Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Remove latest backup?

[Dominic Raferd]

On 29/07/2013 10:54, Laurent De Buyst wrote:
> Hello,
>
> We're using rdiff-backup as part of a slightly complex automated 
> backup solution involving LVM snapshots and rsync.
>
> Very infrequently, something goes wrong in the preparation phase, like 
> it did last night, and the result is that rdiff-backup is run with a 
> completely empty source folder, wiping out about 80 gigs of data.
>
> Now, the data is not lost or anything but, as far as I know, if my 
> backup runs okay tonight, I'm going to end up with 160 gigs of space 
> used by rdiff-backup: the old history up to the point where the folder 
> got deleted, one history entry where all the folder contents are gone, 
> and then the start of a new history.
>
> In other words, we seem to have only two options: keep all the 
> histories and doubling (or worse should it happen again) our storage 
> needs, or discarding the history up to the point of failure.
>
> Of course, we'll take precautions to make sure it won't happen again, 
> but either way, the question I'd like answered that would solve 
> everything:
>
>
> Is it at all possible to undo the most recent rdiff-backup run?
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Laurent De Buyst
> ICT - System Administrator

Laurent:

There is a command-line option --check-destination-dir which will 
regress an archive if the last backup is faulty, but if the backup isn't 
faulty and you still want to get rid of it, you have to be a bit 
cleverer. The easiest way is to use the rdiff-backup-regress script I 
wrote and which you can find at 
http://www.timedicer.co.uk/programs/help/rdiff-backup-regress.sh.php. It 
was designed precisely for your type of situation.

If you want to understand how it works, or prefer to hack the problem 
yourself rather than relying on someone else's code, google for the 
topic on this newsgroup headed 'Force a regression of rdiff-backup 
archive' [2009-2011].

HTH, Dominic

--
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