[rdiff-backup-users] Restore from a read-only mounted source

[Wolfgang Dautermann]

Hello List,

I am relatively new to rdiff-backup. I make backups from a backup-server 
using ssh-keys and the command:
rdiff-backup address@hidden::/home/username /backups/home-username

That seems to work (unattended).

To provide easy restores (especially when I am not here), I NFS-mount 
/backups/home-username to the computer of my colleges, so that one can 
just copy the most recent backup of a file. Ok.

But it is not possible to mount the Backup-space read-only?

Neither a restore using "rdiff-backup -r" works (because rdiff-backup 
wants to write some logfiles), not even "rdiff-backup --list-increments" 
works, because the program wants to write some temporary files 
(rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0)?

Yes, I found a mail on the list-archive about that read-only-problem:
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/rdiff-backup-users/2002-09/msg00008.html

But I would consider it a rather important feature. Otherwise users 
might just _MOVE_ out (instead of copying!) files from the NFS-mounted 
backup-space and make the whole backup unusable. They might delete some 
files there, overwrite files there, ...)

Is there a possibility to force rdiff-backup to:
- write the temporary files somewhere else
- do not write Restore-logs or write them somewhere else?

so that one can NFS-mount the backup-space Read-only? If not: consider 
that mail a a feature-request. ;-)

Bye, Wolfgang


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Automotive Engineering & Railway Engineering
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