Archive for the ‘arq’ Category

Open-source Arq restore utility

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

We just published an open-source command-line utility for restoring your Arq backups.

It’s on github: http://sreitshamer.github.com/arq_restore/

It’s very simple to use. Just type “arq_restore” to list the backed-up folders, and “arq_restore <path>” to restore from a backed-up folder. arq_restore restores from the latest backup of the folder.

Our point of view is that your backups should be controlled by you, not by some “online backup provider”. Anything else doesn’t “feel” like backup.

This command-line utility is a key part of giving you full control of your backups. You control your backup data (it’s in your own S3 account) and you have the means to easily restore from it in the future without depending on Haystack Software.

Enjoy!

Arq 1.3.10 is out!

Monday, March 29th, 2010

This release fixes several bugs:

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue with superceded packs not being deleted properly, causing “pack not found” errors.
  • Preserve selection when “OTHER COMPUTERS” node is added to the source list.
  • Fixed an issue with backup folder names that contain characters other than letters and numbers.
  • Remember the position of the main split view’s divider.

Pick “Check for Updates” from the Arq menu to automatically update to 1.3.10. Or download Arq here.

Arq 1.3.9 is out!

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Arq online backup for Mac version 1.3.9 is out!

This releases fixes several bugs.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed occasional crash in Arq.app when refreshing the list of other computers’ backups.
  • Remember window position and size.
  • Fixed issue with excludes of type “relative path” and “starts with”.
  • Fixed rare crash in Arq Agent when network byte counter rolls over.
  • Retry on S3 timeout error.
  • Fixed memory leak in Arq.app when changing S3 regions.

Official Arq mug

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

My wife made this awesome corporate mug!

Arq mug

EU bucket support is here!

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

We just shipped Arq version 1.3.3 with support for selecting the “region” for your S3 “bucket”.

If you’re located in the EU, you might get better performance if you select “EU” for the region when setting up Arq.

Get Arq version 1.3.3 here.

You can also change regions if you’ve already got Arq running. Just go to Preferences -> Advanced and click the “Change S3 Region…” button. Unfortunately S3 buckets can’t be moved from one region to another, so if you change regions, you’ll be using a new bucket, Arq and Arq Agent will restart, and you’ll need to reconfigure which folders you want Arq to back up.

Arq 1.3 is out!

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Feature Additions

  • Much better problem handling and reporting. When an problem occurs on a particular file, Arq continues backing up the other files. It logs the problems and displays an indicator to the user that problems occurred.
  • “Start at login” setting in preferences.
  • “Show menubar icon” setting in preferences — menubar icon is now optional.
  • Added a step in the setup wizard to make it easy to back up your home folder.
  • Added Delete-key shortcut for removing a folder from backups.
  • When the Internet connection goes away during initial backup of a folder, backup just pauses until it becomes available (instead of restarting the entire backup).
  • When restoring files, restore to original location if possible; otherwise restore to a “Restored by Arq” folder at the original location.

Bug Fixes

  • Added workaround for Apple bug reading Finder flags on symlinks.
  • Fixed issues with SOCKS support.
  • Improved behavior when Internet connection is intermittent.
  • If Arq Agent stops running (which only happens if Arq Agent crashes, which should be never!), Arq notifies the user and restarts it.

Pick “Check for Updates” in the Arq menu, or get it here: Arq.zip

Arq 1.2 is out!

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

Feature Additions

  • View and restore from backups of other computers using the same S3 account. NOTE: This only works for backups that have the same encryption password.

Bug Fixes

  • If trial expires, Arq Agent launches Arq so that the user sees the trial-expired message and understands that backups aren’t happening anymore.
  • Fixed crash during backup on PowerPC computers.

Pick “Check for Updates” from the Arq menu, or get it here: Arq_1.2.0.zip

Arq 1.1.12 is out!

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Here are the changes:

  • If a file disappears between getting the directory listing and accessing the file, don’t fail the backup.
  • Strip leading and trailing whitespace from license name and key before validating it.
  • Fixed an issue where S3 object-list query returned an unexpected error and caused the Arq GUI to crash.
  • Fixed an issue where bogus file type code or file creator code could cause a crash during restore.

Pick “Check for Updates” from the “Arq” menu, or get it here.

Arq’s Backup Bouncer results

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

The critical feature of any backup product is its ability to restore your files correctly. If it can’t do that, then it really doesn’t matter how fast it is, how easy to use it is.

Files on the Mac can have a bewildering array of important metadata attached to them, and it’s critical to restore all the metadata, not just the file’s main data (contents). Fortunately there’s an awesome open-source tool for testing whether your backup solution is capable of restoring correctly: Backup Bouncer.

Arq passes every Backup Bouncer test. It’s safe to use for backing up your files. What are you using for backup? Does it pass all the Backup Bouncer tests?

Here are the Backup Bouncer results:

Verifying: basic-permissions ... ok (Critical)
Verifying: timestamps ... ok (Critical)
Verifying: symlinks ... ok (Critical)
Verifying: symlink-ownership ... ok
Verifying: hardlinks ... ok (Important)
Verifying: resource-forks ...
Sub-test: on files ... ok (Critical)
Sub-test: on hardlinked files ... ok (Important)
Verifying: finder-flags ... ok (Critical)
Verifying: finder-locks ... ok
Verifying: creation-date ... ok
Verifying: bsd-flags ... ok
Verifying: extended-attrs ...
Sub-test: on files ... ok (Important)
Sub-test: on directories ... ok (Important)
Sub-test: on symlinks ... ok
Verifying: access-control-lists ...
Sub-test: on files ... ok (Important)
Sub-test: on dirs ... ok (Important)
Verifying: fifo ... ok
Verifying: devices ... ok
Verifying: combo-tests ...
Sub-test: xattrs + rsrc forks ... ok
Sub-test: lots of metadata ... ok

Arq 1.1.11 is now available

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Here are the changes:

  • Fixed issue where backup wasn’t being retried soon enough when an error occurred.
  • Fixed issue with agent startup in a no-internet-available environment.
  • Fixed issue with agent startup in a public Wifi environment where router login is required.
  • Fixed up the license agreement in the Help docs.

Pick “Check for Updates” from the “Arq” menu, or get it here.