Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Re: Fatal Error: Source is not a directory [Scanned]

[Jason Spalding]

I was going to suggest this but it doesn't work for me on my OS X system.
Source diving lead me to the lstat() function in backup_check_dirs, but the
error reported is for the isdir() function directly below it which, for all
intents and purposes, should operate correctly (it's a python call, not
rdiff's). Perhaps something for the dev team to look at later.

In the meantime, a workaround like so should suffice:

cd /home/user/fileToBackup/
rdiff-backup . /backup/directory

Which should solve your problem.

A few notes on looking into it:

The isdir function is documented like so at docs.python.org:

os.path.isdir(path)¶
    Return True if path is an existing directory. This follows symbolic
links, so both islink() and isdir() can be true for the same path.

However this is for Python version 2.6.2 - my version of OS X is a 2.5
installation and as far as I am aware Apple have no plans to upgrade this in
the foreseeable future. As such the older version of python may be what is
causing the no-follow on the symlink for directory testing. I couldn't find
the return codes for the lstat function (I've never enjoyed python
documentation), nor the 2.5 docs (though I could have googled further) but
it would appear that when lstat() is not following symbolic links, it
returns everything ok - thus falling through to isdir().

The above cd / rdiff combination worked just fine for me though.

Cheers

Jason
(Not an rdiff-backup developer)

On 22/4/09 9:27 AM, "Ty! Boyack" <address@hidden> wrote:

> With many programs the answer is to simply add a slash to the end of
> your source directory.  For example if your command was:
> 
> rdiff-backup /home/user/fileToBackup  /backup/directory
> 
> then just change it to:
> 
> rdiff-backup /home/user/filesToBackup/ /backup/directory
> 
> the name 'fileToBackup' is a symlink, but when you append a slash it
> forces it to resolve to the destination of the symlink.
> 
> Not certain it works here, but I'd try that first.
> 
> -Ty!
> 
> 
> Dave wrote:
>> Anyone know if there is a way to backup using a symlink as the source?
>> Thanks
>> 
>> On Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Dave <address@hidden
>> <mailto:address@hidden>> wrote:
>> 
>>     I called rdiff-backup with a symlink as the source I wanted to
>>     backup and I got this error:
>> 
>>     Fatal Error: Source /home/user/filesToBackup is not a directory
>> 
>>     Is there a way to backup a symlink like this? Thanks.
>> 
>>     Dave
>> 
>> 
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