simple-backup-config does not check for validity of regex exclusion rules

[Michele]

Binary package hint: sbackup

cheers everybody. I am on Gutsy, using sbackup 0.10.4.
If one enters an invalid regex in the simple-backup-config dialog, no warning is issued,
the flawed regex is saved to sbackup.conf file, and when sbackupd is launched,
it fails miserably.

the problem is made even worse by the fact that simple-backup-config is not
reporting any error message from the sbackupd process it spawns.

beside the fact that probably one should find a way to report some information
about what's going on, at least when the backup is launched from the GUI,
this particular issue should be fixed, as it could take time for the average user to
understand what's going wrong (ok, maybe the average user is not using regex, indeed...)

being a GUI flaw, the fix should be trivial enough for me to implement it, I would like
to have some advice as where it would be more appropriate to post a patch, here
or upstream?

thanks,

michele

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Hello,

Thank you for this bug report. NSsbackup has indeed the same problem.
About your question, I recommend you post a patch here and upstream. But I don't think the upstream project is maintained anymore. You'll have more chance of having your patch in Ubuntu by posting it here.

Best regards
wattazoum

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

I confirm the Bug for NSsbackup also.

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

oops, I meant Sbackup

[Michele (mikelito)]

ok, finally I found 5 minutes to fix this. now the config GUI checks for validity of the regex,
warns the user and doesn't add the regex if it does not compile. check if this try-except
approach fits your programming style.

probably, since there is no logging facility (I read you are going to implement one, how is
the progress?) also sbackupd should handle more gracefully bad regexs, probably printing
a warning to stderr and going on ignoring the mispelled regex.

regex are powerful but quite cryptic to newbies... since this aims at being a simple backup
solution, it should be a bit tolerant, as long as it is not issuing meaningful error messages.

let me know what are your views about this, I can work it out myself as well.

best regards

mc

[Michele (mikelito)]

sorry, I imagine this is not the proper place to ask, but my knowledge of
launchpad is superficial at best. I realy like this software, is simple but
effective, and I'd like to help, as it seems simple enough for me to give
side contributions.
I have noticed right now that it have been forked to a new version, so
I'd like to know where I should put my efforts, on sbackup or on nssbackup,
and in case whether it is better I submit patches to the current version or
I download the code from the development trunk and I submit diffs to
that code.

best regards
mc

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Hello,

Thank you for your patch. I appreciate a lot your motivation and help.
I don't maintain Sbackup (at least for now) anymore but as you have submitted a patch, it would be nice to have it included in Ubuntu for other users.

There is a plan to re-merge Sbackup and NSsbackup though. But that won't be for Hardy. So it's better having Ubuntu-dev patching Sbackup 0.10.4.

As for Launchpad usage, by submitting your patch here, since I have set the Bug for all projects (NSsbackup, Sbackup Upstream and Sbackup (Ubuntu) ), the patch is available for all projects and all developers have been notified.

As for the plan on Implementing logging in the software, it has been done on NSsbackup (information available on https://edge.launchpad.net/nssbackup/ ). You can easily install NSsbackup by Using NSsbackup-Team PPA ( https://edge.launchpad.net/~nssbackup-team/+archive ). Take the gutsy version (0.1-6) if you want something stable. Version 0.2 is the development version.

I'll review you patch and add it to NSsbackup (I must admit that I was thinking that I've already fixed this bug :-( ).

Best regards
wattazoum

[Martin Schaaf (mascha)]

This patch is included in 0.10.5.