why does npbackup-cli backup also run a --snapshots every time?

[GuitarBilly]

as per title.
I am debugging a configuration on my headless server.

steps to reproduce:

I have created a simple configuration job. Then I launch it via:
npbackup-cli --debug --config-file npbackup.x300server.v3.conf --repo-name syncthing --backup

What i see happening is:

1. backup is run
2. multiple full snapshot listings are run

Why does npbackup-cli --backup also run a full snapshot listing every time? There is a separate --snapshots entry for that, and npbackup-cli does not have a GUI to update to the user.

expected behaviour:

npbackup-cli to execute only the command provided on the commandline, i.e. backup with --backup.

EDIT1

It is important to mention that I have run with --debug added. this seems to cause the snapshot listing.

npbackup-cli --debug --config-file npbackup.x300server.v3.conf --repo-name syncthing --backup
2025-04-17 22:50:42,162 :: INFO :: npbackup 3.0.1-linux-cli-x64-public-3.12-c 2025032101 - Copyright (C) 2022-2025 NetInvent running as ubuntu
2025-04-17 22:50:42,180 :: INFO :: Loaded config 4CC449E0 in /home/ubuntu/npbackup/npbackup.x300server.v3.conf
2025-04-17 22:50:42,183 :: DEBUG :: No extra information for groups default_group found
2025-04-17 22:50:42,187 :: DEBUG :: Probing for binary in "/home/ubuntu/npbackup/npbackup-cli/npbackup/restic"
2025-04-17 22:50:42,187 :: INFO :: Searching for a backup newer than 1 day, 0:00:00 ago
2025-04-17 22:50:42,188 :: DEBUG :: Setting GOMAXPROCS to 10
2025-04-17 22:50:43,014 :: DEBUG :: Command "['/home/ubuntu/npbackup/npbackup-cli/npbackup/restic', '--json', 'snapshots']" returned with exit code "0". Command output was:
< snip 250k chars output>

2025-04-17 22:50:43,016 :: DEBUG :: STDOUT: <snip 250k chars output>

2025-04-17 22:50:43,017 :: DEBUG :: Running on_exit callable.
2025-04-17 22:50:43,018 :: DEBUG :: Setting GOMAXPROCS to 10
2025-04-17 22:50:43,733 :: DEBUG :: Command "['/home/ubuntu/npbackup/npbackup-cli/npbackup/restic', '--json', 'snapshots']" returned with exit code "0". Command output was:
< snip 250k chars output>

2025-04-17 22:50:43,734 :: DEBUG :: STDOUT: <snip 250k chars output>

2025-04-17 22:50:43,735 :: DEBUG :: Running on_exit callable.
2025-04-17 22:50:43,737 :: INFO :: Snapshots listed successfully
2025-04-17 22:50:43,738 :: INFO :: Recent snapshot 59af0cf4 of 2025-04-17T02:00:01.463082531+02:00 exists !
2025-04-17 22:50:43,738 :: INFO :: Most recent backup in repo syncthing is from 2025-04-17 02:00:01.463082+02:00
2025-04-17 22:50:43,738 :: INFO :: Runner took 1.550743 seconds for has_recent_snapshot
2025-04-17 22:50:43,738 :: INFO :: No backup necessary
2025-04-17 22:50:43,744 :: INFO :: Runner took 1.556945 seconds for backup
2025-04-17 22:50:43,744 :: INFO :: Operation finished
2025-04-17 22:50:43,750 :: INFO :: ExecTime = 0:00:01.589201, finished, state is: success.

When I omit the --debug, the --backup command seems to not list snapshots, at least in the output to the terminal.

npbackup-cli --config-file npbackup.x300server.v3.conf --repo-name syncthing --backup
2025-04-17 22:45:52,577 :: INFO :: npbackup 3.0.1-linux-cli-x64-public-3.12-c 2025032101 - Copyright (C) 2022-2025 NetInvent running as ubuntu
2025-04-17 22:45:52,595 :: INFO :: Loaded config 4CC449E0 in /home/ubuntu/npbackup/npbackup.x300server.v3.conf
2025-04-17 22:45:52,602 :: INFO :: Searching for a backup newer than 1 day, 0:00:00 ago
2025-04-17 22:45:54,087 :: INFO :: Snapshots listed successfully
2025-04-17 22:45:54,088 :: INFO :: Recent snapshot 59af0cf4 of 2025-04-17T02:00:01.463082531+02:00 exists !
2025-04-17 22:45:54,088 :: INFO :: Most recent backup in repo syncthing is from 2025-04-17 02:00:01.463082+02:00
2025-04-17 22:45:54,088 :: INFO :: Runner took 1.485508 seconds for has_recent_snapshot
2025-04-17 22:45:54,088 :: INFO :: No backup necessary
2025-04-17 22:45:54,088 :: INFO :: Runner took 1.486007 seconds for backup
2025-04-17 22:45:54,088 :: INFO :: Operation finished
2025-04-17 22:45:54,094 :: INFO :: ExecTime = 0:00:01.518061, finished, state is: success.

EDIT2

Ok so it can be handy to list snapshots if you want to determine if it is already time to run the next backup...
Still some questions:

1. why does it run twice :: DEBUG :: Command "['/home/ubuntu/npbackup/npbackup-cli/npbackup/restic', '--json', 'snapshots']" ?

• why run a full listing? restic -r <repo> snapshots latest --host <yourhost> --json would get the last backup already?

[deajan]

There are actually two things involved.
First of all, the output with --debug is shown twice because of the underlying command execution library. I've made the necessary changes in netinvent/command_runner@0e872e5 which should come out with next NPBackup release.

Secondly, in order to check whether a repository is initialized, NPBackup does query the snasphot list, which when fails, has consistent error messages which can be parsed properly.
Of couse this could probably be improved by checking the output of the final command directly instead of checking if repo is init.

[deajan]

So I backtraced why I did actually use the snapshot command to check if repo was initialized.
Before restic 0.17, there was no special exit code for uninitialized repos, so I decided to use snapshots as test if the repository was reachable.

I refactored the code in 7034029 in order to avoid checking the repository availabilty at every action, except for backups which still need to automagically init the repository.
The refactor was harder than I thought, as this was melted into the core design I made back then.

Along with the double logging fix from the execution library, NPBackup shall now make less calls to check whether the repository is available.

Thanks for reporting.