Backup Plugin anomaly when Joplin is built in an Arch Linux Environment

[thomascrisan]

The issue is not a bug in the backup plugin itself, but an anomaly specific to Joplin builds from the Arch Linux AUR. When Joplin is built using the AUR build script (with yarn workspace @joplin/app-desktop install), the backup plugin appears installed but does not run, even after reinstalling the plugin manually and restarting Joplin. Other standard plugins work as expected.

The backup plugin does not function in the AUR-built version but works correctly in the official AppImage release of Joplin. This suggests the issue is likely related to how the AUR package is built or packaged, possibly involving dependencies or build environment differences. Other plugins do work which is part of the puzzle.

Do you have any ideas why the difference in the Arch build environment only affects the Backup plugin?

PKGBUILD.zip

[JackGruber]

Please activate the debugging of joplin and set the logging mode of the plugin to debug/verbose, cloand upload both logfiles.

1. Enable debuging from Joplin
   https://joplinapp.org/help/apps/debugging
2. Enable verbose logging
   
3. Close Joplin
4. Start Joplin
5. Execute a backup
6. Upload the Joplin log.log and the backup.log or activeBackup.log from the backup target folder or .config\joplin-desktop\cache\io.github.jackgruber.backup

[thomascrisan]

I've tried to follow your instructions but I cannot execute a backup because the backup plugin is not running even though it is enabled.

Attached is a screenshot of my Joplin's Plugin page and a debug log file of starting Joplin which shows your plugin loading. I have tried disabling Backup, starting Joplin, re-enabling, Backup, and re-starting but I cannot get I cannot get the Backup plugin to run. I have also tried upgrading your plugin to 1.4.4.

log.txt

[JackGruber]

Ok i see da plugin is tryed to load

PluginService: Loading plugin from /home/tom/.config/joplin-desktop/cache/io.github.jackgruber.backup

But I don't see a

joplin.plugins: Starting plugin: io.github.jackgruber.backup

Therefore the plugin is never loaded.

Can you please install the plugin as described here, so that the built-in plugin is not used and then post again a logfile.
https://github.com/JackGruber/joplin-plugin-backup?tab=readme-ov-file#installation

The Plugin screen should after a update no longer show Built-in

Please save the output from the Joplin debug window, this should be normal in the log, but I don't see any exceptions or so why the plugin was not loaded and upload this file also.

[thomascrisan]

I followed your instructions and loaded Backup v1.4.4. This version also does not load. Here are the log files.

log.txt

console.log

Could my Arch environment be missing a dependency that is unique to your plugin?

[JackGruber]

Also no further information...

Could my Arch environment be missing a dependency that is unique to your plugin?

Normally not, because all dependency are actually available in Joplin or are included in the plugin ...
But since the packet is specially built, I can't confirm it and I have no idea what the reason could be.

[thomascrisan]

Thanks for looking into it. Maybe the Joplin repository owner can help out; I notified him your attempts to help.

[cuihaoleo]

Current AUR maintainer here. I don't use this plugin but was able to observe the same.

I played it around it a bit and found starting Joplin in dev mode once somehow fixed the issue for me:

$ electron36 /usr/lib/joplin-desktop/app.asar --env dev

After this Joplin seemed to load the plugin without issue even in the normal mode. Though I didn't test the functionality.

Now IDK how to revert to the buggy state. Maybe I'll try starting a new profile.

[thomascrisan]

To avoid confusion, I considered this to be an Arch Linux build anomaly, not necessarily a bug in the backup plugin, but reported it here in the hopes that the plugin maintainer might have some ideas as to what is causing the problem. The AUR repository is a community-driven repository of user-contributed scripts for installing packages not officially supported by the Arch maintainers.

For Joplin, there are several AUR repository entries, some of which use the AppImage or .deb builds directly from the Joplin git archive. Others have build scripts that build Joplin from source. The build images directly from the Joplin project work correctly in terms of the backup plugin. The Joplin builds from source do not have working backup plugins.

@cuihaoleo has recently taken over responsibility for one of the Joplin build repositories. These volunteers are critical to the community and make tremendous contributions to the Arch community.

To get to the issue, unfortunately, this fix of

$ electron36 /usr/lib/joplin-desktop/app.asar --env dev

did not work for me. The plugin is not running as seen from its absence from the Plugins section.