[SOLVED] Need Help with grsync Sessions

[LanceM]

Yes turn on automatic maintenance. Yo can remove much needed buildup by running

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get autoremove

then hit Enter and answer Y for yes and Enter again. Also you can remove kernels with Update Manager>View>Click Remove old kernels.
From then on, automatic maintenance will get rid of them on Monday mornings at boot up, otherwise you'll have to wait until Monday to see Automatic maintenance do its job.

[Iggy64]

LanceM,

Thank you very much for all your help in this thread. I think I stopped learning new things about Linux during the past year or two, and settled into just being a "user." Linux Mint xfce runs so flawlessly for me, I guess I just got lazy.

You've gotten me interested in getting a deeper understanding, and I'm going to start some new reading/learning.

I am very grateful for your help.

[cliffcoggin]

Do you need to start from the "Default" session configuration? Or can you start from the A to V-128 session?

Forget Default
Forget V-128
Just Click the + and then enter this in the Name: A to Toshiba 1T
Next navigate to the Source and Open it
Next navigate to the Destination and Open it
Now run the program by clicking the gears on the upper right.
Once it completes, it is automatically is saved and will be in the list in alphabetical order.

Iggy.
You are making things difficult for yourself. Follow Lance's advice and you can have as many stored sessions as you want. It's the way I always use Grsync.

[Iggy64]

Thanks for your input, cliffcoggin. Obviously, I can use all the help I can get on this seemingly simple issue.

And I'm sure your advice is correct.

However, in my particular case, when I add the new session according to LanceM's instructions (which are the same as those found elsewhere on the web), my new settings are not only saved as a new session with the name I give it --

they also overwrite the settings for the session that was previously open.

Example:

I have session CopyAtoB open.

I hit ADD and create the new session CopyCtoD, with new source and target folders.

Now I indeed have a new stored session CopyCtoD, and it is listed in the drop-down menu and it is appended to the grsync.ini file.

HOWEVER, I find that the CopyCtoD settings have ALSO been copied to the CopyAtoB session that was open previously. I can't even imagine how that happens, but it does. So I successfully got my new session, but ruined the previous one in the process. This is why I asked the question about what starting point you have to use.

Clearly, this is a problem that is only happening on my system right now. I am going to try the total re-install one more time (with my grsync.ini file safely backed up) to see if it resolves this weirdness.

I appreciate all the kind advice from people on this forum. I know my situation must seem rather ridiculous to you, and it certainly mystifies me.

[LanceM]

Please post the source and destination of both backups. For example:
Backup 1
Name A to Toshiba
Source /mnt/...
Destination /home/...
I'm looking for a conflict

[Iggy64]

Sorry for late response. Was traveling for a couple of days.

I've done the additional re-install, and am now running a bunch of experiments with the fresh install. If I run into more strangeness, I will document it and post here.

Nevertheless, I still find the design of the "Sessions" function a bit odd and unintuitive (for me). Ordinarily, when I am saving a software configuration (or a document, or whatever), I create the configuration, test it to make sure it is doing what I intend, and then select a definitive "Save" to capture the properly tuned configuration.

In the case of grsync, it seems I need to name the configuration FIRST, then enter the settings, then execute the command, without being sure that I am getting the results I want. This is why I always run a Simulation before doing a backup with grsync. To be honest, I can't tell WHEN grsync is actually saving my session configuration. And, if I need to fine tune the configuration, how do I overwrite it? Something about the way I think --- don't make fun of me now --- makes me uncomfortable with this arrangement.

I am far more at ease with the Export function. Here, I can set up a configuration, fine tune it though simulations to get only the files I want, with the attributes I want, and THEN choose "Export." I then know that I am exporting (saving) the finished product, and I can give it an appropriate name. I put all these exported session configurations into a folder on my backup drive. I also paste each exported configuration into my grsync.ini file, so it can be conveniently recalled from the drop-down menu in grsync.

Another option is to simply save the rsync command generated by grsync, and then use the terminal to run it at later dates. However, I still like the convenience of grsync for setting all the flags, generating the command, and providing a simple way to test (Simulate) the command each time I use it. Many times, the Simulation has protected me from copying files I didn't want to send, or from overlooking important files that might have been skipped otherwise.

Sorry to have made a mountain out of a molehill. I appreciate you patience in helping me find my way. I will be experimenting a bit more to see if I can gain any confidence in the "Add" function of grsync. If not, I have the above workarounds that are really not all that inconvenient. With something as important as backups, I need peace of mind.

[Iggy64]

In my newest set of tests, I have determined how my saved sessions were getting corrupted.

The problem arises because I am trying to design a new session configuration BASED ON AN EXISTING CONFIGURATION. That is, I already have set most of the flags and other settings I almost always used, and all I want to do is change the source and target folders, and maybe add a couple extra exclusions. So why start from scratch?

Here is an example:

I have a session called "Date Drive" open in grsync.

I want to build a new session configuration SIMILAR to "Data Drive," but with a few folders excluded and a few flags switched. So I make those changes in the window and run a simulation to see if it yields what I want.

I then find that the changes have been permanently added to my "Data Drive" session settings, even though I never hit an "ADD" button or hit SAVE or any other intention to make a permanent change. So, apparently, every time I run a simulation, I am changing the saved session that I already had open. I do not like this situation, where the program saves changes without asking.

Therefore, to create a new session, I MUST hit the ADD button to clear the window, so I don't overwrite the session I already had open. Thus, I cannot just tweak one session to create another. I have to start from scratch every time.

The other option is to make sure I go back to the "Default" configuration before I start designing a new session. I can fix the Default session so that it has most of the flags and other settings I most commonly used, so I don't have to start completely from scratch each time I build a new session configuration. Perhaps that was the intent of the program's designer.

Alternatively, I can do the entire job by editing the grsync.ini file, cloning one session and adding my desired modifications to create the second session.

[LanceM]

Here again, you are complicating things. I advised you to forget Default, A new backup just involves clicking the + and name it, then navigate to source and open. Same thing for destination. Then run it. That's all. Quit doing anything else.

[Iggy64]

Upon further and further review ---------

When I started this thread, I was using a year-old installation of grsync. When I would hit the ADD button to create a new session configuration, it would clear all the basic and advanced options, so I would have to enter all of my normal flags, filters, etc., from scratch. I found this rather tedious, so I kept trying to build a new session based on an old one, simply by changing the source and target folders. This, of course, did not work since all it did was change the settings of the old one! That is, grsync saves any changes you make to the session that is displayed in the drop-down menu window.

After re-installing grsync, I did not check to see whether clicking ADD would still clear all the basic and advanced options. In fact, it does not. It leaves everything intact now, so that the new session has all the exact same settings as the previous one, and I only have to change a few details. It appears that these changes are being spontaneously saved to the grsync.ini file, since I can immediately close grsync and reopen it to find my changes intact. So no action (like a simulation, execution, etc.) is needed to save the changes.

I guess this is what you have been trying to tell me all along; but my experience with the my original grsync installation threw me way off track, and got me trying to work around a problem that no longer existed after the re-installation.

I apologize for testing your patience, and I really appreciate your not seeing me on flames.

[LanceM]

so that the new session has all the exact same settings as the previous one, and I only have to change a few details.

You don't change details. You do the whole source and destination over after clicking the + and it clears the boxes and puts in the new. In other words, don't edit the text in source and destination.
Edit: Even though it will work to edit the text rather than navigate, I don't advise text modification, because it's easier to make a mistake and I'm trying to make it simple as possible, being as you are having problems. I guess if you have nit honed at this point it's irrelevant.