neither "backintime -b" nor "backintime --backup-job" work when run by cron

I found the problem: my crond runs scripts with /bin/sh. But the external commands backintime uses do not work with sh.

Now I run a two-lined script backup and it works:

----------
#!/bin/bash
export SHELL=/bin/bash
/usr/bin/backintime -b
----------

I think this problem can be fixed by internally overwriting $SHELL or even ignoring it and running the commands directly using bash.

I correct: this was _not_ the problem. It ran once, an hour later there is the old problem :-(

Can you do a fsck on the file system that stores your snapshots?

No problem:
$ e2fsck /dev/mapper/backup
e2fsck 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
BACKUP: clean, 27987/127512 files, 323361/509980 blocks
$ e2fsck -f /dev/mapper/backup
e2fsck 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
BACKUP: 27987/127512 files (1.3% non-contiguous), 323361/509980 blocks

But I don't think there's a problem with the fs. Running the script from terminal it works _every_ time, running by cron it works about once out of 3 or 4 tries.

If this helps, here is the script I use (actually the script runs a normal user, thus some things have to run with sudo and I added a check if the fs is already mounted):

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP="/home/christian/backup-luks.img"
KEYFILE="/home/christian/backup.key"
LOOP=`losetup -f`
losetup "$LOOP" "$BACKUP"
cryptsetup -d "$KEYFILE" luksOpen "$LOOP" backup
mkdir /media/backup
e2fsck /dev/mapper/backup
mount /dev/mapper/backup /media/backup
/usr/bin/backintime -b
umount /media/backup
rmdir /media/backup
cryptsetup luksClose backup
losetup -d "$LOOP"
touch "$BACKUP"

Hi,

I'm using backintime-kde4 (version: 0.9.26) on Kubuntu 9.10.

When clicking the "Take Snapshot" button the GUI says "Compare with snapshot ..." forever and nothing happens at all.

When starting backintime-kde4 from terminal, the application shows the following lines when "Take Snapshot" is clicked:

INFO: Lock
INFO: Include folders: ['/home', '/etc', '/root']
INFO: Ignore folders: []
INFO: Last snapshots: {}
INFO: [KDE4Plugin.Systray.run]
INFO: Compare with old snapshot: 20091030-185328
INFO: [KDE4Plugin.Systray.run] begin loop
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/backintime/common/backintime.py", line 174, in <module>
    start_app()
  File "/usr/share/backintime/common/backintime.py", line 86, in start_app
    take_snapshot( cfg, True )
  File "/usr/share/backintime/common/backintime.py", line 42, in take_snapshot
    snapshots.Snapshots( cfg ).take_snapshot( force )
  File "/usr/share/backintime/common/snapshots.py", line 424, in take_snapshot
    ret_val = self._take_snapshot( snapshot_id, now, include_folders, ignore_folders, dict, force )
  File "/usr/share/backintime/common/snapshots.py", line 640, in _take_snapshot
    try_cmd = self._execute_output( cmd, self._exec_rsync_compare_callback, prev_snapshot_name )
  File "/usr/share/backintime/common/snapshots.py", line 918, in _execute_output
    line = pipe.readline()
IOError: [Errno 4] Interrupted system call
Back In Time
Version: 0.9.26
------------------

BTW: My python version is 2.6.4.

I have exactly the same problem s Christian. Running backintime from the terminal works every time, in cron it often stucks after [KDE4Plugin.Systray.run] begin loop

I think, it might have something to do with the kde systemtray icon, because when root's cron runs it (and no icon appears) it works every time. Don't think its because of permissions because it also works as user in the terminal.

I had this problem as well. After quick googling I found out that they had similar issue in software called Gajim.
Here is explained why is this happening: http://trac.gajim.org/ticket/674#comment:6
They solved it like this: http://trac.gajim.org/attachment/ticket/674/gajim-eintr3.diff

I adapted their to solution to backintime, diff is included as an attachment. I've been using this fix for a few days now and I haven't noticed this problem anymore.

The problem described here is related to KDE4 version (KDE4Plugin.Systray.run).
The problem described in gajim is related to gnome libs.

Had the same problem with an old system. Thanks to Jakub Dundalek - his patch works fine for me.