Bump version to 4.3.0

Add a timeout to the SSH connection
paramiko's connect had no timeout, so a server that doesn't answer made the program hang until the OS gave up (about 2 minutes). Give up after 15 seconds and exit with code 5.
2026-10-08 20:47:04 +02:00 · 2026-10-08 20:45:07 +02:00 · 2026-10-08 20:42:05 +02:00 · 2026-10-08 20:40:41 +02:00 · 2026-10-08 20:38:20 +02:00 · 2026-10-08 20:36:55 +02:00
8 changed files with 513 additions and 316 deletions
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@

 pkgname=simple_backup
 pkgdesc='Simple backup script that uses rsync to copy files'
-pkgver=4.1.6
+pkgver=4.2.0
 pkgrel=1
 url="https://git.shouldnt.work/fuxino/${pkgname}"
 arch=('any')
@@ -12,18 +12,16 @@ license=('GPL-3.0-or-later')
 makedepends=('git'
             'python-setuptools'
             'python-build'
-             'python-installer'
-             'python-wheel')
+             'python-installer')
 depends=('python>=3.10'
-         'rsync'
-         'python-dotenv')
+         'rsync')
 optdepends=('python-systemd: use systemd log'
            'python-dbus: for desktop notifications'
            'python-paramiko: for remote backup through ssh')
 conflicts=('simple_backup-git')
 source=(git+${url}?signed#tag=${pkgver})
 validpgpkeys=('7E12BC1FF3B6EDB2CD8053EB981A2B2A3BBF5514')
-sha256sums=('b3b29d9e2e1b7b949e95674d9a401e8eeb0d5f898e8450473dce94f799ee9df3')
+sha256sums=('6c674f7981e3e5222594bdb735d4fb02ca2fcc829de57ea8f92ce71e679853f9')

 build()
 {
@@ -20,21 +20,19 @@ The script uses rsync to actually run the backup, so you will have to install it
 sudo pacman -Syu rsync
 ```

-It's also required to have python-dotenv
-
-Optional dependencies are systemd-python to enable using systemd journal for logging, and dbus-python for desktop notifications.
+Optional dependencies are systemd-python to enable using systemd journal for logging, dbus-python for desktop notifications, and paramiko for remote backup.

 ## Install
 To install the program, first clone the repository:

 ```bash
-git clone https://github.com/Fuxino/simple_backup.git
+git clone https://git.shouldnt.work/fuxino/simple_backup.git
 ```

 Then install the tools required to build the package:

 ```bash
-pip install --upgrade build wheel
+pip install --upgrade build
 ```

 Finally, run:
@@ -49,11 +47,16 @@ For Arch Linux and Arch-based distros, two packages are available in the AUR (au
 - **simple_backup** for the release version
 - **simple_backup-git** for the git version

+## Old backups
+The number of old backups to keep can be set with the --keep (or -k) argument (or in the configuration file).
+Old backups are only removed if rsync completes successfully, so that they are not deleted when the new backup may be incomplete.
+The only rsync error that is ignored is return code 24 (source files vanished during the transfer), which is common when backing up a live system.
+
 ## Remote backup
 > **Warning**
 > This feature is experimental

-It's possible to use a remote server as destination for the backup. Just use the --username (or -u) and --host arguments (or set them in the configuration file).
+It's possible to use a remote server as destination for the backup. Just use the --ssh-user and --ssh-host arguments (or set them in the configuration file).
 For this to work, rsync must be installed on the server too.

 ### Server authentication
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.TH SIMPLE_BACKUP 1 2025-03-30 SIMPLE_BACKUP 4.1.6
+.TH SIMPLE_BACKUP 1 2026-10-08 SIMPLE_BACKUP 4.3.0
 .SH NAME
 simple_backup \- Backup files and folders using rsync
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -52,7 +52,15 @@ or to use single or double quotes around them.
 .B \-o, \-\-output DIR
 Specify the directory where the files will be copied. The program will automatically
 create a subdirectory called \(aqsimple_backup\(aq (if it does not already exist) and
-inside this directory the actual backup directory (using the current date and time).
+inside this directory the actual backup directory (using the current date and time, for example
+\(aq2026\-10\-08_17\-34\-47\(aq).
+.RS
+.P
+Backups are best stored on a Linux filesystem (e.g. ext4 or btrfs). FAT and exFAT filesystems
+are supported, but they don\(aqt support hard links, so each backup will be a full copy instead
+of only storing files that changed since the previous one. File ownership and permissions are
+not preserved either.
+.RE
 .TP
 .B \-e, \-\-exclude FILE|DIR|PATTERN [FILE|...]]
 Specify files, directories or patterns to exclude from the backup. Matching files and directories
@@ -61,6 +69,10 @@ will not be copied. Multiple elements can be specified, in the same way as for t
 .B \-k, \-\-keep N
 Specify how many old backups (so excluding the current one) will be kept. The default behavior
 is to keep them all (same as N=\-1).
+Old backups are only removed if rsync completes successfully, to avoid deleting them when the
+new backup may be incomplete. rsync return code 24 (source files vanished during the transfer)
+is treated as success, while any other error (including return code 23, partial transfer due to error)
+will prevent old backups from being removed. This does not apply when using \-\-remove\-before\-backup.
 .TP
 .B \-u, \-\-user USERNAME
 Explicitly specify the user running the backup (in case it is needed for home directory expansion).
@@ -86,6 +98,9 @@ if saving bandwith is needed.
 Remove old backups (if necessary) before creating the new backup. Useful to free some space
 before performing the backup.
 Default behavior is to remove old backups after successfully completing the backup.
+Note that if the backup fails after old backups have been removed, only the backups kept
+according to \-\-keep will be left, and the new backup may be incomplete. In particular, with
+\-\-keep 0 there will be no complete backup available until the next successful one.
 .TP
 .B \-\-no\-syslog
 Don't use systemd journal for logging.
@@ -100,7 +115,7 @@ Using \-\-rsync\-options it is possible to manually select which options to use.
 .P
    \-a, \-l, \-p, \-t, \-g, \-o, \-c, \-h, \-D, \-H, \-X, \-s
 .P
-Options \-r and \-v are used in any case. Not that options must be specified without dash (\-), for example:
+Options \-r, \-v, \-\-ignore\-missing\-args and \-\-mkpath are used in any case. Note that options must be specified without dash (\-), for example:
 .P
 .EX
    simple_backup \-\-rsync\-options a l p
@@ -131,6 +146,14 @@ Copy it to the default location ($HOME/.config/simple_backup) and edit it as nee
 It is possible to choose a directory on a remote server as destination for the backup. The files
 are copied by rsync through SSH. Server hostname and username must be specified, either in the
 configuration file, or on the command line (\(aq\-\-ssh\-host\(aq and \(aq\-\-ssh\-user\(aq options).
+.P
+The output directory is a path on the server. A leading \(aq~\(aq and relative paths refer to the
+home directory of the user on the server. On the command line, quote \(aq~\(aq so that the local
+shell doesn\(aqt expand it, for example:
+.P
+.EX
+    simple_backup \-\-ssh\-host server \-\-ssh\-user user \-o \(aq~/backups\(aq
+.EE
 .SS AUTHENTICATION
 For authentication, it is possible to use SSH key or password.
 .P
@@ -165,7 +188,8 @@ for details. For this reason, use SSH key authentication if possible.
 .SH EXIT STATUS
 .TP
 .B 0
-The backup was completed without errors.
+The backup was completed without errors. This includes rsync return code 24 (some source files
+vanished during the transfer), which only logs a warning.
 .TP
 .B 1
 No valid inputs selected for backup.
@@ -177,13 +201,13 @@ Backup failed because output directory for storing the backup does not exist.
 Permission denied to access the output directory.
 .TP
 .B 4
-rsync error (rsync returned a non-zero value).
+rsync error (rsync returned a value other than 0 or 24).
 .TP
 .B 5
 SSH connection failed.
 .TP
 .B 6
-Bad configuration file.
+Bad configuration file or options (for example, only one of SSH host and SSH user specified).
 .SH SEE ALSO
 .BR rsync (1)
 .SH AUTHORS
@@ -1,3 +1,48 @@
 [build-system]
-requires = ['setuptools']
+requires = ['setuptools>=77']
 build-backend = 'setuptools.build_meta'
+
+[project]
+name = "simple_backup"
+dynamic = ["version"]
+description = "Simple backup script that uses rsync to copy files"
+readme = "README.md"
+requires-python = ">=3.10"
+license = "GPL-3.0-or-later"
+license-files = ["LICENSE"]
+authors = [
+  { name = "Daniele Fucini", email = "dfucini@gmail.com" }
+]
+maintainers = [
+  { name = "Daniele Fucini", email = "dfucini@gmail.com" }
+]
+classifiers = [
+  "Development Status :: 4 - Beta",
+  "Environment :: Console",
+  "Natural Language :: English",
+  "Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13",
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14",
+  "Topic :: System :: Archiving :: Backup",
+]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+JOURNAL = ["systemd-python"]
+NOTIFICATIONS = ["dbus-python"]
+REMOTE = ["paramiko>=3.2"]
+
+[project.urls]
+Homepage = "https://git.shouldnt.work/fuxino/simple_backup"
+
+[project.scripts]
+simple_backup = "simple_backup.simple_backup:simple_backup"
+
+[tool.setuptools]
+packages = ["simple_backup"]
+
+[tool.setuptools.dynamic]
+version = { attr = "simple_backup.__version__" }
@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-[metadata]
-name = simple_backup
-version = attr: simple_backup.__version__
-description = Simple backup script using rsync
-long_description = file: README.md
-author = Daniele Fucini
-author_email = dfucini@gmail.com
-license = GPL3
-url = https://git.shouldnt.work/fuxino
-classifiers =
-   Development Status :: 4 - Beta
-   Environment :: Console
-   License :: OSI Approved :: GNU General Public License v3 (GPLv3)
-   Natural Language :: English
-   Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux
-   Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10
-   Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11
-   Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12
-   Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13
-   Topic :: System :: Archiving :: Backup
-
-[options]
-packages = simple_backup
-python_requires = >=3.10
-install_requires =
-   python-dotenv
-
-[options.extras_require]
-JOURNAL =
-    systemd-python
-NOTIFICATIONS =
-    dbus-python
-REMOTE =
-    paramiko
-
-[options.entry_points]
-console_scripts =
-   simple_backup = simple_backup.simple_backup:simple_backup
-
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """Init."""

-__version__ = '4.1.6'
+__version__ = '4.3.0'
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Files and directories to backup. Multiple items can be separated using a comma (','). It is possible to use wildcards (i.e. '*' to match multiple characters and '~' for the user's home directory).
 inputs=/home/user

-# Output directory.
+# Output directory. For remote backups, this is a path on the server ('~' and relative paths refer to the home directory on the server).
 backup_dir=/media/Backup

 # Files, directories and patterns to exclude from the backup. Multiple items can be separated using a comma.
@@ -18,5 +18,5 @@ keep=-1
 # ssh_host=
 # ssh_user=
 # ssh_keyfile=
-# remote_sudo=
-# numeric_ids=
+# remote_sudo=false
+# numeric_ids=false
Author	SHA1	Message	Date
Fuxino	166c9dbc47	Bump version to 4.3.0	2026-10-08 20:47:04 +02:00
Fuxino	28d1b0d0d0	Add a timeout to the SSH connection paramiko's connect had no timeout, so a server that doesn't answer made the program hang until the OS gave up (about 2 minutes). Give up after 15 seconds and exit with code 5.	2026-10-08 20:45:07 +02:00
Fuxino	cd80c941ad	Treat empty SSH settings in the config as not set The example config has empty remote_sudo and numeric_ids values, which made getboolean fail with "Bad configuration file" if the [server] section was uncommented, and an empty ssh_keyfile was used as the key path. Treat empty values as false or not set, and show false in the example config.	2026-10-08 20:42:05 +02:00
Fuxino	29958896a2	Always close the SSH connection The connection was only closed at the end of a backup that ran to completion, not on early returns (e.g. missing output folder or no inputs) or exceptions, and a client that failed to log in was left open. Close it in all cases, and remove the unused _password field.	2026-10-08 20:40:41 +02:00
Fuxino	d815b0832a	Only count directories when removing old local backups Old backups were listed with os.listdir, so a stray file or symlink in the backup folder counted as a backup: depending on its name, rmtree crashed on it or one backup too many was removed. An unreadable backup folder also crashed with PermissionError. Count only directories, and log an error if the folder can't be read.	2026-10-08 20:38:20 +02:00
Fuxino	e6ac9e6cab	Fix remote removal of old backups deleting the wrong folders Old backups on the server were listed with ls, which also lists files and prints nothing on errors. A stray file made one backup too many get removed, and an empty or unreadable backup folder was counted as one backup with an empty name, which made rm -r delete the whole simple_backup folder. List only directories with find, and don't remove anything if listing fails.	2026-10-08 20:36:55 +02:00
Fuxino	9298f4232c	Fix crash on empty answer to the unknown host key prompt An empty answer raised IndexError, and running without a terminal (e.g. from cron) raised EOFError. Treat both as "no", and log why the connection was aborted.	2026-10-08 20:34:02 +02:00
Fuxino	1dca989310	Fail if only one of SSH host and SSH user is set Remote backup needs both, but if only one was set the program silently ran a local backup instead, and a missing ssh_user in the config also dropped ssh_host. Exit with an error (code 6) instead.	2026-10-08 20:31:39 +02:00
Fuxino	9a68a8660d	Resolve the remote output path on the server The output path was made absolute with os.path.abspath and '~' was expanded to the local home, so relative paths and '~' pointed to the wrong folder on the server. Resolve the path on the server instead, where '~' and relative paths refer to the remote user's home, and document it.	2026-10-08 20:29:21 +02:00
Fuxino	73de4f8d25	Build the rsync command as an argument list The rsync command was built as a string and split with shlex.split, so paths containing quotes broke it, and the key file path in the -e command was split on spaces. Pass each path as its own argument, and quote the key file and user name inside the -e command, which rsync splits itself.	2026-10-08 20:24:53 +02:00
Fuxino	baf5b07d23	Quote paths in commands run on the SSH server Remote commands were built with f-strings, with paths either unquoted or in double quotes. Paths with spaces broke ls and find, and $ or backticks in a path were expanded by the server's shell. Quote every path with shlex.quote.	2026-10-08 20:22:35 +02:00
Fuxino	8b30fefed3	Don't disable host key checking for rsync's ssh rsync's ssh command used StrictHostKeyChecking=no, so it connected even if the server's host key had changed. Use accept-new instead: unknown hosts are still added automatically, but a changed key for a known host makes the connection fail.	2026-10-08 20:19:46 +02:00
Fuxino	2a5562d1a9	Pass the SSH key file to rsync also when not running as root The key file given with --keyfile was only passed to rsync's ssh command when running as root, so as a normal user rsync ignored it and fell back to the default keys or the agent.	2026-10-08 20:17:29 +02:00
Fuxino	7091118663	Handle SSH connection errors instead of crashing An unknown hostname, a refused connection or an unreachable server raise OSError (socket.gaierror, NoValidConnectionsError), which paramiko.SSHException doesn't cover, so the program crashed with a traceback. Log the error and exit with code 5 instead.	2026-10-08 20:14:39 +02:00
Fuxino	3113e182c7	Treat rsync return code 24 as success Code 24 (source files vanished during the transfer) already counted as success when deciding whether to remove old backups, but the program still exited with 4 and reported errors. Exit with 0 and report the backup as completed, logging only a warning, so both checks agree.	2026-10-08 20:12:29 +02:00
Fuxino	8fc3c42a5e	Fix exit code and success check for remote backups The remote branch of run() returned None, so the program always exited with 0, and it decided whether the backup worked by checking that the backup folder existed on the server, ignoring rsync's return code. Use the same return code check for local and remote backups.	2026-10-08 20:10:52 +02:00
Fuxino	0671f86579	Fix SSH key loading for ed25519 and ECDSA keys Unencrypted ed25519 and ECDSA keys crashed with an uncaught SSHException, and the DSA fallback raised NameError since paramiko 4 removed DSSKey. Load the key with paramiko.PKey.from_path instead, ask for the passphrase only when the key is encrypted, and log an error instead of crashing when the key can't be loaded. Require paramiko >= 3.2 for PKey.from_path.	2026-10-08 20:06:57 +02:00
Fuxino	2f207efcf9	Update PKGBUILD	2026-10-08 18:25:08 +02:00
Fuxino	3cbca8e4d8	Bump version to 4.2.0	2026-10-08 18:23:03 +02:00
Fuxino	54880651be	Fix outdated and wrong information in README Use git.shouldnt.work as the clone URL, don't install wheel for building, as setuptools no longer needs it, list paramiko among the optional dependencies, and use the correct names of the remote backup options (--ssh-user, --ssh-host).	2026-10-08 18:19:35 +02:00
Fuxino	793a30fad8	Remove unused python-dotenv dependency load_dotenv() was called, but no setting was ever read from a .env file. Drop it from the code, pyproject.toml, PKGBUILD and README.	2026-10-08 18:15:07 +02:00
Fuxino	871dd0f49a	Warn if a backup fails after old backups were removed With --remove-before-backup, a failed backup leaves only the kept backups, or none with keep=0. Log an error and send a notification in that case, and document it in the man page.	2026-10-08 18:13:13 +02:00
Fuxino	30e4416f8f	Look for the last backup after removing old ones With --remove-before-backup, the last backup was selected for --link-dest before old backups were removed, so with keep=0 rsync was given a directory that no longer existed.	2026-10-08 18:11:25 +02:00
Fuxino	d0f888cbb4	Always use --mkpath and --ignore-missing-args with rsync With --rsync-options, only -r and -v were kept, so the first backup failed because the simple_backup directory did not exist yet, and a missing input made rsync fail. Use these options in any case.	2026-10-08 18:08:28 +02:00
Fuxino	7ef29cf551	Report invalid config files instead of crashing Invalid values (e.g. an empty or non-numeric 'keep') and syntax errors in the config file raised uncaught exceptions. Catch them and exit with code 6, including the reason in the error message.	2026-10-08 18:06:33 +02:00
Fuxino	4f5499eba9	Allow '%' in config file values ConfigParser interpolation treats '%' as special, so a path or pattern containing it crashed the program. Disable interpolation, which is not used by the config file.	2026-10-08 18:05:11 +02:00
Fuxino	fc165fccbf	Only expand '~' at the start of config paths Every '~' in inputs and backup_dir was replaced with '~user', so paths like 'notes~' or '~otheruser' did not match. Expand only a leading '~' or '~/'.	2026-10-08 18:04:25 +02:00
Fuxino	d79ea56c0f	Ignore whitespace around comma-separated config values 'inputs=/a, /b' was read as '/a' and ' /b', so /b was skipped, and excluded patterns with spaces around them never matched. Strip whitespace from each value, and ignore empty exclude entries.	2026-10-08 18:03:18 +02:00
Fuxino	5189910131	Don't use ':' in backup directory names ':' is not allowed on FAT/exFAT filesystems, so backups to such drives failed. Use '%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S' instead; existing backups with the old format still sort correctly. Document the limitations of FAT/exFAT in the man page.	2026-10-08 18:01:07 +02:00
Fuxino	7d4c43f8ff	Always remove temp files and close their descriptors The inputs temp file was left behind when no inputs existed, and both temp files if rsync failed to start. The descriptors returned by mkstemp were also never closed. Remove the temp files when run() exits in any way, and write them through the mkstemp descriptors.	2026-10-08 17:58:32 +02:00
Fuxino	ac7e6ec21b	Don't print tracebacks when desktop notifications fail Without dbus-python, or without a session bus (e.g. when running from a timer), each notification printed a traceback. Skip notifications if dbus is not installed, and log a single warning if sending one fails. Remove the now unneeded NameError handling around _notify calls.	2026-10-08 17:55:57 +02:00
Fuxino	578d992a19	Only turn warnings into errors where needed warnings.filterwarnings('error') applied to the whole program, so any warning raised by a library (e.g. a DeprecationWarning) would crash it. Limit it to the ssh connection (unknown host key) and the password prompt (no terminal available).	2026-10-08 17:50:47 +02:00
Fuxino	e2d8897a45	Fix crash on Python < 3.14 when paramiko is not installed The return annotation of _ssh_connect referenced paramiko, which Python < 3.14 evaluates at class definition, raising NameError when paramiko (an optional dependency) is missing. Postpone evaluation of annotations, and mark the return type as Optional.	2026-10-08 17:47:02 +02:00
Fuxino	dadc4b0265	Resolve default config path after the user is known The default config path was computed before -u was parsed, so running as root without sudo/doas used '~None/...' even when the user was given with -u. Expand '~' only after the user is detected.	2026-10-08 17:45:02 +02:00
Fuxino	7e7d11c520	Detect the invoking user when running with doas User detection only checked SUDO_USER, so with doas the user's config file was not found unless -u was given. Fall back to DOAS_USER, as already done for notifications.	2026-10-08 17:43:28 +02:00
Fuxino	22e0556b50	Document that old backups are kept if rsync fails	2026-10-08 17:41:17 +02:00
Fuxino	2b91178e94	Don't remove old backups if rsync fails If rsync returns an error, the new backup may be incomplete. Keep the old backups in that case, except for return code 24 (vanished source files), which is expected when backing up a live system.	2026-10-08 17:38:34 +02:00
Fuxino	2c2649113d	Fix relative input paths being silently skipped rsync reads --files-from entries relative to the source directory ('/'), so relative inputs pointed to the wrong path and were ignored due to --ignore-missing-args. Convert inputs to absolute paths.	2026-10-08 17:35:35 +02:00
Fuxino	0f4a100ac7	Move package metadata from setup.cfg to pyproject.toml Drop python-wheel from PKGBUILD makedepends, as setuptools builds wheels on its own.	2026-10-08 17:29:40 +02:00
Fuxino	60d83151dc	Update PKGBUILD	2026-10-03 21:07:16 +02:00
Fuxino	47aec456be	Fix notifications when using doas	2026-10-03 21:04:17 +02:00
Fuxino	c715188973	Fix code with autopep8	2025-03-30 15:02:50 +02:00
Fuxino	57613649c2	Add missing type hints	2025-03-30 15:02:04 +02:00