[rdiff-backup-users] First try

[Bill Bailey]

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