Hierarchical backup wanted.

Alan Kilborn

To my knowledge, there’s no plugin to do such a thing.

But, with the PythonScript plugin (or another scripting plugin) you can do pretty much anything you want. You would set up a “notification” on the save event and then fire off some script code to make a copy of your file.

If you’d be willing to use the PythonScript plugin, I’ll volunteer to put together a demo for you (it’s really not difficult).

Alan Kilborn

So it could be as simple as a script like what follows.

Note that this script only considers files that are mapped to a local C: through Z: drive.
Other (network) paths are possible, but for the point of illustration, that’s just an unnecessary complication.

Also note that much more error checking and results reporting (presumably upon failure) could be done.

Typically the lines of the script would be added to the user’s startup.py file, so that it is transparently activated and sitting there waiting for user saves to happen, after Notepad++ initializes.

Anyway, the script:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from Npp import notepad, NOTIFICATION
import os
import shutil
import re

def callback_notepad_FILESAVED(args):
    curr_buffer_id = notepad.getCurrentBufferID()
    notepad.activateBufferID(args['bufferID'])
    p = notepad.getCurrentFilename()
    m = re.match('([C-Z]):', p, re.I)
    if m:
        top_level_backup_dir = r'c:\temp\mybackups'
        backup_path = top_level_backup_dir + os.sep + 'Drive-{}'.format(m.group(1)) + p[2:]
        backup_dir = backup_path.rsplit(os.sep, 1)[0]
        if not os.path.isdir(backup_dir): os.makedirs(backup_dir)
        if os.path.isdir(backup_dir): shutil.copy2(p, backup_path)

notepad.callback(callback_notepad_FILESAVED, [NOTIFICATION.FILESAVED])

teleslon2

Sadly, it doesn’t work for me. Folder c:\temp\mybackups exists. I’ve tried files on Z (mapped c:\xampp…), on С - nothing appeared in mybackups folder.
NPP 7.8 Windows 8.1
Is it possible to print debug info there? My primary language is PHP, so I’m not so smart here…

Ekopalypse

@teleslon2

Did you restart npp after creating your user startup.py?
A print(m) before the if m will print to the python script console.
Can be opened via the menu.
Just make sure you use the same indentation (tabs or spaces but not mixed) as the lines before and after.

Alan Kilborn

@teleslon2

Did you notice this line in the demo script?:

top_level_backup_dir = r'c:\temp\mybackups'

Obviously you’d want to replace the path I used with the path you desire.

Otherwise I suggest the “print” route that @Ekopalypse recommended.

Saying “it doesn’t work” is fine but it doesn’t leave much room for help from someone not sitting right at your computer.

Alan Kilborn

@teleslon2 said in Hierarchical backup wanted.:

Folder c:\temp\mybackups exists.

Oh, you did say this, so my comment about that doesn’t apply. Sorry.

teleslon2

That’s strange. I surely restarted it and not once. Ok, now it’s working (after inserting “print”, hmm…).
Next, I’d like to shorten some paths but my regex didn’t match, could you please help?

print (backup_path)
backup_path = re.sub(r"<c\:\\temp\\mybackups\\Drive\-C\\Users\\User\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\scp\d+>", 'WinScp', backup_path)

Prints
c:\temp\mybackups\Drive-C\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\scp26772\home\admin\web
before replacing.

teleslon2

Opps, there should by “c:\temp\mybackups\WinScp” as replacement string. But anyway, it prints the same after replacement.

teleslon2

Thanks, Alan!
And a guy helped me out there, so below is my final variant. I add time to file names and shorten paths derived from WinScp editing of remote files.

from Npp import notepad, NOTIFICATION
import os
import shutil
import re
from datetime import datetime

def callback_notepad_FILESAVED(args):
    curr_buffer_id = notepad.getCurrentBufferID()
    notepad.activateBufferID(args['bufferID'])
    p = notepad.getCurrentFilename()
    m = re.match('([C-Z]):', p, re.I)
    time_now = datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S")
    if m:
        top_level_backup_dir = r'c:\temp\mybackups'
        backup_path = top_level_backup_dir + os.sep + 'Drive-{}'.format(m.group(1)) + p[2:] + '.' + time_now
        backup_path = re.sub(r"c\:\\temp\\mybackups\\Drive\-C\\Users\\User\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\scp\d+", r'c:\\temp\\mybackups\\WinScp', backup_path)
        backup_dir = backup_path.rsplit(os.sep, 1)[0]
        if not os.path.isdir(backup_dir): os.makedirs(backup_dir)
        if os.path.isdir(backup_dir): shutil.copy2(p, backup_path)

notepad.callback(callback_notepad_FILESAVED, [NOTIFICATION.FILESAVED])

Moisey Oysgelt

I made for my environment

def callback_notepad_FILESAVED(args):
curr_buffer_id = notepad.getCurrentBufferID()
notepad.activateBufferID(args[‘bufferID’])
p = notepad.getCurrentFilename()
time_now = datetime.now().strftime(“%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S”)
# print§
# m = re.match(‘([C-Z]):’, p, re.I)
if True:
# p1=p.replace(‘:’,‘/’).replace(os.sep,‘/’).replace(‘//’,‘/’)
# backup_path = top_level_backup_dir + os.sep + ‘Drive-{}’.format(m.group(1)) + p[2:]
# backup_path = top_level_backup_dir + os.sep + p1
# backup_dir = backup_path.rsplit(os.sep, 1)[0]
# if not os.path.isdir(backup_dir): os.makedirs(backup_dir)
# if os.path.isdir(backup_dir): shutil.copy2(p, backup_path)
top_level_backup_dir = ‘C:/temp/backup/’
p=p.replace(os.sep,‘/’)
pathLisr=p.split(‘/’)
pat=‘/’.join(pathLisr[:-1])
OriginalName=pathLisr[-1]
ext=os.path.splitext(OriginalName)[1]
new_name=os.path.splitext(OriginalName)[0]+time_now+ext
backup_dir=top_level_backup_dir + pat.replace(‘:’,‘/’).replace(os.sep,‘/’).replace(‘//’,‘/’)
new_name= backup_dir+‘/’+new_name
if not os.path.isdir(backup_dir): os.makedirs(backup_dir)
shutil.copyfile(p,new_name)
#################################

vanowm

Here is another version that backup file before it’s being overwritten with new data and appends date/time of the last modification date of the original file (not current date of the backup)
i.e. file C:\blah\mycode.js will be backed up as D:\Backup\Notepad++\C\blah\mycode.js_20210928_221824.js
It also works with network shares

from os import makedirs
from os.path import split, splitext, exists, getmtime
from shutil import copyfile
from time import strftime, localtime
from re import sub
from Npp import *

def callback_FILEBEFORESAVE(args):

    backup_dir = "D:\\Backup\\Notepad++\\";             # backup directory, must have trailing slash

    _file = notepad.getBufferFilename(args['bufferID']) # get full path
    if not exists(_file):                               # new file?
        return

    with open(_file, "r") as f:                         # read data from file
      if f.read() == editor.getText():                  # only save if file was modified
        console.write(msg + "file unchanged, no backup created\n")
        return

    file = sub("^\\\\+", "",                            # remove \ at beginning of the path
           sub('[<>"|?*:]', "_",                        # just a precation, replace invalid characters with _
           sub("^([a-zA-Z]):", r"\1",                   # remove : after drive letter
           _file)))

    dir, file = split(file)                             # get directory and file
    filename, ext = splitext(file)                      # get filename and extension

    new_dir = backup_dir + dir + "\\";
    new_filename = filename + ext                       # original filename
    new_filename = new_filename + str(strftime("_%Y%m%d_%H%M%S", localtime(getmtime(_file)))) + ext; # append date/time and original extension

    if not exists(new_dir):
      try:
        makedirs(new_dir)
      except Exception as err:
        console.write(msg + str(err).replace("\\\\", "\\") + "\n")
        return

    try:
      copyfile(_file, new_dir + new_filename)
      console.write(msg + "saved as " + new_dir + new_filename + "\n")
    except Exception as err:
      console.write(msg + str(err).replace("\\\\", "\\") + "\n")


notepad.clearCallbacks([NOTIFICATION.FILEBEFORESAVE])
notepad.callback(callback_FILEBEFORESAVE, [NOTIFICATION.FILEBEFORESAVE])

msg = "[Auto backup] " # console message prefix
console.write(msg + "initialized\n")

For easy managing it’s better to save this script as a separate file i.e autobackup.py in the same directory where startup.py is
and at the end of startup.py add this line:

import autobackup # script's filename without extension