#cronopete — Public Fediverse posts

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Don Watkins (@linuxnerd) shares how Cronopete brings Time Machine-style backups to Linux! A reliable, open source way to protect your files.

https://allthingsopen.org/articles/how-to-cronopete-linux-backup

#WeLoveOpenSource #Linux #OpenSourceTools #Cronopete #Backup

Cronopete: A Time Machine like backup for Linux

There are lots of ways to backup Linux. One of them is using the ‘tar’ command which was the first method I used many years ago when I was a Linux newbie. Later I used ‘rsync’ to backup a mail server that was running on RHEL 2.1. Linux is like a Swiss Army knife when it comes to bacup options. I’m no longer backing up file servers. These days I’m backing up my workstation or the laptop I used to write most of the articles I write. I had been using DejaDup when a fellow blogger suggested I try Cronopete. He said it was a lot like Time Machine on macOS. Having used Time Machine in the past I was familiar with the interface and the general idea.

Cronopete is one of the gems of the open source world and I’ve often wished that it were available for more than Linux. The current version is 4.19.0 and the easiest way to get it is to go to the Rastersoft website and download it for your Linux distribution. The project provides packages for ‘rpm’ and ‘deb’ based systems. You can choose to build it from source if you need a different solution. I downloaded the ‘rpm’ package for Fedora because that’s what I needed. Once the package is in my download folder I double click and it’s ready to install.

After the software is installed the program creates a shortcut on the task bar at the lower right of the display.

Click on that icon and you have the option to ‘Configure the backups’. Immediately an intuitive graphic appears that’s very easy to configure options for your particular backup needs.

At the top right of the configuration panel you are given the option to store the backups in a local folder or in an external drive. I have a one terabyted external drive for my workstation and a smaller thumb drive for the laptop. In the middle of the configuration panel there is an option to change the backup destination. Next to that is a button to choose what folders to backup. The program defaults to ‘/home/user’. Cronopete is not designed to backup an entire computer along with configuration files like Timeshift on Linux Mint. Be sure to ‘Enable backups’ at the lower left of the configuration panel.

According to the project, “As a backup utility, it makes periodically a copy of all the user files in a separate hard disk, thus allowing to recover them in case of accidentally deleting a file, or if the main hard disk gets damaged. Each copy is stored separately (one copy per hour is kept for the last 24 hours, one daily copy for the last 15 days, and one weekly copy for the rest), which means that the user can choose which copy to restore. Files that do not change between backups are stored as hard links, and thus each new copy uses much less disk space than a true full copy. Internally, it uses RSync to do all the backup work.”

Configure what you are going to backup is the next process and the interval for those backups if desired. There are advanced options which include backing up hidden files and folders and extended attributes.

Once the configuration is complete I am ready to perform the backup. I am going to choose the first option to ‘Back Up Now.’ If this is your first backup Cronopete will provide you with the option of formatting the backup drive.

If your drive is already formated choose ‘Mount and Open’ and now you are ready to begin your first backup. When the home directory is backing up the ‘anaCronopete’ icon on the task bar will appear green. When the process is complete it will return to a gray color.

After backing up the files you can open your file manager and you will find a folder marked ‘cronopete.’ Opening that folder you will find subfolders each date and time stamped for the backup that occurred.

Restoring from backup is just as easy. Return to the ‘Cronopete’ icon on the taskbar at the lower right of the display and choose ‘Restore files.’ You will be presented with a graphic of your backed up files each with a time stamp of when the backup occurred. Use the two blue arrows at the top right to find the particular backup time and either select all or select the folder and/or the file you want to restore. Highlight the file or folder and click on ‘Restore files’ at the top left of the display.

Cronopete is open source with a GPL v 3.0 license.

#backuip #cronopete #Linux

@rasterweb Well the problem is there is nothing in #Linux exactly like Apple's Time Machine. In particular, nothing includes the "Migration Assistant" functionality that is based on having a current Time Machine backup. In terms of GUI, the closest thing I ever came across was a program called #Cronopete, but I never actually used it.

Many people, myself included, use two programs. I use #Timeshift to back up the system and the root directory (the latter because it changes very infrequently) and I set it to make a backup once or twice a week. Then, to back up my user directory, I use #BackInTime and have it set to make a backup every four hours. Of course these are incremental backups, in both cases my understanding is that (much like Time Machine) only data that has been added or changed since the previous backup is actually saved to the backup drive.

Timeshift has one glaring fault in that you can tell it how often to backup, but not WHEN to do the backups. There is a workaround (https://twosortoftechguys.wordpress.com/2024/07/24/how-to-force-timeshift-to-schedule-backups-at-a-specific-time-of-day/) but why they don't give you this ability in the Timeshift GUI is beyond me.

I have also never understood why it is recommended to run both programs to back up different parts of the system, or why no one has developed one program that does it all. I guess technically you can set Timeshift to back up everything but nobody seems to recommend that, and I don't really understand why. I THINK both Timeshift and BackInTime use rsync "under the hood". And there are several other #backup programs, those are just the two I have seen recommended most often for Linux users.

@therealahall I am in kind of the same situation, I am starting the process of transitioning from a #Mac to a #Linux system running #Ubuntu 24.04 (but I also installed #QuickEMU so I can run a different distro or even Windows or @MacOS in a virtual machine if I really want to). Some things seem to work fine but differently enough to be maddening, for example I run Firefox on both systems and have it configured pretty much the same (so links open in new tabs) but if I send a link to Firefox in MacOS from another application it opens the link in a new tab AND brings Firefox to the foreground. In Ubuntu it still opens the link in a new tab but Firefox remains in the background, so I think nothing has happened and click the link several times (each time opening yet another tab that I don't see) until it dawns on me that this is Linux and I have to click the Firefox icon in the dock.

In MacOS I an used highlighting a media file or image or text file in Finder and hitting the spacebar and having it display in QuickLook. In whatever Ubuntu's equivalent of Finder is, that doesn't happen.

For a terminal program I am using #Tabby but while it is pretty good it is no #iTerm2. Again it's little things that just work in iTerm2 that don't in Tabby. I have heard there are better programs, I would like to find one that lets you display your profiles in a sidebar like iTerm2 does (so you can just double click` on one to open a new tab using that profile).

For Mastodon I am trying #Tuba but what I don't like about it is it doesn't save your place in the (home) timeline so you can go back to reading where you left off, reading oldest to newest.

For a #RSS reader I am trying Fluent Reader (in place of Vienna in MacOS), it is okay but I wish that in Magazine View it would give you the choice to display the full text of articles, like Vienna does. Also it doesn't have an option to let you undo a "mark all read" operation in case you do that by mistake.

In place of Little Snitch I am using #OpenSnitch, it seems to work quite well other than that it doesn't honor the system theme.

I use #Joplin in place of Apple Notes and highly recommend it, I have been using it now for quite some time.

I use #Timeshift and #BackInTime instead of Time Machine to do backups, don't really get why you're supposed to use Timeshift for system backups and BackInTime for home directory backups but they seem to work so I am okay with them. If you are looking for something that looks more like Time Machine there is #Cronopete but I am not sure if it is still being actively developed.

At the moment it just seems like there are a bunch of small annoyances (such as notification sounds not being loud enough in some applications even though the system sound volume is all the way up). In time I am sure I will work through several of them (and already have done so with some, such as finding the Gnome extension that puts system notifications up on the upper right of the screen instead of the middle, and another that actually makes them stay on the screen long enough to be read!) but I have several things I am trying to get done at once so for the moment getting Ubuntu fully configured is kind of on the back burner. Anyway, if you find any apps you think do a great job of replacing equivalent MacOS apps I would be interested in hearing about them!