Windows Scheduled Tasks - Supported?

[bfloeagle]

One of the applications that I would like to use in Wine relies heavily on Windows Scheduled Tasks (IE: the program does what it does very well, but without a scheduled task, it would never run automatically).

The application is 2BrightSparks SyncBackPro.

How does Wine handle this? I'm not much of a Windows programmer but basically in Windows, SyncBackPro opens the Windows Scheduler when the users wants to schedule a task and then after it is created, reads information from it back into an internal database. How would something like this work since Wine itself is not running Windows?

And trying to stay hopeful, even if it did support something like this, what is the native application that remains in memory performing the tasks (just like cron would for a Unix host)?

Thanks!
Andy

[oiaohm]

This answer is not going to be something you like. bfloeagle

Windows scheduled tasks don't exist in wine. There are a lot of good reasons. Most items that need scheduled tasks would also need running as root breaching the rule never run wine as root. Running a backup program at times will require root.

Answer don't use 2BrightSparks SyncBackPro. Instead use something native Linux. Or at least nativish like. http://www.areca-backup.org/ areca does not pick up permissions. There are other backup solutions for Linux that will.

Basically some things wine is not suitable for. One of those things is backup software.

[bfloeagle]

That's what I thought but I wanted to check. I pretty much know how to script backups in a Unix environment + cron (getting close to what 2BrightSparks did automatically for me in Windows) but I was hoping that when I make the full cut over to Linux, I wouldn't lose my investment in this software... Oh well.

Thanks for clearing this up.
Andy

[Usurp]

This answer is not going to be something you like. bfloeagle

Windows scheduled tasks don't exist in wine. There are a lot of good reasons. Most items that need scheduled tasks would also need running as root breaching the rule never run wine as root. Running a backup program at times will require root.

As far as I know, scheduled tasks can be planned in cron and use a different user than root. In this case, the root argument is moot.

[oiaohm]

Read more careful Usurp. I said at times backup program will require root. To do wide reaching backups across many users. Ie the permission to bypass permissions. In this case its root is not moot.

Lot of windows programs running as scheduled tasks expect to go where ever they like they are not normally limited by running as particular user so normally don't have good coding to cope with the event. When it comes to a backup program not worth the risk.

My warning about root was not to do with what cron can and cannot do. It directly links to what backup programs have to do.

Backup programs can also be very platform particular Usurp. A backup program running inside wine will not always be able to back up file permissions of Linux correctly either.

bfloeagle little pain now lot less in future. At least a backup solution targeted at a platform works correctly.

Yes I had done a lot more research on it that I let known Usurp.

I did typo by the way and it got missed very sorry. http://www.areca-backup.org/features.php supports permissions on Linux but does not on windows. Unfortunately most people are not aware how many execute bits backing up a users home directly alone can require.

2BrightSpark SyncBackPro does not pick up permissions at all. Major headache down the track for sure when working with Linux.

More scrambled what I was trying to type.

[Martin Gregorie]

On Wed, 2010-04-14 at 06:43 -0500, oiaohm wrote:

My warning about root was not to do with what cron can and cannot do.
It directly links to what backup programs have to do.

How you handle backups depends on what medium you're backing up to.

* Amanda is worth a look if you're using tape.
* Mondo works OK if you're using DVD, though its fairly slow.
* If you're backing up to disk, consider using rsync (very fast) or
simply using a compressed tar backup. Either way, reformat the backup
disks as ext2 or ext3. Reasons for *not* backing up to VFAT disks are:
- if you're copying individual files (e.g. with rsync) the backed up
files will lose their ownership and access permissions
- VFAT disks have an absolute limet that no file can exceed 4GB. If
your compressed backups (tar or zip) exceed this limit and you
don't notice your backups will be incomplete

Amanda and Mondo may by now be able to back up to disk: they weren't
when I last used them.

I developed my own backups:
- daily, run by cron. Uses a bash script to keep daily compressed tar
files on a USB drive, deleting enough of the oldest tar file(s) to
make room for the current backup. Currently takes 90 mins to make a
12 GB backup.

- weekly, run manually. Uses a bash script wrapper round rsync.
Typically takes 8-10 mins to back up the whole system to a USB
drive, though the initial backup took 2 hours: rsync just backs up
changes since the last time it was run.


Martin

[perryh]

"Usurp" <[email protected]> wrote:

As far as I know, scheduled tasks can be planned in cron and use a
different user than root. In this case, the root argument is moot.

Nothing stops you from running wine out of cron AFAIK, provided you
can arrange to get it a valid DISPLAY setting.