question - why must URI be filled in for config file to be accepted?

[GuitarBilly]

hi @deajan, welcome in the new year ;-)
As the title says, i wanted to have a 'skeleton' config file (to modify another existing config file later by text editor).

I selected "Create New Config" and got to the config screen.
However it refuses to Accept because I have to fill in an URI:

Why is this?

• I can leave all "Backup" tab items empty so only an URI does not mean a useful or valid backup will be done.
• the URI is not checked, i can type anything in the field and it is accepted.
• for the other 1000 things that can be forgotten or wronly input by the user, npbackup will throw errors and warnings.

( As for my personal opinion i'd rather keep things simple and consistent and remove this check )

[deajan]

Most settings can indeed be left alone, but Repo URI / path should never be empty, the same should apply for repo password.
Backup items can be too much different settings to test them all, but indeed should also be enforced.

I won't remove the test assertion, but I could change it into a warning, would that fit for you ?

[GuitarBilly]

@deajan yes a warning would work for me.
You are aware that the repo password can be left empty and is not checked at the moment?

Back to the Repo UTI / path, you check if the entry is not empty but you do not check if it is a valid repo/path.
And some strange things can happen:

1. create new config with only bladiebla as Repo URI/path, empty password.
2. Accept config
3. watch main window showing "no snapshots¨. no error or warning given
4. press launch backup
5. backup HANGS FOREVER with some errors : password cannot be empty (from restic) and Runner: cannot execute, backend not ready. Runner: Function backup failed with "NoneType' object has not attribute ´backup_result_content´.
6. pressing Cancel then Yes gives "unknown error please check logs. NoneType object has no attribute 'cancel'.
7. npbackup closes (crashed?)

sorry I do not have time to put screenshots but this should be easy to reproduce.

[Alk2]

i wanted to have a 'skeleton' config file (to modify another existing config file later by text editor).

@GuitarBilly Just a suggestion; could you use the Example Config files from the Github repository https://github.com/netinvent/npbackup/tree/main/examples to do what you need?

[GuitarBilly]

@Alk2 thanks as I cannot remember knowing these existed. I'd say yes definitely a valid and complete 'skeleton' and sufficient for what I had planned to do.

[Alk2]

@Alk2 thanks as I cannot remember knowing these existed. I'd say yes definitely a valid and complete 'skeleton' and sufficient for what I had planned to do.

Great! Just note that if on Windows, this little Bug that I discovered with the example file: #178

[deajan]

There is currently a major GUI rewrite going on, I'll take a look into the above before release.

[GuitarBilly]

with the latest development branch I can see the error has now become a message and a config is saved:

2026-01-28 22:19:07,788 :: INFO :: Launching configuration GUI
2026-01-28 22:19:19,501 :: INFO :: Saved configuration file npbackup.conf
2026-01-28 22:19:22,384 :: INFO :: Using configuration file npbackup.conf
2026-01-28 22:19:22,428 :: INFO :: Loaded config 4F017B98 in C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup.conf
2026-01-28 22:19:22,429 :: INFO :: Handling random variables in configuration files
2026-01-28 22:19:22,429 :: INFO :: Updating config file
2026-01-28 22:19:22,434 :: INFO :: Saved configuration file npbackup.conf
2026-01-28 22:19:22,863 :: ERROR :: Repo cannot be empty
2026-01-28 22:19:22,863 :: ERROR :: No password nor password command given. Repo password cannot be empty
2026-01-28 22:19:23,235 :: INFO :: Runner took 0.0 seconds for snapshots
2026-01-28 22:19:23,583 :: INFO :: No valid snapshot list given
2026-01-28 22:19:32,646 :: INFO :: ExecTime = 0:00:35.917283, finished, state is: errors.

p.s. no WARNING in the terminal is given (consistency?) but for me this is just a cosmetic observation. 8-)

refering back to my observed strangeness this is still reproducible.

   >>> PRESS BACKUP <<<
2026-01-28 22:34:06,805 :: ERROR :: Repo cannot be empty
2026-01-28 22:34:06,805 :: ERROR :: No password nor password command given. Repo password cannot be empty
2026-01-28 22:34:07,029 :: INFO :: Runner took 0.010131 seconds for backup
2026-01-28 22:34:07,029 :: ERROR :: Runner: Function backup failed with: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'backup_result_content'
2026-01-28 22:34:07,029 :: ERROR :: Trace:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup\core\runner.py", line 624, in wrapper
    return fn(self, *args, **kwargs)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup\core\runner.py", line 679, in wrapper
    self.restic_runner.backup_result_content,
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'backup_result_content'
   >>> NPBACKUP HANGS HERE <<<
   >>> PRESS CANCEL, PRESS YES<<<
2026-01-28 22:34:22,240 :: INFO :: User cancelled operation
   >>> PRESS OK <<<
2026-01-28 22:34:26,695 :: CRITICAL :: GUI Execution error 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'cancel'
2026-01-28 22:34:26,695 :: INFO :: Trace:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup\gui\__main__.py", line 1325, in main_gui
    _main_gui(viewer_mode=viewer_mode)
  File "C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup\gui\__main__.py", line 1171, in _main_gui
    backup(repo_config)
  File "C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup\gui\__main__.py", line 525, in backup
    result = gui_thread_runner(
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup\gui\helpers.py", line 293, in gui_thread_runner
    runner.cancel()
  File "C:\_GIT\npbackup\npbackup\core\runner.py", line 1976, in cancel
    self.restic_runner.cancel()
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'cancel'
2026-01-28 22:34:26,699 :: INFO :: ExecTime = 0:00:29.131354, finished, state is: critical.

C:\_GIT\npbackup>
   >>> NPBACKUP-GUI HAS TERMINATED ITSELF <<<

[deajan]

Indeed, since I did not authorize empty repo nor password, backup would never expect a None value.
I'll get this in shape for next release.

[deajan]

Fixed in current master. Thank you for the report.

As a side note: current master includes a heavy GUI rewrite currently in alpha stage.
All remarks are welcome.