[rdiff-backup-users] slow incrementals over ssh to localhost

[Jeff Strunk]

Good morning,

I just found that it takes 3 times longer to perform an incremental backup via 
ssh of the local machine than to perform the incremental backup directly.

I start my backups at 11pm every night. The backup via ssh starting on 3/6 at 
11pm ended on 3/7 at 10:30pm. The direct backup starting on 3/7 at 11pm ended 
on 3/8 at 6:49am. This backup consists of SVN working copies, Maildir 
folders, etc.

Why would ssh over localhost be so much slower?

The reason I had configured it that way was to have all of my backups start 
from a non-root user's crontab and for consistency with all of the other 
machines that get backed up.

Any ideas on increasing localhost performance? Is that the way it should be?

Thanks,
Jeff