Re: [rdiff-backup-users] fix for error when trying to clean up a full filesystem

[Gavin]

John Soros wrote:
> Ok, sorry, i might have been a bit harsh...
> No, what i don't understand, really, is why rdiff-backup needs free space to 
> clean up old snapshots: no it doesn't, my patch goes to show that if you 
> treat 
> the cleanup as a read-only operation, it will go through smoothly: it 
> *doesn't* need any free space, the only thing that needed free space for the 
> cleanup was creating a useless temporary file.
> Also, (this was a while ago, but if i remember correctly) if the tmpdir 
> option 
> did what it's told entirely (some temporary files were created in tmpdir, 
> some 
> in the backup root), you wouln't be in such a trouble when the disk is full.
> I wonder if anyone had a look at my patch, and if so if they think it's of 
> any 
> interest? or do they have any other suggestions?
> Thanks,
> John
>   
Indeed it would be nice to hear from someone that knows/works on the
code base.
I have always just assumed rdiff-backup had good reason to need the
space to perform a roll-back.

Rdiff-backup is a designed (correctly I believe) as a pretty low level
tool in the *nix tradition.
I don't normally use it directly from the command line.
I use it as part a backup system configured with Backupninja.
Having said that if it's an easy fix and rdiff-backup does not really
need the space the improvement
would certainly be a welcome one.

Cheers
Gavin