Deja Dup

[Tony Arnold]

Johnny,


On 09/01/16 18:02, Johnny Rosenberg wrote:

> Anyway, Deja Dup has been around for a while and I thought that I wanted
> to give it a go, but I just can't figure out how to make it actually do
> anything…
>
> Here are my settings.
> Folders to save: Home (<MyUserName>)
> Folders to ignore: Trash
> Place to store: Local folder (/media/<MyUserName>/Backup 2000/Deja
> Dup/<MyName>)
> Schedule: Every day, keep for at least 6 months

These settings look OK to me.

> The button at the upper right corner of the window is ON.
> At Overview, both buttons (”Reblaha” and ”Backup now”) are greyed out
> and can not be used.

This is normal if you have that button set to ON. Turn the button off 
and you can then use the Backuo Now as a test.

> So how do I make the backup to actually do something? ”Backup now”
> doesn't work and nothing happens at all. My USB drive is turned on and
> working.
>
> Also, WHEN is it supposed to backup my files? That is at what time? The
> perfect time would of course be when I turn my computer off (I didn't do
> that yet, though), making sure a backup is taking place when no more
> files will be added or changed for that session. Is that how it actually
> works?

OK. Deja Dup only operates when you are logged in. It is controlled by a 
small daemon that gets started when you log in and runs as you. If you 
don't logout and leave your machine running, the backups will happen at 
about 1am in the morning. Otherwise they will happen shortly after you 
login.

You may need to logout and back in again to get the daemon to run.

I've not seen anywhere where you can control what time it runs.

> Do I need to turn my USB disk on before backup is taking place? For
> instance, if I try to backup using my own script, the script pops up a
> dialogue that tells me that I need to start my USB drive, and then it
> gives me 2 minutes to do so. During those two minutes, it constantly
> checks for the drive and starts the backup automatically when it finds
> it. Does Deja Dup use a similar approach?

Deja Dup assumes the backup target is present and available. I backup to 
a local directory so I've not tried this, but I suspect the backup will 
fail if it cannot write to the target device.


HTH.

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Analyst, University of Manchester.
T: +44 (0) 161 275 6093, F: +44 (0) 705 344 3082,
M: +44 (0) 773 330 0039, E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk