v0.9.46 - Backup and restore overwrite-safety measures added

v0.9.46, 17‑Jan‑2026 - Backup and Restore overwrite‑safety for both GUI and CLI, CLI force‑mode, and GUI/CLI consistency fixes

• Added "Are you sure??" prompts when a user is about to overwrite a partition with an image file.
• Added --force flag to allow unattended or scripted restores from the command line
• Implemented a function to detect existing single‑file and chunked images, including .json metadata and .sha256 checksum files.
• Added "Are you sure??" overwrite confirmations to GUI and CLI backup modes when a matching image already existed.
• Introduced --force flag for CLI backups, enabling unattended and scripted backups that overwrite an existing image file/file series.
• Fixed a minor bug where imprintr --help checked for dependencies before printing the help message.

v0.9.5 - Recovery of essential metadata if metadata file is missing or corrupted

v0.9.5 - Recovery of essential metadata if metadata file is missing or corrupted

CHANGELOG

v0.9.5, 18-Jan-2026 - Recovery of essential metadata if metadata file is missing or corrupted

• Added --make-json flag to imprint-sniffer which creates a new metadata file that contains only the information essential to restore.
• Sniffer detects the image compression, partclone backend and single vs. chunked status
• The newly created metadata file has been tested with both single-file and chunked images
• Filesystem size is inconsistently detected by sniffer since the partclone header information seems to vary depending on the filesystem.

v0.9.45 - Imprint v0.9.45 — LUKS + LVM Support and Unified Mapper‑Aware Device Model

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Imprint v0.9.45 — LUKS + LVM Support and Unified Mapper‑Aware Device Model

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Released: 16‑Jan‑2026

This release introduces full support for LUKS‑encrypted devices and LVM logical volumes, completing one of the most important milestones for Imprint’s sysadmin‑grade reliability. Backup and restore now work seamlessly across raw partitions, encrypted containers, and complex mapper stacks, with consistent behavior in both the GUI and CLI.

Highlights

• Added complete backup and restore support for LUKS‑mapped devices, including correct detection of TYPE=crypt, filesystem identification, and safe handling of mounted/unmounted states.
• Added full support for LVM logical volumes, including multi‑PV volume groups and /dev/mapper/- paths.
• Rebuilt the device picker around a PATH‑first, TYPE‑aware model, ensuring consistent behavior for raw partitions, LUKS hosts, LUKS mappers, and LVM LVs.
• Implemented a more robust lsblk parser that handles missing labels, variable‑length device names, and nested mapper hierarchies without ambiguity.
• Improved filesystem detection and backend selection across all mapper types (EXT4, XFS, BTRFS, NTFS, FAT32, F2FS).
• Unified GUI and CLI device‑selection logic to eliminate divergent behaviors.
• Improved metadata accuracy for mapper devices, ensuring correct source_partition_layout entries for restore‑side validation.
• Validated backup and restore pipelines across LUKS, LVM, chunked images, and zstd compression.
• General cleanup and internal consistency improvements across backup, restore, and GUI picker code paths.

Why this release matters

This is the first version of Imprint that handles real‑world sysadmin storage setups end‑to‑end. With mapper‑aware logic, correct metadata, and consistent GUI/CLI behavior, Imprint now works reliably on systems using encryption, logical volumes, and modern filesystem layouts.

This release lays the foundation for the upcoming roadmap items, including the unified binary, multi‑partition imaging, verification‑only mode, and documentation overhaul.

v0.9.4 Basic command line interface for backup and restore

This release introduces Imprint’s first full command‑line workflow for both backup and restore, bringing headless operation, automation, and scripting support to the project. Restore reliability has been significantly improved with new chunk‑set validation, ensuring that chunked images are complete before restoring. A prototype image sniffer (imprint-sniffer) has also been added, capable of extracting filesystem information even when metadata is missing or corrupted.

These changes mark a major step toward a fully robust, metadata‑aware imaging system with consistent behavior across CLI and GUI modes.

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Major Features

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✔ Backup CLI (imprintb)

A complete command‑line interface for backup operations, supporting compression selection, chunking, and headless workflows.

❯ imprintb --help

Usage:
  imprintb --source <device> --target <image> [options]

Required arguments:
  --source <device>       Block device to back up (e.g. /dev/sda3, /dev/mapper/cryptroot)
  --target <path>         Output image path (without extension)

Options:
  --compress <type>       Compression: lz4, zstd, gzip
  --chunk <MB>            Split output into chunks of <MB> each (0 = no chunking)
  --help                  Show this help message and exit

Positional form (equivalent):
  imprintb <device> <image>

Examples:
  imprintb --source /dev/sda3 --target /mnt/backup/system
  imprintb --source /dev/mapper/cryptroot --target /mnt/backup/root --compress zstd --chunk 4096
  imprintb /dev/nvme0n1p5 /backup/home

Notes:
  - The source device must not be mounted.
  - Encrypted LUKS volumes must be unlocked before use (e.g. via cryptsetup).
  - The target image should not include an extension; Imprint adds one automatically.

✔ Restore CLI (imprintr)

A new restore‑side CLI with full metadata loading, chunk validation, and consistent behavior with the GUI.

❯ imprintr --help

Usage: imprintr --image <path> --target <device>
       imprintr <image> <device>

Options:
        --image <image file>      Path and filename of backup image (.img.zst, .img.lz4, .000, etc.)
        --target <device>         Destination block device (e.g. /dev/nvme0n1p3)
        --help                    Show this help message

✔ Chunk‑Set Validation

Imprint now verifies that all required chunks (.000, .001, .002, …) exist before restoring, preventing incomplete or corrupted restores.

✔ Image Sniffer Prototype

imprint-sniffer performs lightweight streaming decompression to detect:

• filesystem backend
• partclone header information
• basic restore‑side metadata

Useful when metadata is missing or damaged.

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Changelog

v0.9.3, 10-Jan-2026 — Added backup CLI functionality.

• Introduced a dedicated command‑line interface for backup operations.
• Allows fully headless backups without launching the GUI.
• Unified messaging and progress output between CLI and GUI modes.
• Improved scripting and automation support for advanced users.
• Strengthened error reporting and exit‑code consistency for shell workflows.

v0.9.35, 14-Jan-2026 — Added streaming sniffer for image inspection.

• Implemented streaming partial decompression for zstd and lz4.
• Detects Partclone textual headers without full decompression.
• Extracts filesystem backend (BTRFS, EXT4, XFS, NTFS, FAT32, F2FS).
• Provides full fallback behavior when metadata is missing or corrupted.
• Establishes foundation for restore‑side validation and metadata‑free recovery.

v0.9.4, 15-Jan-2026 — Restore CLI + unified chunked‑restore architecture

• Implemented full restore‑side command‑line interface, enabling headless restores without launching the GUI.
• Normalized image‑path handling across CLI and GUI, including correct stripping of .000 suffixes for chunked images.
• Added authoritative metadata loading during restore, ensuring consistent backend, compression, and partition‑size validation.
• Introduced robust chunk‑set validation for both CLI and GUI restore paths, preventing restores when any chunk is missing or mismatched.
• Unified restore logic between interactive and CLI modes, eliminating divergent behaviors and ensuring deterministic restore flow.
• Simplified restore pipeline by deferring missing‑metadata fallback logic to a future branch.
• Removed reliance on the experimental sniffer for restore decisions; partclone now provides authoritative filesystem‑size validation.
• General cleanup and restructuring of restore.c for clarity, maintainability, and future feature expansion.

v0.9.211 - Improved compatibility for older CPUs

Fix for error: CPU ISA level is lower than required.

• The binaries built on the main system were not consistently using the intended x86-64-v2 ISA baseline due to conflicting system CFLAGS and environment overrides.

• Rebuilding inside a clean Docker environment with a corrected makepkg.conf and controlled toolchain produced a v2‑safe binary that should run correctly on all v2‑capable CPUs.

v0.9.21 - Checksum bugfix

v0.9.21 - Fixed checksum mismatch between generated checksums and the values in the .json and .sha256

• Moved checksum tee to after compressor to ensure checksum is computed over compressed stream
• Verified chunked reconstruction matches .sha256 and JSON metadata
• Added verification scripts for manual integrity checks

v0.9.2 - Changed backup pipeline logic

v0.9.1, 3-Jan-2026 - Changed backup pipeline logic for filesystems that don't support FIFO.

• Imprint now supports saving backups on filesystems that don't suport FIFO.
• Now supports Fat32, NTFS, EXFAT, SMB

v0.9.2, 4-Jan-2026 - User interface enhancements.

v0.9.0 - First Public Release

Features

• Simplicity — pick a partition, pick a filename, done
• Streaming backup pipeline (no temp files, no double I/O)
• Fast compression with lz4, zstd, or gzip
• Automatic SHA‑256 checksums for every image
• Chunked image support (2 GB / 4 GB chunks for FAT32, SMB, portability)
• Metadata‑rich JSON describing filesystem, backend, layout, checksum, and chunking
• Safety checks to prevent restoring to the wrong partition or filesystem
• Clean restore UI that only shows the correct entry (e.g., .000 for chunked sets)
• Rescue ISO for full offline backup/restore on any machine

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Imprint Rescue ISO

A lightweight KDE‑based rescue environment is available for full offline backup and restore, or when system partitions must remain unmounted.

👉 https://github.com/jalongx/imprint_iso_kde

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Dependencies

Imprint uses standard Linux tools:

• partclone
• zenity
• lz4, zstd, or gzip
• sha256sum
• pkexec (for privilege elevation)

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Supported Filesystems

Anything supported by partclone, including:

• ext4
• xfs
• btrfs
• ntfs
• fat/exfat
• f2fs
• and more

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Why Imprint?

Imprint focuses on predictability, transparency, and safety.

If you liked how Ghost “just worked,” Imprint brings that same reliability to modern Linux systems — with better integrity checks, better metadata, and a cleaner UI. It’s designed to be deterministic, human‑readable, and easy to trust.

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Roadmap (toward 1.0)

Imprint is currently version 0.90 — stable and fully usable, but still evolving.
Here’s what’s planned for the 1.0 milestone:

• Unified imprint binary (merge backup + restore into one tool)
• Command‑line switches for automation and headless use
• Multi‑partition backup/restore
• Verification‑only mode (validate images without restoring)
• Improved documentation
• Optional supporter perks (prebuilt ISOs, convenience features)

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Supporting the Project

Imprint is built and maintained by a retired senior on a fixed income.
If this tool helps you, or if you’d like to support the continued development toward 1.0, consider becoming a sponsor.

Your support helps fund:

• ongoing maintenance
• hardware testing
• rescue ISO improvements
• future features from the roadmap

Supporters may also receive access to prebuilt rescue ISOs and other convenience perks as a thank‑you.