Programs Settings

You have the option of running an external program before the profile starts and/or after the profile has finished. This useful option allows you to prepare the files being copied before the profile has run, for example. You could also use this to rename files after they have been copied. There are many possible uses for the Program Settings in SyncBack, so read through the following and consider how they may be applied to your own computer setup.

Run before profile: To have a program run before the profile is run, type the name into 'Run before profile' edit-box or click the folder icon next to it. For example, you could type 'notepad. exe' (without the quotes) so whenever the profile starts Notepad will be run.

Wait until the program has finished before running profile: If this option is enabled, then when the program is run, SyncBack will pause the profile until the program has finished. The program must exit/close before the profile will continue. If you do not enable this option then the program will be run and the profile will carry on running without waiting for it to finish.

Wait for a maximum of...: If this option is enabled, then you can choose how long SyncBack should wait for the program to finish before it continues. If the program does not finish within the specified time then SyncBack will continue with the profile. Note that it is advisable to set a maximum waiting time otherwise SyncBack may get "stuck" waiting for a program that is not going to exit.

Run after profile: To have a program run after the profile has finished, type the name into 'Run after profile' edit-box or click the folder icon next to it.

Wait until the program has finished before running next profile or exiting: If this option is enabled, then when the program is run, SyncBack will pause and not finish the profile until the program has finished. The program must exit/close before the profile will complete running. If you do not enable this option then the program will be run and the profile finish as per normal without waiting.

Wait for a maximum of...: If this option is enabled, then you can choose how long SyncBack should wait for the program to finish before the profile run ends. If the program does not finish within the specified time then SyncBack will end the profile run. Note that it is advisable to set a maximum waiting time otherwise SyncBack may get "stuck" waiting for a program that is not going to exit.

Abort the profile if the program fails: If enabled, and the Before program fails to start (because the program doesn't exist or cannot be run), then the profile will not run. By default the profile will continue to run with a failure.

Run the program even if the profile fails: Select this option to run the 'after' program even if the profile fails. By default the program is not run if the profile fails, e. g. a file could not be copied.

As with the Source and Destination directories, you can use Windows environment variables. For example, if you typed 'Notepad %HOMEPATH%\test. txt' then this would run notepad and open a file in your home directory called 'test. txt'. You can see a list of what typical Windows environment variables are available on this web page: http://www.winnetmag.com/Article/ArticleID/23873/23873.html.

Unlike the Source and Destination directories, you can also use special SyncBack variables. These are used in the same way as environment variables, except they have a leading underscore character, e. g. %_Source%. The value returned is for the profile being run. Below is a list of the most common variables that you can use:

_Compression = Returns 1 if the destination is compressed

_Destination = The destination directory/filename

_DestIsFTP = Returns Y if the destination is on an FTP server

_Priority = The run priority of the profile

_SingleFile = Returns 1 if compressing to a single file (ignore if _Compression returns 0)

_Source = The source directory

For a full list see the registry (profiles are stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\MJLSoftware\SyncBack and each profile is stored in it's own key, where the key name is the same as the profiles name)

SyncBack comes with two example scripts that can be used when compressing all files to a single Zip file. The first one (timestamp. vbs) copies the destination Zip file and prefixes the copies filename with a timestamp. This allows you to keep versions of backups based on the time the backup was made. The second script (RotateBackup. vbs) does a similar things but only keeps the last 4 backups (by default, you can edit the script to keep more). It prefixes the Zip file with a number. For more information see this FAQ entry.