Re: [rdiff-backup-users] First try

[Mark Williamson]

Mmmm.  I'm by no means an rdiff-backup expert, but I wouldn't expect backing 
up a Linux partition to a FAT filesystem to work entirely smoothly: FAT 
doesn't support all the semantics that a Unix-style filesystem requires in 
order to work properly.  Since rdiff-backup stores the most recent copy 
directly as files, you're at best going to lose some information about the 
original files (e.g. ownership, permissions, etc).

If you really need to back up unix-y files to a non-unix filesystem you should 
probably archive them using tar first (although unfortunately, this probably 
makes using rdiff-backup a bit pointless).

I guess *maybe* duplicity might handle this case better as it doesn't store a 
straight copy of the files at any point.  Does anybody on this have an idea 
if this would work?

Cheers,
Mark

On Wednesday 18 April 2007 16:57, Bill Bailey wrote:
> Hi folks:
>
> I am fairly new to Linux, and rdiff-backup sounds great. After researching
> it and experimenting with it, I tried it yesterday. The results are
> disappointing. Here is my situation. I have 2 hard disks--call them X and
> Y. X is divided into a Linux partition and a Windows partition to
> accommodate a dual boot system. Disk Y contains only a Windows FAT 32 file
> system, and X's Windows partition has been backed up to Y. I use Y only for
> backup. Before moving to Linux from Windows, I backed up regularly from X
> to Y. I used the program Retrospect under Windows, and I had no problems.
> After experimenting successfully with some simple cases using rdiff-backup
> (version 1.1.5) under Linux (Mepis 6.0), yesterday I tried to back up my
> home directory. Ample free space exists on Y to accommodate my home
> directory.
>
> My home directory (/home/bb) on X's Linux partition contains 50 folders and
> 99 files. One of those 99 files is a link file, which should not be copied
> because rdiff-backup does not support hard links across file systems. On Y,
> I created a folder named LinuxBackup-Home to hold the backup. To run
> rdiff-backup, I executed this command:
>
> rdiff-backup /home/bb /mnt/hdb1/LinuxBackup-Home
>
> Here are the results: 19 of the 50 folders and 37 of the 99 files did not
> copy. Some of the folders that did not copy were empty (the Pictures
> folder, for example, is empty, and it did not copy); others were not empty
> (the PDF-Files folder contains 16 PDFs and 4 PostScript files, and the
> PDF-Files folder was not copied). Following the command to run rdiff-backup
> is a full page of diagnostics, which fall into (1) those I understand and
> (2) those I do not understand. If you have any idea as to what the problems
> are or if you can point me to literature that may help me diagnose the
> problems, I will appreciate it. Thanks for your help.
>
> Bill Bailey
> Houston, TX
>
> Here are the diagnostics, divided into the aforementioned 2 categories:
>
> 1. Those I understand. Five named files follow the warning about hard
> links. I understand the warning and the "SpecialFileErrors," which concern
> the 5 named files. Each of those 5 named files is a hard link.
>
> Warning: hard linking not supported by filesystem
> at /mnt/hdb1/LinuxBackup-Home/rdiff-backup-data
> SpecialFileError .DCOPserver_cindy_:0 [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
> UpdateError .DCOPserver_cindy_:0 Updated mirror temp
> file /mnt/hdb1/LinuxBackup-Home/rdiff-backup.tmp.1 does not match source
> SpecialFileError .kde/cache-cindy [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
> UpdateError .kde/cache-cindy Updated mirror temp
> file /mnt/hdb1/LinuxBackup-Home/.kde/rdiff-backup.tmp.56 does not match
> source
> SpecialFileError .kde/socket-cindy [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
> UpdateError .kde/socket-cindy Updated mirror temp
> file /mnt/hdb1/LinuxBackup-Home/.kde/rdiff-backup.tmp.647 does not match
> source
> SpecialFileError .kde/tmp-cindy [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
> UpdateError .kde/tmp-cindy Updated mirror temp
> file /mnt/hdb1/LinuxBackup-Home/.kde/rdiff-backup.tmp.648 does not match
> source
> SpecialFileError Desktop/Documents [Errno 1] Operation not permitted
> UpdateError Desktop/Documents Updated mirror temp
> file /mnt/hdb1/LinuxBackup-Home/;068esktop/rdiff-backup.tmp.1591 does not
> match source
>
> 2. Those I do not understand
>
> Exception '[Errno 22] Invalid argument' raised of class
> 'exceptions.OSError': File
> "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 295, in
> error_check_Main
>     try: Main(arglist)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 315,
> in Main
>     take_action(rps)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 271,
> in take_action
>     elif action == "backup": Backup(rps[0], rps[1])
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 337,
> in Backup
>     backup.Mirror(rpin, rpout)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 38,
> in Mirror
>     DestS.patch(dest_rpath, source_diffiter)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 218,
> in patch
>     ITR(diff.index, diff)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/rorpiter.py", line
> 281, in __call__
>     last_branch.fast_process(*args)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 517,
> in fast_process
>     rpath.rename(tf, mirror_rp)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/rpath.py", line 237,
> in rename
>     else: rp_source.conn.os.rename(rp_source.path, rp_dest.path)
>
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "/usr/bin/rdiff-backup", line 23, in ?
>     rdiff_backup.Main.error_check_Main(sys.argv[1:])
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 295,
> in error_check_Main
>     try: Main(arglist)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 315,
> in Main
>     take_action(rps)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 271,
> in take_action
>     elif action == "backup": Backup(rps[0], rps[1])
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 337,
> in Backup
>     backup.Mirror(rpin, rpout)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 38,
> in Mirror
>     DestS.patch(dest_rpath, source_diffiter)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 218,
> in patch
>     ITR(diff.index, diff)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/rorpiter.py", line
> 281, in __call__
>     last_branch.fast_process(*args)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 517,
> in fast_process
>     rpath.rename(tf, mirror_rp)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/rdiff_backup/rpath.py", line 237,
> in rename
>     else: rp_source.conn.os.rename(rp_source.path, rp_dest.path)
> OSError: [Errno 22] Invalid argument
>
>
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> Wiki URL:
> http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki

-- 
Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  And no pedals!
Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
Mark: My wheel has a wheel!