pfSense

That was an intentional change. See 1f0bbb13abd34ad06aa9272516b13a5c17a1dc08

Maybe we could suppress the picture widget if the file is not present, but we should not change it back to storing image data in the configuration.

But we can only backup image data if the "Include extra data" option is checked.

Where the picture data is stored while the system is operating is IMO of no consequence regarding as to whether or not it should be backed up.

If for the sake of robustness/performance the configuration xml file is reduced in size by removing said picture data from the config file and storing it on the file system, is utterly orthogonal to the question as to whether or not the picture is part of the configuration, which IMO it undeniably is.

This isn’t some data related to a third party packaging or some data that found it’s way into the system by some custom tweaks: it a widget that’s part of the base system, and which provides important visual cues.

Viktor Gurov wrote in #note-3:

But we can only backup image data if the "Include extra data" option is checked.

Exactly!
If data intensive things like RRD can be backed up, I don't see why the picture data shouldn't be optionally backed up, too!

Ronald Antony wrote in #note-6:

Viktor Gurov wrote in #note-3:

But we can only backup image data if the "Include extra data" option is checked.

Exactly!
If data intensive things like RRD can be backed up, I don't see why the picture data shouldn't be optionally backed up, too!

The image would have to be a separate file, since the backup function exports just the config.xml file. However, this would also require creating a compressed archive that contains both the image file and the config.xml file. Backing up the image data into the XML file is a terrible idea given there is no good way to limit the file size of the image data.

Exporting the image file separately in an archive or omitting the image widget if the image file is non-existent are the better options from a security and functionality standpoint.