeeping CLI parameter which is just a quick shorthand for existing code.
Finally, and since we have housekeeping, a new task creation entry was necessary, in order to fully appreciate it ;)

As usual for the last RCs, CLI didn't really need a lot of love (it's used for more than 100 workloads), but GUI did.
Getting the GUI right si really a painfull experience, but the payout is enough when it comes to quickly write config files that later can be used on headless servers.

Anyway, here's the full list of changes since RC3

• Features
  • Implement --stdin-from-command restic function
  • Implement --housekeeping shorthand for --check, --forget & --prune
  • Improve task creation
    • Implement housekeeping task creation
    • Fix double task creation on linux
• GUI fixes
  • Fix slow GUI when lots of snapshots exists, thanks to @markft
  • Fix loading alternative config file, also try to load default config files with absolute paths
  • Fix prometheus labels not saving
  • Fix reloading config UX
  • Improve group inheritance by removing identical group/repo values from repo config
  • Allow the GUI to act as CLI with --run-as-cli argument
  • Improve UX by allowing non existent repos to not drop errors on first load
• Default logs to current dir for Windows
• Reintroduce --debug parameter on top of _DEBUG=true
• Check source type before launching backup

Interim build

This is a quick and dirty interim build for internal testing purposes.

The release I wanted

This third release candidate of NPBackup v3 is mostly done because we shifted from PySimpleGUI to FreeSimpleGUI framework.

Other minor issues resolved:

• Added special __all__ argument to --repo-name for group operations
• Fixed group operations when bogus repo names / group names were given
• Better error messages when missing subject for restic commands

This is it (for a better release candidate)

So TBH, last RC1 was a trainwreck when talking about the GUI experience, and should have been a beta instead of an RC.
To be fair, making the GUI has been a real pain experience to deal with, where compiled builds couldn't work because of esoteric framework code, and the framework has been forked because it changed it's licensing... Lots of fun situations.

ARM builds will be uploaded later this day.

Anyway, this RC2 fixes the following since RC1:

• Fixed linux executables built on RHEL 7 didn't work on Ubuntu and alikes, thanks to @guss77 for reporting
• Fixed environment variables weren't parsed, thanks to @BJSchmidt for reporting
• Fixed GUI inheritance didn't show up properly, thanks to @GuitarBilly for reporting
• Fixed GUI manager password didn't save on first try, thanks to @GuitarBilly for reporting
• Fixed GUI repo/group creation didn't update window
• Fixed GUI full repo URI was shown in operations view, thanks to @GuitarBilly for reporting
• Improved master password strength test
• Improved bytes/bits values reading from configuration
• Various cosmetic GUI improvements
• Updated to latest restic version 0.17
• Fixed linux task creation missed username
• Added --no-cache option
• Added manual --init command (even if backup already does init)
• exclude_files path are now tested against current path if not found

Pre-compiled binaries can be found in the assets below, or install via python -m pip install npbackup==3.0.0rc2

This is it (at least for a release candidate)

v3.0.0 first release candidate

This is a full rewrite of NPBackup v2.
The application has been splitted into GUI, a CLI and Viewer applications.
Viewer application doesn't need any configuration file, and just can connect to virtually any restic repo to view and restore files.

The GUI has been a real pain to make right, since it must run on all platforms without being a web app, the delay has been long. It took more than 500 commits and alot of sleepless nights / caffeinated days to get here ^^
Configuration format is brand new, and allows to set multiple repo settings that inherit repo group settings, making it easy to create an orchestrator instance that handles retention policies, checks and cleaning on multiple repositories.
Prometheus support has been extended for other operations than backup.
CLI has full json support via --json allowing to be used via APIs.

There are much too many new features & fixes to state here, see CHANGELOG for more.

I know the documentation isn't existing yet, but I'd love to get some feedback in order to make things right. Issue #59 is open for blockers that should make it in v3. Please create separate issues for any trouble you might encounter.

Pre-compiled binaries can be found in the assets below.
Of course you can install via python -m pip install npbackup==3.0.0rc1.post4

Cheers

Getting the GUI done

The second beta release of NPBackup 3.

• Adds missing NTP parameter for retention policies
• GUI: Moves retention policies to separate tab
• GUI: Multiple configuration fixes
• GUI: Reduces backend output overhead
• CLI: Fixes bogus return on --forget
• CLI/GUI: Adds --repo-name parameter
• CLI: Makes --dry-run acceptable for other commands than backup

Features, features, features

This is our first beta release of v3.

Beta testers are highly welcome at this point.

What is working ?

• Almost everything
  What isn't fully working but should in v3 ?
• Loading a new config, cancel loading a config
• Retention policiy (yes, I do understand the irony for the PR comming with the specifc branch name)
• pre/post script status for prometheus

What's probably not going to make it into v3 ?

• Task creation (will probably postpone this to v3.1 or so)
• Windows installer (needs full overhaul. Perhaps even a simple SFX script is enough)

v3.0.0-alpha3

This is an interim release to make npbackup viewer executable available.
We're pretty close to a general v3 release.

Full Changelog: v2.2.1...v3.0.0-alpha3

CLI looks good

So hopefully this is the last alpha release for NPBackup v3.

The CLI works great and is mostly complete except for group operations. Give it a run, especially the JSON part is neat.
The GUI almost works, except for the config file editor which is a real pain to get properly done with PySimpleGUI, hence the alpha status.

I'l like to backup backup

NPBackup maintenance release.

The pre-built executables we ship will work for:

• Linux amd64 (glibc >= 2.17)
• Linux arm and arm64 (glibc >= 2.24).
• Windows x64 (Windows >= 10)
• Windows x86 (Windows >= 7)

Windows pre-built executables are signed with an EV certificate, but some antivirus engines still detect the executables as viruses.
The reason is simlple, they classify Nuitka Python compiler as potential malware... See https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/27de41dd63d31af2d5d7881ae11ee23ddb4f4db85f4d213ec367ab9eabc67035?nocache=1
Since I sign the pre-built executables with our company EV token, I can guarantee they are safe to use.

The executables for arm are compiled without GUI support, since they are supposed to run on NAS devices.
Feel free to ask if you need GUI support baked in.

Happy backups ;)

Features

• Added snapshot deletion option in GUI
• Adjusted default backend connections and cpu core usage to imrove overall speed

Fixes

• Fix ignore_cloud_files parameter that parses restic output in order to determine if an error comes from a reparse point. This is Windows specific

Misc

• Updated internal restic binary to 0.16.0 compiled with go1.20.6
• Compiled with newer Nuitka 1.7.10 that allows use of Python 3.11
• Updated python to version 3.11 for Windows x64 targets
• Basic MacOS X compile support