Cache is not excluded (and other first impressions)

Hi,

I am new to this forum and new to QRecall (and in search for a Time Machine alternative for versioned backups). I decided to do my evaluation on the beta (1.2.0.19). So far it looks very promising.

I discovered a few things (bugs):
- ~/Library/Cache is not excluded even if the option "exclude Cache files" is checked
- The Date/Time column in the Log Window is a bit too small and truncates the second figure of the minutes. See screenshot. Not a major issue but when testing things the minutes are important

- Growl notification seem not to work

And one little feature request:
- give me an option to ignore files that I have no permission for. I don't want to run my backups as root, but I have a few session files in my Sites folder that are owned by www. No need to backup them. But QRecall alerts me of the "problem" every time.

So far for now. All in all I am very pleased after the first testing.

Johannes

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Johannes wrote:Hi,

Hi!

- ~/Library/Cache is not excluded even if the option "exclude Cache files" is checked

I don't see that behavior here. Please send a diagnostic report (Help > Send Report...). There might be some clue as to why those filters aren't working.

- The Date/Time column in the Log Window is a bit too small and truncates the second figure of the minutes. See screenshot. Not a major issue but when testing things the minutes are important

I also don't see that here. In the screen shot, your font is bigger than what I see on any of my test systems. Have you used a utility to alter the system fonts or their default sizes?

- Growl notification seem not to work

I'm getting them. I'm running Grown 1.2.1 and (as far as I know) QRecall uses the latest Growl interface library. Make sure you have notifications from QRecall enabled. You might also try restarting Growl (or your system) and see if that fixes it.

- give me an option to ignore files that I have no permission for. I don't want to run my backups as root, but I have a few session files in my Sites folder that are owned by www. No need to backup them. But QRecall alerts me of the "problem" every time.

I'll add that to the wish list. I have a number of advanced filtering options planned for a future version. Filtering based on permissions could easily be added then.

So far for now. All in all I am very pleased after the first testing.

Welcome aboard, and keep those bug reports and feature requests coming.

Thanks for the fast response.

I don't see that behavior here. Please send a diagnostic report (Help > Send Report...). There might be some clue as to why those filters aren't working.

diagnostic report is out. One reason might be that my user folder is a dedicated Volume and therefore not within the /user folder of the System volume.

I also don't see that here. In the screen shot, your font is bigger than what I see on any of my test systems. Have you used a utility to alter the system fonts or their default sizes?

I have not used a utility to alter the system font (but my eyes are quite happy that the font is not smaller). A simple solution would be to allow the user to adjust the column width.

I'm getting them. I'm running Grown 1.2.1 and (as far as I know) QRecall uses the latest Growl interface library. Make sure you have notifications from QRecall enabled. You might also try restarting Growl (or your system) and see if that fixes it.

I am using the same version, the notifications are enabled and I did a restart. But I noticed that the QRecall package does not contain Growl.framework in the framework folder (but the Growl preferences lists QRecall).

Welcome aboard, and keep those bug reports and feature requests coming.

Sure. (AppleScript and Automator seems to be on your list already)

Johannes

Johannes wrote:

I also don't see that here. In the screen shot, your font is bigger than what I see on any of my test systems. Have you used a utility to alter the system fonts or their default sizes?

I have not used a utility to alter the system font (but my eyes are quite happy that the font is not smaller). A simple solution would be to allow the user to adjust the column width.

I do not see the problem Johannes reported about the log window on my system either. However, from Johannes' name, as well as the name he gave to the screen shot, I'm guessing he's using a non-US system. Could that account for a slight difference in the font size?

-- Bruce

Johannes wrote:One reason might be that my user folder is a dedicated Volume and therefore not within the /user folder of the System volume.

That could explain it. The log contains a number of messages like this:

+[SpecificItemFilter filterWithCPath:onVolumeID:shouldExist:] could not find '/Volumes/Elke'

This indicates that one of the filters couldn't find a path that it expects to exist. The "exclude caches" filter works by getting the home-path property of each user account, and using that path to locate the ./Library/Caches folder for each user. If the home-path property returns an invalid path, then none of the user-specific filters (caches, trash, ...) will work.

I have not used a utility to alter the system font (but my eyes are quite happy that the font is not smaller). A simple solution would be to allow the user to adjust the column width.

and

Bruce Giles wrote:I do not see the problem Johannes reported about the log window on my system either. However, from Johannes' name, as well as the name he gave to the screen shot, I'm guessing he's using a non-US system. Could that account for a slight difference in the font size?

Bruce might be on to something, although I'd be surprised if the system font metrics were different. Most of the system fonts in OS X are full Unicode fonts that work for most of the languages which OS X supports.
None the less, this is as good a theory as any. I'll have to try some different localizations and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions.

I am using the same version, the notifications are enabled and I did a restart. But I noticed that the QRecall package does not contain Growl.framework in the framework folder (but the Growl preferences lists QRecall).

That might explain it. Look in your system console (either around the time that you last logged in or QRecall was installed for the first time). Look for a message that says "Could not load Growl.framework". If you find this, then that's the problem.

James Bucanek wrote:The "exclude caches" filter works by getting the home-path property of each user account, and using that path to locate the ./Library/Caches folder for each user. If the home-path property returns an invalid path, then none of the user-specific filters (caches, trash, ...) will work.

That's the reason for the problem. I have two users on my machine with their user folder on disks that are not attached most of the time. Perhaps when revising the filter section next time you can teach your filter to ignore those unavailable paths (no need to exclude something thats not available

)
For now I will simple add the folder to the manual filter.

Bruce might be on to something, although I'd be surprised if the system font metrics were different. Most of the system fonts in OS X are full Unicode fonts that work for most of the languages which OS X supports.
None the less, this is as good a theory as any. I'll have to try some different localizations and see what happens. Thanks for the suggestions.

I am on a German system.

Look in your system console (either around the time that you last logged in or QRecall was installed for the first time). Look for a message that says "Could not load Growl.framework". If you find this, then that's the problem.

Nothing like that in Console. Strange thing.

Johannes

Johannes wrote:

James Bucanek wrote:Look in your system console (either around the time that you last logged in or QRecall was installed for the first time). Look for a message that says "Could not load Growl.framework". If you find this, then that's the problem.

Nothing like that in Console. Strange thing.

Are there any Growl related message at all? If so, please forward them to me.

If there's no message like that, then QRecall found the Growl.framework and successfully loaded it. The next thing to check is that the QRecallMonitor background application is running when you start an action. Start up Activity Monitor and search for QRecall. You should see a QRecallMonitor process running. If not, then that's the problem. I've looked at your logs and it appears that the monitor is getting started whenever you log in, so it should be running when your actions start.

One explanation might be that you were logged out. If you had QRecall actions scheduled to run and you're logged out at that time, either QRecallMonitor or Growl could miss that event. This can even happen even if the scheduler isn't set to run actions while you're logged out; when you log back in the scheduler, the monitor, and Growl are all starting up at the same time. If the scheduler gets started first (and it likely will), all of the start action events will happen before Growl is ready for them.

And for the record, the Growl.framework package is a resource of the QRecallMonitor application, not the QRecall application. QRecallMonitor is the process that runs all of the time you're logged in and provides services like the activity window, disk mount events, and Growl notifications.

Thanks for the Growl trouble shooting hints. All is in place and running as it should and no error Messages.

I did some further investigation and discovered:

Growl works fine if I activate Notification for Action Started in the Growl preferences. If Action Started is deactivated (and I had it deactivated because I am only interested in the result), Growl will not show up the other two Notifications (that both are activated).
I don't know who's the culprit Growl or QRecall. Anyway - this is not a major issue.

Johannes

Johannes wrote:I don't know who's the culprit Growl or QRecall.

QRecall.

QRecall was including the wrong internal identifier in some of the Growl notifications, so disabling the "started" notification was also disabling other notifications too.

Version 1.2.0(23) alpha, which I'm about to build and post to the forum, should also address this problem too.

Johannes wrote:

James Bucanek wrote:The "exclude caches" filter works by getting the home-path property of each user account, and using that path to locate the ./Library/Caches folder for each user. If the home-path property returns an invalid path, then none of the user-specific filters (caches, trash, ...) will work.

That's the reason for the problem. I have two users on my machine with their user folder on disks that are not attached most of the time. Perhaps when revising the filter section next time you can teach your filter to ignore those unavailable paths (no need to exclude something thats not available )

They already do. I checked the code again, and the filters are built on a per-account basis. Filters that end up pointing to non-existent items are ignored, but all of the others should work. I'd be really curious to know what the home path property of your user account is.


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