Change backup directory from terminal as one by default is quite strange location

[lonerunner]

Everyone is mentioning using GUI to configure timeshift but is it possible to change settings and specifically backup directory from terminal?

After the installation for some reason timeshift is using quite strange path for the backups /var/www/webuser/web/log.

Why did it use that directory I have no idea but it's getting me in constant loop of infinite backup.

Basically I want to just backup system on the same hdd in a folder which will be excluded, for example in /timeshift

I tried looking in /etc/timeshift/timeshift.json file but I just see empty unconfigured config file

{
  "backup_device_uuid" : "",
  "parent_device_uuid" : "",
  "do_first_run" : "true",
  "btrfs_mode" : "false",
  "include_btrfs_home" : "false",
  "stop_cron_emails" : "true",
  "schedule_monthly" : "false",
  "schedule_weekly" : "false",
  "schedule_daily" : "false",
  "schedule_hourly" : "false",
  "schedule_boot" : "false",
  "count_monthly" : "2",
  "count_weekly" : "3",
  "count_daily" : "5",
  "count_hourly" : "6",
  "count_boot" : "5",
  "snapshot_size" : "0",
  "snapshot_count" : "0",
  "exclude" : [
  ],
  "exclude-apps" : [
  ]
}

I don't think timeshift even use this config file, or at least from my setup it's not using it.

I tried this on Debian 10 on a VPS machine.

[samplep182]

Bump.

[z-Bad]

bump.

I have same problem.
i did 2 snapshots yesterday, both appeared in /timeshift.
this morning I found this:
timeshift --list
Device : /dev/sda2
Path : /var/www/clients/client0/web1/log
No snapshots on this device
First snapshot requires: 1.2 GB

but yesterday i had 2, and still have:
ls /timeshift/snapshots
2021-09-07_14-34-57 2021-09-07_15-33-26

Debian10 if it's important for some reason.

[ChaosBlades]

It is most likely selecting the directory because the configuration wizard has never run because it is a headless system. Which it does not seem like that is an intended use case.

I would also like to use timeshift on headless Ubuntu Server but there does not seem to be any way from terminal to run through the configuration wizard the gui presents. It seems timeshift also installs a bunch of stuff for x11 and wayland when installing on a headless system. The terminal commands presented seem to only support creating and restoring once setting have been established in case of the GUI becoming broken.

I think this issue is more about adding proper headless support than specifically changing the backup directory from terminal. With that in mind it seems the only things missing are having a separate package like timeshift-headless for headless systems that only installs the needed files for terminal only support and a guided terminal wizard for first time setup.

Pretty much you would need to install a GUI, configure timeshift, remove the GUI, then timeshift would work unless you needed to change settings again.

I think the subject of this issue should be changed to something along the lines of adding support for headless systems and not changing backup directories from terminal.