Backup Plugin: Backup to a subdirectory of the home directory by default

[personalizedrefrigerator]

Operating system

Linux

Joplin version

2.14

Current behaviour

Currently, the default Simple Backup plugin creates backups in a subdirectory of the profile directory. This could be problematic:

• These backups may be difficult to discover.
• If the profile directory is deleted, backups are also lost.

To make backups easier to discover, we might:

1. By default, create backups in a subdirectory of the user's home directory (e.g. JoplinBackup).
2. So that different profiles still have different backups, create subdirectories of JoplinBackup for each profile, like we do with ~/.config/joplin-desktop.
3. Add a README or similar document to explain the JoplinBackup folder.

[tomasz1986]

What about JoplinPortable? In its case, it does make a lot of sense to back up to the profile directory 🙂.

[JackGruber]

If we need adjustments in the plugin, I can do that with pleasure. But it may take some time as I'm on vacation at the moment.

[personalizedrefrigerator]

If we need adjustments in the plugin, I can do that with pleasure. But it may take some time as I'm on vacation at the moment.

I'm also happy making pull requests for relevant changes :).

My current plan is to:

1. Change the default backup path in desktopDefaultPluginsInfos.ts.
   • The logic for this will likely be similar to BaseApplication.determineProfileDir: for the parent directory, use process.env.PORTABLE_EXECUTABLE_DIR if in the portable application, initArgs.profileDir if given, and os.homedir() otherwise.
   • There will need to be additional logic for different profiles so that one profile's backup doesn't overwrite another's. For example, backups from different profiles can go into different subdirectories of JoplinBackup.
   • Unless it's acceptable to have a folder structure similar to JoplinBackup/JoplinBackup, JoplinBackup/profile-idhere/JoplinBackup, it might be necessary to somehow adjust the plugin. For example, to not delete subdirectories of JoplinBackup that start with profile-.
     • An alternative would be to disable the "create subfolder" setting and have Joplin create the JoplinBackup directory, but this could be dangerous if the user changes the backup path.
2. Create a pull request: Update Simple Backup to create a README.md or similar file in the root of the backup directory. (Pull request)
   • This file could explain how to restore a backup (and perhaps include information about the most recent backup).

What about JoplinPortable? In its case, it does make a lot of sense to back up to the profile directory 🙂.

Currently, the profile directory is in the same directory as the executable (portable-path/JoplinProfile). I think backing up to portable-path/JoplinBackup could make sense in this case.