Application: Toucan
Category: Utilities
Toucan 2.2.0 Pre-Release 5 has now been uploaded, I was adding so many changes to the 2.1.3 pre-releases it made sense to have a bigger version bump. All of the release notes from those releases apply here too.
Download Toucan 2.2.0 Pre-Release 5 [2.0MB download / 2.8MB installed]
(MD5:98aaeefa8109ebcc8452ebd3f8284a81)
Release Notes:
Pre-Release 5 (2009-09-26):
- More helpfile updates
- Fix backup bug
- Updated the way Rules, Scripts and Variables are handled
- Fixed script not being cleared
- Update labels to 'Run'
- Refresh buttons added
Pre-Release 4 (2009-09-22):
- Fix backup (and secure) not showing rules
- Fixed script not being cleared
- Fixed excluded files being put in the wrong group
- Fix a whole heap of Rules UI bugs
Pre-Release 3 (2009-09-15):
- Make a number of changes to the sync method to try and remove access denied errors
- Fix a number of memory leaks after scanning with cppcheck
- Fix scripts when running in a non-English language
Pre-Release 2 (2009-09-13):
- Fix folder timestamps
- Add 2 second time check for update to help ignore file system differences
- Fix error message display
- Prompt to save existing job when creating new one
- Loads more helpfile updates
- Remove backup temp file if it exists
- Fix compression level label (again)
- Fix remember entered info
- Disallow reserved job names
- Disallow duplicate job names
- Language list sorted
Pre-Release 1 (2009-09-03):
- Support enter key to refresh in sync
- Add insert variable dialog to sync
- New rules ui and input form, performs validation of rules and allows editing
- Ensure some part of Toucan is visible
- Fix external links in help ctrl (thanks Zach T)
- New password dialog
- Add a table to the sync help page (thanks to oakdale)
- Fix many helpfile spellings (thanks to oakdale)
- Fix compression level label
- Disallow empty job names
- Label consistency improved
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on BlueSky
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Mastodon
Woo I got thanked
btw not all links were resolved 
some are still trying to load in wxhtmlctrl like the link for poedit for instance (actually thats the last link in that help file) other than that everything else looks fine
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
fault, the link was spelled wrong (htpp ;))
Please don't take my bug reports as criticism, I'm just hammering your application because I like it very much, really.
Regarding the mirror sync issues with streams enabled, with this latest build I've found a weird thing:
I have a directory on a network share that I want to sync to two other folders, one is on another network share, and the other in a local drive.
It works fine when syncing from the first network share to the local drive, and it doesn't when syncing to the second network share.
The strange thing is Preview DOES detect and show the files that needs updating between the two network shares, although the job execution itself does nothing.
thankyou, that does narrow down were this could be happening! I will have a major hunt for this bug this afternoon
have uploaded an extra-debug version here. Would you mind running it and seeing what it says about the files in question? Hopefully that will help track it down a bit better, I just cant find the difference between the actual code and the preview code! I do warn you that it might produce quite a lot of output though so you might want to run it on a smaller set of files than normal
Thanks in advance!
I have tried the debug version. It still detects the 6 files (out of 322) that need updating, but does not copy them.
There are two different messages:
To add weirdness to it all, I have to tell you that all 6 files are of the same type (mdb in this case).
don't take them as criticism at all
I really want to make Toucan as good as I possibly can, and bug reports are vital to achieving that!
1. Also happens when switching languages.
4. It was a normal job: one directory and everything inside it. I have tried with 7z and zip compressions, both in ultra and fastest levels. Funny thing is 7z and zip don't follow the same order when processing files, but the progress window shows the same wrong messages every time. An easy way to force some truncated message is to try to compress using 7z to a file with zip extension, or viceversa. The job will fail, and you will see some lines of the error report wrong.
By the way, during job execution this progress window shows some messages translated, and others not (scanning, updating, compressing).
5. Same job as point 4; it was a complete backup.
A new issue: cancelling a running backup job is not very responsive (not that I find that critical though), but the "ugly" thing is that it doesn't delete the temp file.
1. Yes, I fixed the root of the issue, they were both linked
4. The reason for the translation differences is that in Backup you see the output direct from 7Zip, which is not translated, unlike Sync and Secure with display output from Toucan. I will try and get those error messages fixed
5. Ok, thanks
The real problem with the last issue is that Toucans output actually lags slightly behind the 7zip output so when you kill the 7zip process you see Toucan 'catch up', I will make sure the temp file gets cleaned though.
Hi Steve,
I'm running a script via the commandline and it seems to hang during the "Building file list".
I've run the script from the gui and it seems works fine. The script is basically a modified version of the example rotational backup, except I run two backup jobs and only have 2 versions of each backup file (i.e. Foobar 1; Foobar 2 & Netmeter 1; Netmeter 2).
I'm not sure what's causing the problems, perhaps you can see if you can replicate this?
I will take a look and try and get this sorted in the next release
Hi Steve, I'm still experiencing this issue with the latest beta (5). I'm not sure if you need any additional information or if I'm the only one experiencing this problem.
With such a major "jump" it would be nice to see an updated help file. I would also like to see some added examples for scripting. As a cudos, thank you for making the Help file drop down align with your menu tabs. I have seen WAY too many high end software miss this. I too am having an issue with the graphical bar not aligning with actual work. My main use (at the moment) is to mirror a my HD to a portable drive ... currently at 340+ GB.
Thank you for such a great portable app
mentioned in the main post I will update the helpfile, definitely in time for the next pre-release! I will also look into the progress bar again, just to confirm you are using Sync Mirror?
And thankyou
has been uploaded, another tidy heap of changes, thanks to everyone for the testing so far, as always, 2.2.0 is shaping up to be the best release ever!
Thank you Steve for all your work. I will test the new version tomorrow at the office.
Bad news. I have tried the standard sync job I use for testing, and says for all NOT UPDATED files:
- Failed to open X (error 5: acceso denegado)
- Failed to modify file times for X (error 5: acceso denegado)
And for each file that needs syncing:
- Failed to copy the file X to Y (error 5: acceso denegado)
- Fallo al copiar X
Also, as you can see, the reports mix languages.
The worst part is Toucan now fails for all files even with streams disabled.
Preview works fine, as before. I like the idea of highlighting errors in red.
is now uploaded, hopefully we have made a bit of progress this time!
I can't download the new release, Sourceforge says:
The "Toucan_2.2.0_Pre-Release_3.paf.exe" file could not be found or is not available. Please select another file.
Edit: disregard, it works now.
The good news is Toucan has synced all but one of the files it was supposed to sync.
The bad news is the progress windows shows the same two errors for the rest of the files (failed to open, followed by failed to modify file times).
Also, Toucan has been unable to sync one file, an excel spreadsheet, which was open but not locked by the system. (It is a read-only file, so people can open it but the file itself behaves as if nobody opened it).
As an aside, I like that we can resize the progress window (my file paths are pretty long), but given that there are only two columns, ¿wouldn't it be better if the right margin of the column on the right was attached to the window, rather than having to widen the window and then grabbing the column margin and moving it to the right also?. I mean, if it behaved like the leftmost column.
I have a feeling that you are close to finding out what's wrong with the sync mechanism, Steve.
at last!
Well sort of anyway 
I don't suppose you had any of the other options selected?
As for the window at the end of the sync the right hand column should expand to show all of its contents, is it not doing this? The reason it isn't pinned it so that you can actually make the column wider than the window, if for example you have a really long file name.
EDIT: Double clicking on the little line at the top automatically expands it to be as wide as needed, if that helps!
You are right, it makes sense for the right column not to be pinned to the window border. I forgot all about the double clicking on the column divider, ¡doh!.
Regarding the sync job, I always use mirror mode, with all four check boxes marked. No rules and no variables.
Tomorrow will be my last day at work, I'm going on vacation for three weeks, so while I will probably be able to watch this forum, I won't have access to the network shares I do my tests on (locally Toucan works fine with me, it only shows this syncing problem over the network).
you think you could try it without the options? I think they must be the issue, feels like we are so close! Thanks as always for your help and have a great vacation
I'll do a few tests tomorrow with different options. Let's see what happens.
Okay, this is what I've found today:
The only thing that marred today's tests a little is Toucan crashed once. I couldn't reproduce it.
All in all, I believe you have made great progress.
Barring the timestamp issues Toucan is probably ready for release.
Just downloaded Pre-release 3. Status bar is still out of sync ... Anyone else notice this?
When you do a pre-view or actual sync, is it possible to only show the directory structure of folders that may be impacted?
Example, I have folders 1 through 10. I've updated some files in 2, 7,8, and 10. When I do a preview, it shows folders 1 through 10. Hope this makes sense. I just want to know what folders are being updated and which are being skipped.
I need to re-build my system, so the status bar may be on my end
hasn't made it into this release, it is definitely on the list to be able to preview like that though!
With the status bar approximately how many files are you syncing? Also do you have anything unusual like symlinks in there anywhere?
Last sync was approx 600 MB (all updated files). I am not running any "unusual". Still learning the software and would like to get into the scripts. Current use for Toucan is just basic syncing of multiple machines with different saved profiles.
am afraid I really cannot figure this one out! Now I have pre-release 4 out of the door though will have a thorough look through all of the progress bar code to see if I can't get this fixed
A question about excludes was posted recently https://portableapps.com/node/20791
In my reply, I noted a bug in Toucan where it created the rule for the excluded file and called it "Folder to Exclude" instead of "File to Exclude".
In further testing, I noticed other issues.
Backup jobs will not remember rules (even though the .ini file entry shows "[BackupRemember]" and shows "Rules=myexclude"
Further, since backup jobs will not remember rules, scripts that call backup jobs can't use rules
My directory structure is:
When the rule is:
[NoURL]
FilesToInclude=
FilesToExclude=|urlclassifierkey3.txt|urlclassifier3.sqlite
FoldersToExclude=|orig-plugins
It excludes the orig-plugins folder and the two urlclassifier files.
When the rule is:
[NoURL]
FilesToInclude=
FilesToExclude=|urlclassifierkey3.txt|urlclassifier3.sqlite
FoldersToExclude=|orig-plugins|settings
It makes all three folders red and all the files red (excluded) instead of the two folders and the two files in the profile folder.
Does the backup job need a preview button? Why not make the Files to Backup window "live"?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Testing what J Neutron reported (by the way, thanks for the tip on creating rules via the context menu, I didn't know that), I've also found a couple minor bugs:
I thought the screen updating was my fault... I was playing with it and quit the program over and over again just to make sure that I "cleared" the stuff I was playing with.
BTW, when the remember entered information for backup box in the settings tab is checked, it remembers everything except the rules. I changed from 7z to zip and changed the backup filename so it wouldn't impact on my existing backup plan, and it remembered those changes even after quitting and restarting.
I would have thought it would affect just "settings" such as compression level instead of really saving the whole job with changes (except those darn rules).
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
rules should now be fixed, with the remembering of entered information it does not actually save it to that job, it literally remembers exactly how the screen was, if you were to not then save the job and reload it should be in the state that you expect
Deleting a script does not clear the window that listed the commands in the script.
Seems when a rule or script is deleted, the window should clear until another item is picked from the pull-down.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
That is exactly what I just said in point two of my previous post.
But it happens in the script AND the rule tabs.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
You are right, I didn't notice the script part.
That's OK.
You're the one who got me looking in that direction.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
The problem with mistakenly excluding all folders seems to be with the number of remaining folders to be backed up.
If there are three folders, you can exclude any one just fine.
If there are three folders, excluding any two excludes all three.
If there are two folders, excluding either one excludes both.
It appears that leaving only one folder is not permitted.
Edit: The above is wrong, sorry. Turns out that if you exclude ANY file in a folder, and that is the last folder in the list (the others are excluded) then it excludes ALL of the files in that folder.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
this is all fixed, and yes, I think that making it live makes sense, can anyone think of why this might not be a good idea (I can't)
If not I'll add it to the next pre-release. Thanks for the feedback!
is now up, thanks for all of the testing! If I do not respond to a specific bug comment in the next half and hour or so please assume I think it is fixed, and if it isn't nag me! Thanks again all
¿Do you think it would be wise to add a "refresh" button to the folder/file lists?. (Or perhaps make Toucan aware of changes to the file system, if that is possible).
While doing tests I find myself many times creating or deleting files, and there is no obvious way to update the window.
Also, I believe an option to export/import settings would be really useful (especially for those of us who are switching versions so often
).
I've been doing this for a while, and I install the new version to its own directory, such as \PortableApps\Toucan 2.20Pre4
Then I copy the contents of the latest existing \Data folder into the newly created directory. That brings over all of the stuff with no need to either manually re-create all the jobs or install the test version over an existing version.
In that light, my latest observation for Steve is that two files seem to be left behind - Includes.txt (a files list of the last job run) and Settings.old (the last copy of Settings.ini before it was changed).
You could argue that maybe the Settings.old is a good thing to keep, but the Includes.txt serves no purpose (save the output progress window if you want).
I don't know how universally useful a refresh button would be. For hard-core testers, maybe. Otherwise, I go to a new tab and then back to get a refresh. Quitting and restarting isn't too hard either.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Yes, I know the Data directory, but I don't think making people copy and paste config files is the right way. You and I may be savvy enough to hack our own upgrades, but most users aren't.
The same applies to the refresh thing. ¿Would you accept it if you had to quit and restart your browser just to update the current page?.
I like Toucan very much, and use it even with its current quirks. But to make the application become popular it has to be user-friendly.
Just my opinion.
Normally, people update the core PortableApps program by installing it over the existing installation. Everything in the \Data directory is preserved during the upgrade process. So those of us who are living on the edge and playing with multiple installs in multiple locations shouldn't need a special feature to save one copy/paste operation per upgrade.
You are right about the refresh, though. Maybe the "preview" button needs to be a "refresh" button. That's what it is really doing right now anyway.
And on the button topic, the Script tab uses an "Execute" button. The Backup, Sync and Secure tabs use an "OK" button. OK??? How about "Go" or "Execute" or "Run Now" or something?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
are of course correct, the buttons don't make sense, I think I shall change them all to Run, more universal I think.
As you suggested I have implemented the live preview for Backup and Secure, so I will replace the now defunct preview button with a refresh button, and add one to Sync
Good news on the buttons, thanks.
BTW, Pre#4 does the rules perfectly.
I've been trying to implement the rotating backup plan from your Help file example.
Had quite a time doing it because my paths were too long and Toucan word-wrapped part of the Rename command onto the next line. When run, it tried to parse the first part of the rename line as one command, then the second part of the line as another command (no joy). [As an aside, does the word-wrapping give the same cr/lf as the end of line?]
Then I tried to shorten the written path by creating a variable that would be most of the path. Had a time with that because something parsed the spaces in "C:/Documents and Settings/Jim/PortableApps/" and broke the command up. The progress window showed error messages about not finding "Settings/Jim/PortableApps/etc..." Finally got it to understand me after I threatened to unplug the computer.
Now it does the rotating backup script cleanly. Bravo! Good idea in the help file.
Isn't there a standard system variable for the user directory in XP and Vista? How is that written?
Edit: Did some googling. XP system variable of %USERPROFILE% is "C:/Documents and Settings/{username}" so I tried that in Toucan and it didn't work correctly. Then I realized that Toucan uses @ instead of %, so after I changed to @USERPROFILE@ it worked. Might be a good idea to list valid system variables in addition to your standard variables. First reference I found: http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/environment.htm
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
"Finally got it to understand me after I threatened to unplug the computer".
You cracked me up with that.
I also slap the side of the monitor to make the computer go faster. Seems to work, really.... or maybe it just makes me feel like it does?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
oddly enough (before upgrading my tower's motherboard to a dual core processor) my old cpu was an 800mhz klunker and I threatened it verbally to replace it and oddly enough it sped up a little bit
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
Whatever gets you through the night....
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Maybe this will help to?
I know the quality isn't so good, but the audio is alright and it IS funny
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
This is not respecting Steve's topic
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
then there were five, pre-releases that is. With any luck this will be it, but I am not counting on it
Hi Steve,
Version 2.2.0 Pre-5 still have some mirror issues.
I need to mirror my USB HDD (Vista Business - NTFS) to NAS (FreeNAS) using SAMBA.
When disablestreams are set to 1 it copies all files on every sync. Only when it is using streams (doing crc checks I presume) does it seem to work correctly, except for a very large file (movie clip) which it keeps on insisting has changed.
So either way, it is not ideal as backuping up a single file in a 12GB directory takes hours, not minutes.
I have set all 4 options (retain timestamps, retain attributes, ignore RO, ignore DST) but it thinks it needs to overwrite the files when streams are disabled.
The only difference I can see is that the "accessed" date is newer on the target. the other oddity is that it is a date 2 hours into the future... The time on the NAS seems identical to my notebook. (timezone is set to etc/utc).
Any ideas why this would be?
Regards
Paul
again for the feedback!
I just stopped the reason for this, there was a very out of date check in there that would automatically copy large files as the streaming routine wasn't as good as it is now, I shall remove it and try to get out a new pre-release soon if you wouldn't mind testing again
.pot file at http://www.drop.io/toucanlang has been updated with the latest translations now
Spanish translation updated to 2.2.0-pre5.
I believe you should announce the new .pot file on the Translating Toucan thread too, it is becoming increasingly difficult to watch this one.
By the way, there's a typo in line 572 of the original .pot ("varaible").
I tried recently to restore a backup using Toucan 2.2.0 Pre 5 and was rewarded with a program crash.
I switched to version 2.1.2, and did NOT have the crash.
Very simple to recreate:
Version 2.12 does not generate the firewall warning.
Another note, the Version 2.12 Restore button changes the "Backup Location" to "Location to Extract into" and it should be something like "Location to Extract From" or "Backup archive to Extract From". Because of the crash, I could not see if this was changed in Pre 5.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Same here...
I'm using Win firewall, so that is not the issue.
Actually it happens with all of the options:
-Update
-Differential
-Restore
All cause a 'Toucan.exe has stopped working error'
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
Just downloaded the latest pre-release 5. I have a directory/set of files that are not syncing. I use a math software called SMATH (Portable version). It creates a directory called "Xenocode". This directory will not sync. I have contacted the developer of that software to see it it is locking the directory. I can manually move/copy/cut the directory to other locations.
Looking good!
There's a small typo under the Script help:
Sync "jobmane" - Runs the Sync job called jobname
might i suggest you add the following:
1. a tooltip when you hover over the icon that tells the user what that icon means (i.e start, expand all, etc)
2. a little more easier to use interface
3. a wizzard for backing up files
thanks!
tech.freak243
Under the settings tab, have you placed a checkmark on the "Enable Tooltips" item?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
for the lack of responses recently everyone, I moved up to start my first year of university at the start of the week after having to delay it due to catching the flu! Just trying to catch up work-wise at the moment, hopefully get some time for Toucan next week.
No problem, the delay actually allowed me to get back from vacation and update the Spanish translation.
Get well.
An Undo function on the same screen as the progress bar and log. There have been a few times where I have run through some operations and it's been all good then notice in the log a file I forgot about which is then removed. I'm not aware of anyway to recover these as Toucan bypasses the Recycle Bin. Therefore an undo feature would be very handy. I know there is the preview function but I think this would also benefit the user.
PortableApps.com Advocate
Or maybe an option to delete to the recycle bin?
Toshiba is better to the environment than a lot of common electronic companies. Check out Greenpeace's Guide To Greener Electronics 8)
this is on the todo list, I was hoping that this patch to the library I use in Toucan would be expanded upon, but it doesn't look like it so I'll have to do it myself!
I was astonished to see that Jobs.ini, Rules.ini, Scripts.ini and Settings.ini all get timestamped with the latest .exe run, even though NONE of the items is even looked at, let alone changed. BTW, Variables.ini did not have the timestamp "touched" like the rest.
Personally, I believe that the .ini file should not get a new time/date unless something in them has changed. It is a modified indicator, not a accessed indicator, right?
Oh, and the Settings.ini file shows the "remember" settings as 0, so that didn't trigger an automatic save.
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
get this fixed, silly logic error, thanks.
again everyone I am sorry for the delays on getting this finished for release, I hope to wrap it up in the next couple of days so I can start on the next version.
Hi,
I'm going to join you for testing Toucan. I can see a big potential in this tool.
Steve, are you planning to add Differential backup feature?
Dmitry // London, UK
There's already a differential backup feature, did you have something different in mind? I take differential to mean that only the files that have changed get backed up. This already exists.
What I'd like to see that makes differential backup more useful is one archive (zip) per file, rather than all files going to one huge archive. This minimizes the impact of corrupt archives.
Does Differential backup get all files changed since initial full backup (in every subsequent runs)?
Probably I wanted to ask about Incremental backup. So, all subsequent backups will have files changed since last Incremental backup (not full backup).