Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Error on remote restore (1.2.3)

[Dominic]

Andrew Ferguson wrote:

Hi Dominic,

Yes, this is helpful. It looks to me like you do not have SSH installed in your %PATH% on your Windows box.

At that point, rdiff-backup is trying to run this command:

"ssh -C 192.168.100.125 rdiff-backup --server"

and failing. If you open a DOS prompt and type that command, and it works, then something is strange. It looks like you need the --remote-schema option. This wiki page discusses using plink.exe as the SSH replacement on Windows: http://wiki.rdiff-backup.org/wiki/index.php/BackupFromWindowsToLinux

Admittedly, the error message could be much better. :-)

Andrew

Doh! :-[         

I should have known that, because I use it successfully for backups! I have previously read the Wiki and even corrected some stuff on it. This command works:

rdiff-backup -r 0D --remote-schema "plink.exe -ssh -i privatekey.ppk %s rdiff-backup --server" address@hidden.125::archives/mydocs/meetings.docx meetings.docx

As you say it would be better if the error message could be improved cos this remote schema stuff for Windows is unintuitive.

Another thing that produces weird messages is using (in the Windows remote schema) %%s instead of %s - or vice versa, which is easy to do when testing/copying to/from a batch file or example. (You have to use %%s in a batch file and %s directly from the command line, as the wiki does explain.). Using %s in a batch file produces this:

Fatal Error: No arguments given
See the rdiff-backup manual page for more information.

Using %%s directly on the command line produces this:

Exception 'not all arguments converted during string formatting' raised of class
 '<type 'exceptions.TypeError'>':
  File "rdiff_backup\Main.pyc", line 304, in error_check_Main
  File "rdiff_backup\Main.pyc", line 319, in Main
  File "rdiff_backup\SetConnections.pyc", line 68, in get_cmd_pairs
  File "rdiff_backup\SetConnections.pyc", line 84, in desc2cmd_pairs
  File "rdiff_backup\SetConnections.pyc", line 122, in fill_schema

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "rdiff-backup", line 30, in <module>
  File "rdiff_backup\Main.pyc", line 304, in error_check_Main
  File "rdiff_backup\Main.pyc", line 319, in Main
  File "rdiff_backup\SetConnections.pyc", line 68, in get_cmd_pairs
  File "rdiff_backup\SetConnections.pyc", line 84, in desc2cmd_pairs
  File "rdiff_backup\SetConnections.pyc", line 122, in fill_schema
TypeError: not all arguments converted during string formatting

Thanks again for your help!

Dominic