luckyBackup

Submitted by Peter on Sun, 2011-05-01 18:15

technology:

luckyBackup is the third backup listed in Ubuntu Software Centre when you search for backup. luckyBackup looks similar to File Backup Manager.

File Backup Manager failed to please because it stopped at an error with a useless error message. If luckyBackup can avoid the error or produce a useful message to help me fix the error, luckyBackup will replace File Backup Manager.

luckyBackup is just a graphical interface for a utility, in this case rsync. So many programs are fancy user interfaces for rsync that rsync must have some advantage over the alternatives.

The following paragraphs are the information presented by the Ubuntu Software Centre.
luckyBackup is an application that backs-up and/or synchronizes any directories with the power of rsync. Its main features are: backup, safety, synchronization, exclude/only include options, allows custom rsync options, remote connections, restore and dry-run operations, scheduling, profiles and command line mode.

It is simple to use, fast (transfers over only changes made and not all data), safe (keeps your data safe by checking all declared directories before proceeding in any data manipulation ), reliable and fully customizable.

The download is 4.7 MegaBytes and the space used on disk is 12 MB before you start defining backups. There is additional information and documentation at http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/.

Start the application

Select Applications, System Tools, then luckyBackup (super user). You are asked for your password. The application then starts with the following screen.

luckybackup start screen showing a startup message about the creation of a user profile.

Tests

The luckyBackup user interface is primitive, the help information almost useless, and there are so many problems I will delete luckyBackup from my computer.

Modern computer screens are short and wide because they are designed to show movies, not information. Modern application interfaces are flexible to work with the distorted screen shapes. The luckyBackup user interface only works on screens with lots of vertical space. I cannot use luckyBackup on one of my computers.

I tried to access a share across a network. Linux can access the share but luckyBackup will not access the share. I do not want permanent shares for daily backups so I do not mind not using a permanent share.

luckyBackup has a spot to define a remote destination but I could not make it work. There is a place to specify a user but not a password. There is a verify button that says the connection works then the connection fails.

Comments

luckyBackup is fantastic, actually.

Permalink Submitted by Bruce on Sat, 2012-01-07 05:37

I found this page while goofing off on the internet. So just in case somebody happens upon this page - I wanted to make sure they know that luckyBackup is actually quite fantastic. While it may be true that the documentation reads more like a reference manual and the interface may not be as intuitive as the latest Apple product it's still the best rsync front-end that I've ever seen. It has also recently been nominated on LinuxQuestion for the Best Backup Software of 2011.
I'm not sure I even understand some of the problems the author of this page is talking about. I know LB displays just fine on every monitor I have and they're all widescreen monitors. The problem with network shares might be that he can open SMB share via KDE/Gnome and expects that luckyBackup should be able to do the same. However since LB is just a “front-end” to rsync and rsync is not designed to use SMB shares… well, it won’t work (at least no so easily). I can only guess based on what he's wrote here that he has somewhat limited knowledge of Linux and close to no understanding of rsync at all. But his lack of understanding shouldn't be attributed as problems with luckyBackup.
Anyhow, if you're looking for a fantastic, well wrote, highly functional rsync front-end then luckyBackup is one of the best that currently exist.

What is rsync?

Permalink Submitted by Peter on Sun, 2012-01-08 21:33

Hello Bruce, You write from the perspective of someone who already knows rsync. What is rsync to most computer users? An unknown prerequisite they have to learn before they can understand luckyBackup. I know what rsync does and have used rsync but a backup program should not require the user to understand the utilities used in the background. Should the user of a backup program have to study HTTP or the BIOS? No. Rsync, if used, should be invisible.

If they do learn enough about rsync to understand the syncronisation performed by rsync, they will realise it is only suitable for some types of backups and not suitable for the most common type of backup, the point-in-time backup. If the backup program chooses to use rsync then the backup program is responsible for that choice, not the end user. The backup program has to perform the right type of backup and has to produce usable error messages if the backup program cannot complete the task.

If there are limitations in the backup, the backup program has to tell the user. One of the reasons so many people hate the old Microsoft backup program is there experience of Microsoft backup saying it is incompatible with exisiting backup files. You should know all the problems and limitations before you need to restore.

The same type of distress occurs when someone tries to use rsync and ends up with rsync overwriting existing versions of files instead of creating new versions. If you do not create the perfect settings for rsync, you cannot restore a specific version of a file from a known date. That is where a front end application is useful because the front end application can form descrete backups and catalogue the results. luckyBackup did not tell me how to create the type of backup I needed and I am not going to waste time readingluckyBackup code to work out how it uses rsync.

The other problem with GUI applications blindly using utilities in the background is the lack of error information returned by the utilities. The GUI applications should take charge, use the code library used by the utility, and insert the required diagnostics at the required points. The GUI can then detect errors and tell you what is happening instead of failing with cryptic rubbish.

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