Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Truncated header string

[Sheldon Hearn]

On Fri, 2005-03-11 at 12:12 +0000, Keith Edmunds wrote:

> > So, are remote restores working for anyone?
> 
> Yes, although they are slow. That doesn't help you, I realise, but if you
> can do local restores you can always tar them up or whatever and restore
> that way.

Actually, it helps enormously, because it means there's something
locally wrong, rather than that it's a complete waste of time. Thank
you :-)

In fact, I've now managed to narrow it down to this:

1) If I restore to a not-yet-existing directory, I get the dreaded
"Truncated header string" error.

2) If I restore to an empty directory, I still get the error.

3) If I restore to a fully populated directory, I get no error.  This
just means that the problem is likely to exist around the retrieval,
transmission and application of an rdiff.

4) If I restore to a populated directory from which I've removed the
file that causes the error (ED5049A0.tar.gz), I get no error.

5) If I create a new backup test containing only the file that causes
the error, and test that instead, I get no error.

This smells like stale state in an iterator.  Unfortunately, it means I
can't really submit a useful "how to repeat".

What's interesting is that this has been reported many times, by many
people, and doesn't seem to have been addressed.  Is rdiff-backup
unmaintained, or is it just that folks with the clue to fix it haven't
seen the problem themselves?

Ciao,
Sheldon.