Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Manually Clean-up Backups

[Damon Timm]

Hi Gavin -

Thanks for your response ... I wasn't sure if there was something
simple I was missing but I guess not.

I will go ahead and attach a usb drive temporarily and expand the file
system (am using LVM2). shrink it via rdiff-backup (preserving some of
my long history), and then remove the drive.  Or maybe I'll just buy a
bigger hard drive and then clone it ...

Either way, thanks for the input.  Glad to know that's the best
approach.  The stashing of 1GB files is an idea I hadn't thought of
... on my next drive I'll be sure to leave some extra space on my
virtual group !

Thanks,
Damon

On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 9:29 PM, Gavin <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi Damon,
>
> This catches plenty of ppl :-)
>
> Usually create and keep a blank file of appropriate size (I use 1G) in
> the root of the backup dir.
> Then later this can be deleted to free up space for just this problem.
>
> If you don't care about the history then just delete the rdiff-backup
> folder and manually remove any large files.
> Then restart the backup using --force.
>
> If you do care about the history then perhaps you have a larger spare
> hdd or partition that the data could be copied to,
> perform the `--removed-older-than`, check size and copy the data back.
> Also if you really do care about the history then having a second copy
> of the backup is a given (snapshot at known good points.)
>
> Of course if your using vfs just add some more drive space.
> I still stick to old fashioned fixed partitions.
>
> The whole premise (and surely reason) for using rdiff-backup is that the
> most recent data is the most
> valuable and as the history goes back the value reduces.
>
> Cheers
> Gavin
>> I wasn't paying attention and my target device filled up!
>>
>> I attempted to run a `--removed-older-than` on the backup in question,
>> however, I am getting a fatal error:
>>
>>     Fatal Error: Could not open rdiff-backup directory
>>     /mnt/backup/daily/home/rdiff-backup-data
>>     due to
>>     [Errno 28] No space left on device:
>> '/mnt/backup/daily/home/rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0'
>>
>> I have tried add the options `--tempdir /tmp --remote-tempdir /tmp`
>> hoping this might solve the problem but no dice.
>>
>> I checked the docs but don't see any advice on manually deleting
>> backups to free up enough space to actually run the
>> `--remove-older-than option`.
>>
>> So - my question is: can I safely remove files myself ?  If so, any
>> recommendations on how to proceed?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Damon
>>
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>>
>>
>
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