Re: [rdiff-backup-users] lock file for backup directory

[Ben Escoto]

>>>>> Sebastien Maret <address@hidden>
>>>>> wrote the following on Thu, 26 Jan 2006 11:26:43 -0500
> Listing the increments in a backup directory while an other backup is in
> progress give the following error:
> 
> rdiff-backup -l host::/path/to/backup
> Fatal Error: Previous backup to /path/to/backup seems to have failed.
> Rerun rdiff-backup with --check-destination-dir option to revert directory to 
> state before unsuccessful session.
> 
> The message is confusing, since the previous backup hasn't failed,
> but it just hasn't finished yet.
> 
> Beside, I am not sure if doing other operation (like delete old
> increments) while a backup is in progress is safe. If not, it might be
> useful to implement a lock system, to prevent two different
> rdiff-backup processes to modify a backup directory simultaneously.

In general it's not a good idea to have two rdiff-backup processes
working on the same directory.  I've changed the error message to:

 The previous backup to %s is still in progress or has failed.
 You can rerun rdiff-backup with --check-destination-dir option to revert
 the directory to the state it was in before an unsuccessful session.
 However,
 *** -------------------------------------------------------------------- ***
 *** If an rdiff-backup process is currently running,                     ***
 *** DO NOT RUN --check-destination-dir OR OTHERWISE MODIFY THE DIRECTORY ***
 *** -------------------------------------------------------------------- ***

which is hopefully clearer, and stresses the important parts :-)

Recent development versions of rdiff-backup will abort by default if
they think another rdiff-backup process is writing to the same
directory.


-- 
Ben Escoto

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