If you think you have found a bug or hamster seems to be behaving strange on your system, here is what you can do before filing a bug:

  • First install hamster from sources and check if the problem is still happening
  • Next look in the list of existing bugs, and check if perhaps the issue is there. If you have any additional information to add, please do so, but avoid “me too” and +1-ing as that just adds noise 🙂
  • When filing the bug, check if perhaps hamster is encountering any errors in the code. To do that run the hamster services from a terminal: fire up two terminals and run one line in each (it’s perfectly safe and you can just press Ctrl+C and close the terminal after done – it will respawn the services as necessary): 
    killall hamster-service && hamster-service
killall hamster-windows-service && hamster-windows-service

We will be very grateful if you follow these steps because it shortens all the bouncing back and forth needed to figure out what is going on!

Frequently asked questions

Where is the database file?

~/.local/share/hamster-applet/hamster.db

What about synchronization and backups?

Just copy the db file (see previous)

What about tracking open windows and such?

We are more for the approach that you control what is being tracked, so you get the result on the level of detail you prefer. Tracking open windows and then trying to figure out what you are doing is the other time tracking. We might get there at some point. But it has many implications and currently looks like it would just make things complicated.

How to request a new feature?

Check existing bugs and if not there, file a new one.

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