Available as/for:desktoprelease-stablesource-package
Description: Kup is created for helping people to keep up-to-date backups of their personal files. Connecting a USB hard drive is the primary supported way to store files, but saving files to a server over a network connection is also possible for advanced users.
When you plug in your external hard drive Kup will automatically start copying your latest changes, but of course it will only do so if you have been active on your computer for some hourse since the last time you took a backup (and it can of course ask you first, before copying anything). In general Kup tries to not disturb you needlessly.
There are two types of backup schemes supported, one which keeps the backup folder completely in sync with what you have on your computer, deleting from the backup any file that you have deleted on your computer etc. The other scheme also keeps older versions of your files in the backup folder. When using this, only the small parts of your files that has actually changed since last backup will be saved and therefore incremental backups are very cheap. This is especially useful if you are working on big files. At the same time it's as easy to access your files as if a complete backup was taken every time; every backup contains a complete version of your directories. Behind the scenes all the content that is actually the same is only stored once. To make this happen Kup runs the backup program "bup" in the background, look at https://github.com/bup/bup for more details.
One important note is that bup will work regardless of which filesystem is used on the external drive. You can use NTFS or FAT32, unlike some other backup solutions which require hard links to work!
What the Kup backup system consists of - Configuration module, available in your system settings. Here you can configure backup plans, what to include, where to store the backup and how often. You can also see the status for the backup plans here. - A small program running in the background. It will monitor to see when your backup destination is available, schedule and run your backup plans. It has a system tray icon that shows up when a backup is long overdue. - Kioslave for accessing bup archives. This allows you to open files and folders directly from an archive, with any KDE application. - A file browsing application for bup archives, allowing you to locate the file you want to restore more easily than with the kioslave. It presents a merged view: inside each saved folder you can see all the files it ever contained (well, that has been backed up at least). Select a file and you can see which different versions of this file that exists in the bup archive. You can open and view the files from here and it also helps you restore files or folders.
Detailed list of features backup types: - Synchronized folders with the use of "rsync". - Incremental backup archive with the use of "bup"
backup destinations: - local filesystem path, monitored for availability. That means you can set a destination folder which only exist when perhaps a eSATA harddrive or a network shared drive is mounted and Kup will detect when it becomes available. - external storage, like usb hard drives. Also monitored for availability.
schedules: - manual only (triggered from tray icon popup menu) - interval (suggests new backup after some time has passed since last backup) - usage based (suggests new backup after you have been active on your computer for some hours since last backup).
Needed backup programs
To actually create backups of your data you will need either "bup" or "rsync" installed. They provide the implementations for the two different types of backups that Kup supports.Last changelog:
Kup Version 0.9.0
- Added detection of when a source folder has been removed. Aborts saving backup and prompts user to review what should be included. - Added a way to prune old backup snapshots, with new small app kup-purger. - Bug: fix for detecting harmless errors from bup and ignoring them, bup version 0.31 had changed output format and this update follows that change. - Bug: fix detection of mount event for systemd automounts. - Bug: fix source selection tree view handling a selected source folder that has been removed. - Bug: fix source selection tree view when opening and selection is empty. - Bug: fix trying to open a file from a backup repo passed as a relative path as argument to kup-filedigger. - New icon.
10I've been using it for one year or so, and it saved me at least once. :) It plays very well with my zfs storage, and the log showing permission issues helped me do some much needed and neglected housekeeping! :)
Is there a way to backup to a ftp-server using kup? This would be a great solution for mw to change from deja-dup to kup. My backup-destination is a HDD connected to an internetrouter which offers a ftp-connection.
How could I display hidden folders in the directory?
A very important thing is to frequently backup all my profile settings, for example of Firefox, Thunderbird, e.g., but Firefox stores these in ~/.mozilla which isnt displayed. I cant Ctrl H them, where is the config file to do it manually?
How do you restore? In my backup drive I see folder; info, logs, objects, refs and files: bupindex, bupindex.hlink, bupindex.meta, config etc.
When choosing 'Open
Very good utility !! I found kup-backup in the repo of Muon (KDE Neon). Well integrated in KDE and with scheduling, good good good.
But I have an issue with all the symlinks when I save my home folder (with rsync not bup). It abort the backup so Kup think he never done it... So I can't do automatic update.
The symlinks are link-apps from snap so I can't ignore it manually in the configuration. If you have a solution please :)
Thanks for the kind words. I didn't understand why backup is not saved without error for you. I will experiment with this when I get some time, see if I can get same problem. If you just want to not save the folder that has problematic links, you can toggle hidden folders on from advanced settings and then make your selection.
Hi, thanks for your quick answer :) The folder is my desktop and I have some important folder on it so I can't ignore it..
Here the error message :
rsync: symlink "/mnt/Fbox/Cloud/Dodo/bandi/Bureau/jdownloader2_JDownloader.desktop" -> "/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/jdownloader2_JDownloader.desktop" failed: Permission denied (13)
rsync: symlink "/mnt/Fbox/Cloud/Dodo/bandi/Bureau/youtube-to-mp3.desktop" -> "/usr/share/applications/youtube-to-mp3.desktop" failed: Permission denied (13)
rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1207) [sender=3.1.3]
Hello,
I would love to use Kup in Kubuntu 20.04.
Bup however is no longer in the Ubuntu packaging making versioned backups no longer possible.
Is it possible to package it with Kup - in a Flatpak etc?
Thanks.
same issue here. Kup is also two versions older in ubuntu repos. It seems that the package isn't maintained.
a PPA with both kup and bup whould be ideal
Thanks a lot for your app!
Do you have plans for adding a feature to sync cloud data to the local hard disk? I know, this is not the intended use case for a backup tool...
Oh... no :) Copying in that direction that was never the intention. I recently found myself wanting to sync photos taken with my phone to my laptop every time I plug in my phone usb. First thought was if I can change kup to support that... but I think that no, it's not gonna happen any time soon. Unless somebody shows up and has good ideas for how it can be done without making a mess of the primary usage scenario. And it is also dangerous that users will start to expect two-way sync in that case, which would require big changes.
Thanks, seeing the program, it seem exactly to be what I need for backup.
But setting up a profile f.e. for /~/myProfile and /etc, there are lots of messages like:
No authorization to access /etc/cups/ssl
The symbolic link /home/maName/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/ProgrammName/Farbwaehler/dosdevices/com25 is currently included but it points to a file which is not: /dev/ttyS24.
Any recommendation appreciated, any chance to run KUP as root?
No chance of running backup saving as root. What you can do is to create a group called "backup", add your normal user to that group and change any files that you want to backup but don't have read access to. Change those files to be owned by the backup group and readable by group.
I have now made changes to the warning about symbolic links pointing to stuff that will not be saved. You will get less warnings like this in the next version of kup.
sideshow, Thanks a lot for your great software your comment and time.
The group "backup" would solve some issues, but I'd like f.e. to backup "/etc/sources.list" and I don't think it's allowable, to change the ownership of this (such) files. Any idea for that?
Ratings & Comments
230 Comments
10 I've been using it for one year or so, and it saved me at least once. :) It plays very well with my zfs storage, and the log showing permission issues helped me do some much needed and neglected housekeeping! :)
Is there a way to backup to a ftp-server using kup? This would be a great solution for mw to change from deja-dup to kup. My backup-destination is a HDD connected to an internetrouter which offers a ftp-connection.
To add: It seem kup does not support a kio-styled url like "ftp://user@myserver.local" (which can be used e.g. in dolphin).
How could I display hidden folders in the directory? A very important thing is to frequently backup all my profile settings, for example of Firefox, Thunderbird, e.g., but Firefox stores these in ~/.mozilla which isnt displayed. I cant Ctrl H them, where is the config file to do it manually?
If you go on advanced options, you can choose to show hidden files.
How do you restore? In my backup drive I see folder; info, logs, objects, refs and files: bupindex, bupindex.hlink, bupindex.meta, config etc. When choosing 'Open
only the folders show in the drive backup destination. Clicking on any of these does not work. The files; bupindex, config etc do not show.
9 Is there a possibility to remove old or unnecessary backups. I have setup active user time schedule.
Very good utility !! I found kup-backup in the repo of Muon (KDE Neon). Well integrated in KDE and with scheduling, good good good. But I have an issue with all the symlinks when I save my home folder (with rsync not bup). It abort the backup so Kup think he never done it... So I can't do automatic update. The symlinks are link-apps from snap so I can't ignore it manually in the configuration. If you have a solution please :)
Thanks for the kind words. I didn't understand why backup is not saved without error for you. I will experiment with this when I get some time, see if I can get same problem. If you just want to not save the folder that has problematic links, you can toggle hidden folders on from advanced settings and then make your selection.
Hi, thanks for your quick answer :) The folder is my desktop and I have some important folder on it so I can't ignore it.. Here the error message : rsync: symlink "/mnt/Fbox/Cloud/Dodo/bandi/Bureau/jdownloader2_JDownloader.desktop" -> "/var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/jdownloader2_JDownloader.desktop" failed: Permission denied (13) rsync: symlink "/mnt/Fbox/Cloud/Dodo/bandi/Bureau/youtube-to-mp3.desktop" -> "/usr/share/applications/youtube-to-mp3.desktop" failed: Permission denied (13) rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1207) [sender=3.1.3]
And I'm sure I've the latest version 0.8.0. I did the symlink with a right clic in the launcher menu => add to desktop
10 10 the best but... Please redesign tray icon. 2 big and ugly :(
Hello, I would love to use Kup in Kubuntu 20.04. Bup however is no longer in the Ubuntu packaging making versioned backups no longer possible. Is it possible to package it with Kup - in a Flatpak etc? Thanks.
same issue here. Kup is also two versions older in ubuntu repos. It seems that the package isn't maintained. a PPA with both kup and bup whould be ideal
10 10 the best
10 10 the best
10 10 the best
It is very good, BUT you should add export configurations option because on every new system I have to manually select folders that I want to back up.
Oh, interesting. Never thought that would be useful. What is your scenario? You are administring computers for work?
Thanks a lot for your app! Do you have plans for adding a feature to sync cloud data to the local hard disk? I know, this is not the intended use case for a backup tool...
Oh... no :) Copying in that direction that was never the intention. I recently found myself wanting to sync photos taken with my phone to my laptop every time I plug in my phone usb. First thought was if I can change kup to support that... but I think that no, it's not gonna happen any time soon. Unless somebody shows up and has good ideas for how it can be done without making a mess of the primary usage scenario. And it is also dangerous that users will start to expect two-way sync in that case, which would require big changes.
Thanks, seeing the program, it seem exactly to be what I need for backup. But setting up a profile f.e. for /~/myProfile and /etc, there are lots of messages like: No authorization to access /etc/cups/ssl The symbolic link /home/maName/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/ProgrammName/Farbwaehler/dosdevices/com25 is currently included but it points to a file which is not: /dev/ttyS24. Any recommendation appreciated, any chance to run KUP as root?
No chance of running backup saving as root. What you can do is to create a group called "backup", add your normal user to that group and change any files that you want to backup but don't have read access to. Change those files to be owned by the backup group and readable by group. I have now made changes to the warning about symbolic links pointing to stuff that will not be saved. You will get less warnings like this in the next version of kup.
sideshow, Thanks a lot for your great software your comment and time. The group "backup" would solve some issues, but I'd like f.e. to backup "/etc/sources.list" and I don't think it's allowable, to change the ownership of this (such) files. Any idea for that?