So I have QRecall set to backup my home to a AFP server every day. It did not run last night, but there's nothing about it in the log? See attached screen shot: it ran the 27th and the next execution is 29th, nothing in log about 28th... (b)

In any case, the capture is set to INTERVAL every 1 day starting from xxx... so why is it not trying to backup ? It did backup on the 27th, more than one day ago... (a)
[we're the 28th at noon as I write this]

Now in the log you can see it was up on 28th at around 2:15? Why didn't it attempt to backup there? (a)

And lastly, looking at the log, (c), there is no schedule using IncyBack.quanta so why is it looking for it? When is it going to delete alias of long gone archives in its Preferences? At the level just before max, messages about this fill the screen as if this was a terrible problem! (no screenshot of this).

So three possible issues:

- (a) INTERVAL does not seem to work as I would expect of interval
- (b) If a scheduled backup is skipped, I think a log entry would be good. Again this is all about visibility on what the scheduler is/was/will be up to.
- (c) alias removal in pref

IMHO for (a) and (b), QRecall job is to backup. Skipping one should be a major issue.

Fred

Frederic Thomas wrote:So I have QRecall set to backup my home to a AFP server every day. It did not run last night, but there's nothing about it in the log? See attached screen shot: it ran the 27th and the next execution is 29th, nothing in log about 28th... (b)

There's no attached screen shot, so I can't comment. It would be better to attach (or send me privately) your actual log file as there is much more information there that might illuminate a problem.

In any case, the capture is set to INTERVAL every 1 day starting from xxx... so why is it not trying to backup ? It did backup on the 27th, more than one day ago... (a)
[we're the 28th at noon as I write this]

Does your action have a condition that says "Ignore if no archive?" This will cause your action to be silently skipped if the archive isn't mounted at the time the action runs. If you want QRecall to scream and wail when the archive is missing, remove that condition.

It's also remotely possible that the scheduler daemon wasn't running at the time the action was scheduled to run. Is there any chance you had just restarted your system?

And lastly, looking at the log, (c), there is no schedule using IncyBack.quanta so why is it looking for it? When is it going to delete alias of long gone archives in its Preferences? At the level just before max, messages about this fill the screen as if this was a terrible problem! (no screenshot of this).

A lot of the log messages in QRecall are there for the purposes of diagnosing the beta. Most of these will disappear in the final release.

- (a) INTERVAL does not seem to work as I would expect of interval

Can't really comment because I don't know what's going on (or didn't go on, as the case may be.)

- (b) If a scheduled backup is skipped, I think a log entry would be good. Again this is all about visibility on what the scheduler is/was/will be up to.

Everything gets logged. Just about the only reason an event like this wouldn't' be logged is if QRecall wasn't running.

- (c) alias removal in pref

The obsolete aliases are only producing annoying log messages. This will go away in the future.

Now that the log files are up, I can answer the primary question.

Frederic Thomas wrote:So I have QRecall set to backup my home to a AFP server every day. It did not run last night, but there's nothing about it in the log? See attached screen shot: it ran the 27th and the next execution is 29th, nothing in log about 28th... (b)

QRecall wasn't running at 1:00 on the 28th. According to the log. The last log record on the 27th was

2007-07-27 19:58:04.202 +0200 #debug# received SIGTERM [3.732883.263.36]

This indicates that something killed the scheduler, probably a shutdown. The next log record is

2007-07-28 02:15:18.717 +0200 #debug# discovered recent 'QRecall Archive.quanta', mod=2007-07-27 01:06:53 +0200, repository=/Volumes/Gandalf/QRecall Archive.quanta [4.732885.385.2]

Which is one of the first things that will happen when you log in. Given that there are no log messages during the intervening period (the scheduler attempts to restart every half hour), my conclusion would be that your computer was off at 1:00 on the 28th. From the help file (Help > Automation > Scheduling):

Actions are not scheduled while the computer is off. When you restart, actions will be scheduled to run at their next calculated run time.

If you want a QRecall action to run consistently at 1:00 every morning, schedule your computer to start up at least 30 minutes before.

If, however, you simply put your system to sleep, any pending actions will start immedately when the computer is awakened again. Again, from the help:

Actions do not run?nothing does?while the computer is sleeping. When the computer wakes up, any actions that would have started while asleep are started immediately.

James Bucanek wrote:Now that the log files are up, I can answer the primary question.

Not sure why they did take that long to appear. Did not touch anything, and had them uploaded with my post ???

Frederic Thomas wrote:Not sure why they did take that long to appear.

I have no idea. But I do know that JForum has a few idiosyncrasies.

James Bucanek wrote:

Actions are not scheduled while the computer is off. When you restart, actions will be scheduled to run at their next calculated run time.

If you want a QRecall action to run consistently at 1:00 every morning, schedule your computer to start up at least 30 minutes before.

I understand that if the computer is off/sleeping, the action does not run.

I *don't* understand why something that is to run at an INTERVAL of ONE day does *not* given the chance one hour too late. Again, my only problem is that what QRecall does not correspond to what I understand in the term INTERVAL.

Note: There's an alarm clock for mac out there that makes the mac wake up from sleep at some time: integrating that in QRecall would be smart. You can even program power on I think...

Frederic Thomas wrote:I *don't* understand why something that is to run at an INTERVAL of ONE day does *not* given the chance one hour too late. Again, my only problem is that what QRecall does not correspond to what I understand in the term INTERVAL.

An Interval schedule simply means that the scheduled run times are determined by fixed time intervals (some number of hours/days/weeks). So if an action is scheduled to run at 12 hour intervals starting at 2:00AM, it would be scheduled to run

Yesterday 2:00AM
Yesterday 2:00PM
Today 2:00AM
Today 2:00PM
Tomorrow 2:00AM
Tomorrow 2:00PM
and so on

If the action ran yesterday at 2:00PM and the computer was shut down at 2:00AM today, that scheduled run time was missed. The next scheduled time will be at 2:00PM Today.

Except for the way that the run times are calculated, an Interval schedule behaves exactly like a Daily schedule.

Note: There's an alarm clock for mac out there that makes the mac wake up from sleep at some time: integrating that in QRecall would be smart. You can even program power on I think...

I'm reluctant to have QRecall arbitrarily change system settings, but I have considered adding certain power management features to actions (i.e. sleep when finished).

OK, so I am suggesting a setting that backs up using this formula:

backup if last backup was N hours/days ago (and other conditions like archive is available, etc)

I think a better solution is to simply have the scheduler immediately run all actions that have missed a scheduled run time while the system was shut down.

This would make the behavior of actions during a shut down consistent with sleeping -- and consistency is a good thing.

I agree with you: there should not be any difference in behavior between sleeping and power off.

> the scheduler immediately run[s] all actions
> that have missed a scheduled run time
> while the system was shut down.

So backup at 2am on day 1, on day 2 machine off no backup, machine turned on at 1am on day 3 so QRecall does the backup immediately only to re-do it at 2am ? Very useful.
And if machine is off day 2 and day 3, on day 4 you perform the backup 2 times on boot ? (that would be logical with your proposal)
I guess this just needs more ignore rules to make it OK, if a lot more complex than my proposal.

Fred

James Bucanek wrote:Except for the way that the run times are calculated, an Interval schedule behaves exactly like a Daily schedule.

My turn to quote the manual:

An Interval schedule runs an action at regular intervals originating from a reference time.

IMHO this sentence can be improved. It does not RUN the action at regular intervals, it STATICALLY SCHEDULES it at regular interval based on the "Starting From" value. When the action actually runs is not evaluated at all and has no impact at all on the schedule.

Fred

In my defense, I was writing a user manual not a UNIX man page.

I agree that it might be worded better.