Invalid options with -keep

Support
#1

Hi, I am new to Duplicacy and I am sorry for the basic question but I researched on the forum and could not find an answer.

I am using the Web Edition and I was trying to implement a smart retention policy as described here.

However, when I insert the following in the Command options, I receive an error of “Invalid options”:

-threads 4 -keep 0:365 -keep 30:30 -keep 7:7 -keep 1:1
(the threads option was the default with google drive).

I also tried like here :

duplicacy prune -keep 0:365 -keep 30:30 -keep 7:7 -keep 1:1

but got the same error. What am I missing?
Thank you

#2

Post a screenshot.

  • Are you adding this to “prune” command, not “backup” command by a chance?
  • You need to add -a flag or specific explicitly whichs snapshot ID to prune
#3

Here it is:

image
image1081×579 34.5 KB

I specified “prune” for the keep option but I am doing something wrongly,

thank you!!

#4

Read the top text on your screenshot.

You are setting options to backup command.

You need to set those options for prune command instead.

Only options, there should not be “backup” or “prune” in the command options box.

#5

Ahh, ok! I skipped the “Schedule” part of the guide because I wanted to backup to my cloud manually, I read it and now understand what you mean.

I thought that by manually starting a backup with the prune option, the software would automatically delete the old versions of the backup and add the new ones but I am now seeing that is more complicated than I hoped :face_with_head_bandage:

I will research into the forum on how to set a simple workflow with the Web Edition for average users, if I will not find any topic about this I will open a new one because now I have more doubts than before.

Thank you!

#6

just walk in the UI from top to bottom
image

  1. configure a storage. That’s where your backup will be stored.
  2. Configure a backup. That connects stuff you want to backup with the target storage you want to hold the backup, configured in step one. As a convenience, you can actually run backup from there too, but this is not the main mode of operation.
  3. Schedules: this is where you configure actions. Backup, prune, check, anything else. If you don’t want it to run periodically – then you can configure it to never run and run it manually. So, you would add one for backup, and one for prune (or both together in one schedule)

I would call those tabs differently:

  1. Targets
  2. Sources
  3. Actions.

Then it will be much more friendly…

Does this help at all?

#7

First of all thank you for your time,

I configured Step 1 and 2. Regarding the Schedule, I read in the guide that there are 4 possible actions. In my case, the desired workflow would be: a) run the new backup and b) keep only the snapshots as described in my first message.

If I am understanding correctly, to do so I have to schedule two distinct jobs: backup and prune (the latter with the -keep options), right?

My doubts are about the other jobs “check” and “copy”.

I see here, that check is to check the integrity of snapshots. Is this required/reccomended? And if yes, how often?? What could happen if I don’t check? That that backup could be corrupt and not know it (so losing the data)?

I also can ignore “copy” if I want just a backup in one storage right?
Thank you :grinning:

#8

Yes, you can create one schedule, and add two job to it – backup and prune.

The check job updates the statistics on the dashboard – so if you want to see stats, might as well do it. Its main job is to check that all chunks that are referenced by the backup are still present in the storage. Mostly to protect against software malfunction.

So I would add backup, prune, and check to your schedule in that order.

Alternatively, you may want to run backup in a separate schedule – for example, do backup hourly, and run prune and check in a separate schedule, e.g. weekly.

Backup is pretty fast, check and prune can take quite a time, and there is no reason to run them after every backup.

#9

Thank you very much, I will follow your advice!!

#10

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