A graphical user interface for Box Backup, the online encrypted backup system by Ben Summers.
Boxi is a graphical user interface to configure, manage, and administer the Internet backup software called Box Backup by Ben Summers, available from https://www.boxbackup.org/.
Box Backup is "an open source, completely automatic on-line backup system for UNIX" with the following advantages:
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File Based
All backed up data is stored on the server in files on a filesystem -- no tape or archive devices are used
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Untrusted Servers
The server is trusted only to make files available when they are required -- all data is encrypted on the client
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Automatic Backups
A backup daemon runs on systems to be backed up, and copies encrypted data to the server when it notices changes
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Bandwidth Efficient
Only changes within files are sent to the server, just like rsync
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Storage Efficient
Old versions of files on the server are stored as changes from the current version
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File Versioning
Behaves like tape -- old versions and deleted files are available
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Low Cost and Portable
Designed to be easy and cheap to run a server. Portable implementation, and optional RAID implemented in userland for reliability without complex server setup or expensive hardware
Boxi is a graphical user interface to allow easy configuration and administration of the Box Backup client, and access to files on the server.
Boxi is developed in C++ using the wxWidgets GUI toolkit, available from http://www.wxwidgets.org/. This means that it should be possible in theory to compile Boxi on Windows, Macintosh and most UNIX systems, although so far only the following systems have been tested:
- Fedora Core 2 (Linux, development platform)
- openSUSE Leap 42.1 (Linux) Jan 2016
- SuSE Professional 9.1 (Linux)
- Ubuntu 5.04 (Linux, thanks to Scott Langley)
- Ubuntu 5.10 (Linux, development platform)
- Cygwin on Windows XP (development platform)
Feedback about and patches for compatibility with other systems are most welcome.
Download the source code in the usual way and then download the dependent boxbackup source code as a submodule
git clone git@github.com:boxbackup/boxi.git
cd boxi
git submodule update --initBoxi is distributed as source code, and binaries for Windows/Cygwin (eventually).
The following programs and libraries are required to compile Boxi:
- perl (version 5.8 or higher)
- patchutils (or at least patch)
- openssl (version 0.9.7a or higher, with development libraries)
- libncurses-devel (version 5, for boxbackup)
- gcc, g++ and libstdc++-devel
- wxWidgets (version 2.6.x or later, with development libraries) (> 3.0 needs code changes on separate branch)
- CppUnit (version 1.10.2 or later, with development libraries)
- m4 (version 1.4.1 or higher)
- autoconf (version 2.59 or higher)
- automake (version 1.6 or higher)
- libtool (version 1.5.6 or higher)
- gettext-devel
- pkg-config
- ccache (strictly optional)
To compile, run the following commands in the downloaded boxi source directory:
./autogen.sh
makeAll in one Line:
git clone git@github.com:boxbackup/boxi.git && cd boxi && git submodule update --init && ./autogen.sh && makeTo compile on Windows, you must satisfy the requirements of Box Backup. You may find the this document helpful:
https://www.boxbackup.org/wiki/CompileWithCygwinMinGW.
In addition, you will also need to compile and install CppUnit and wxMSW.
To run type the following command into the main download directory (i.e. boxi):
cd src #needed for the internationalization
./boxi -c /etc/boxbackup/bbackupd.conf
Usage: boxi [-c] [-t <str>] [-l <str>] [-h] [<bbackupd-config-file>]
-c ignored for compatibility with boxbackup command-line tools
-t, --test=<str> run the specified unit test, or ALL
-l, --lang=<str> load the specified language or translation
-h, --help displays this help textBoxi reads the environment variable LANG and can pick up Spanish (es) and German (de) translations. (needs work)
If you supply the -c option and a bbackupd-config-file boxi will read your configuration file and populate the configuration for you. (The -c strictly is not required but you will be familiar with the option after having set up BoxBackup.) If you don't supply this click on the Wizard or Advanced Button to supply the values directly. You can also load the configuration file with the File > Open menu and write back changes.
-t Offers TestWizard, TestBackupConfig, TestBackup, TestConfig, TestRestore, TestCompare, all.
-l offers de_DE and es_ES capabilities
Note: If you want to run the tests it is essential that you start boxi from the ./src directory. The tests expect to find their fixtures in the ../test/config directory (which is relative to the current directory).
The tool Doxygen can be used to build a web page with the classes of the project. To build this documentation you need to have Doxygen installed. You can then:
cd boxi/docs
mkdir -p ../build/doxygen # ensure that the target dir exists
doxygen Doxyfile # writes the documentation to boxi/build/doxygenYou then need to point your browser to the location of the index file: file:///your/source/code/directory/boxi/build/doxygen/html/index.html
This software is currently experimental. I hope that you will try it and find it useful, but it doesn't come with any warranty. If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.
Henceforth, odd minor numbers (x.1.y, x.3.y, etc.) will be experimental, and even numbers (x.2.y, x.4.y) slightly less experimental (maybe stable one day).
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Version 0.1.0 (released 2005-05-26)
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/boxi/boxi-0.1.0.tar.gz?download
Commemorates the release of public CVS, and interest of other developers in joining in the project, with a minor version number increase.
Fixed compilation on wxWindows 2.6.0 (at least on Cygwin, hopefully Linux too).
Tweaked Box Backup's build infrastructure to require fewer rebuilds, while still satisfying dependencies (I hope :-)
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Version 0.0.7 (released 2005-05-21)
http://www.qwirx.com/boxi/boxi-0.0.7.tar.gz
No need to start with the name of a configuration file any more! Built-in defaults for configuration values.
Load configurations from a file while Boxi is running.
Prompt to save configuration changes when exiting Boxi.
Checks configuration for errors in real time while editing.
Fewer pop-up warnings on Cygwin.
First binary release for Windows (Cygwin).
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Version 0.0.6 (released 2005-05-08)
http://www.qwirx.com/boxi/boxi-0.0.6.tar.gz (released 2005-05-08)
Server Files panel: hide deleted files and old versions of files on the server (see the new "View" menu). Disable Delete/Undelete buttons when a file is selected (need a protocol change to make this work for files).
Locations panel: edit and remove backup locations.
Local Files panel: view include/exclude status and reasons for local files.
Backup Daemon panel: new GUI control panel for the bbackupd daemon. Start and stop the daemon, kill it, ask it to sync or reload (with Real Buttons(TM)).
Box Backup: integrated build process with GNU autotools. Fixed "make clean" to do what I want (ensure a rebuild next time). Fixed "make" to work properly when remaking after a code change. Moved command socket handling to a separate class, to make it easier to access from other places in the code. Listen for command socket connections and commands while a backup is in progress, while sleeping on error, and while sleeping on store full.
Server Connection: new class to encapsulate server interface.
General: fixed Cygwin (more or less, perhaps less :-). Many thanks to Gary for his enthusiasm pushing me to make this happen.
The code is stable, but not all new (or existing!) features work perfectly. The interface to control Local Files checking on server needs more work. Some things, like location matching, don't work on Cygwin but do work on Linux (and possibly other Unixes).
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Version 0.0.5
http://www.qwirx.com/boxi/boxi-0.0.5.tar.gz (released 2005-03-19)
Separated configuration settings into Basic and Advanced, to be less intimidating for new users and to fit more easily into the available screen space.
Allow navigating into directories by double-clicking files in the server file list (similar to Windows Explorer behaviour).
Allow sorting the file list by filename, size or date, in forward or reverse order. Replaced the "Flags" column by "Last Modified" date, which is more useful.
Redraw the GUI during directory restore operations, showing progress in the status bar (current file and number of files restored).
Changed most error message dialogs to have more politically-correct titles (Boxi Error and Boxi Message).
Added the "-c" command-line option, which is ignored, and renamed README.txt back to README, to stop Make from complaining.
Many thanks to Richard Eigenmann for these suggestions.
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Version 0.0.4
http://www.qwirx.com/boxi/boxi-0.0.4.tar.gz (released 2005-03-14)
Added the ability to restore files and directories from the server, and to delete and undelete directories.
Fixed many crashes due to server disconnecting during operation, and internal buffer overflows in Box Backup's debugging code.
Display file sizes (nicely formatted) in the server file list.
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Version 0.0.3
http://www.qwirx.com/boxi/boxi-0.0.3.tar.gz (released 2005-03-01)
Split the code into multiple files (modules), which should make it easier to understand and faster to recompile after making changes.
Fixed a bug that made it impossible to connect to the server and browse files stored there, since before version 0.0.2 was released.
Missing essential configuration parameters are detected when trying to connect to the server, and a warning is given.
Exceptions are handled much better, with Real Error Messages(TM).
You can now save your changes to the configuration file by selecting the "Save" option from the "File" menu. This feature should be used with extreme caution! PLEASE back up your configuration file first!
"There are no bugs, just undocumented features" (unknown)
See the TODO file for a list of bugs to fix and features which are planned for future releases. Feel free to contribute patches or suggestions for new features :-)
If you find a problem that's not documented in the TODO file, please submit a bug report on the Sourceforge bug tracker, at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=135105&atid=731482.
To request a new feature, please use the Sourceforge RFE tracker at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=135105&atid=731485.
This software is copyright (C) Chris Wilson, 2004-05. Licensed for public distribution under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2 or later (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html).
Contains a copy of Box Backup by Ben Summers, which is separately licensed under a license very similar to the BSD license, which can be seen at https://github.com/boxbackup/boxbackup/blob/master/LICENSE-DUAL.txt. This component is NOT covered by the GPL.
The file boxbackup.patch contains a number of changes to Box Backup which are useful for Boxi. That file is under the same license as Box Backup, i.e. a BSD-like license, and copyright assigned to Ben Summers.
Portions of Boxi are copied, based on or inspired by Box Backup itself, and it is not possible to compile Boxi without linking to the Box Backup code. Therefore, the Boxi code contains the attribution required by the Box Backup license, that it contains code by Ben Summers. This attribution must not be removed from the code!
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