Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Why do I see a huge variation in the time rdiff-backup takes?

[Robert Nichols]

On 03/30/2015 06:41 PM, Segundo Bob wrote:
> I run rdiff-backup on my desktop computer to backup data from my
> internal hard drive to a removable internal hard drive.  I use a script
> to do the backup every Sunday.  Unpredictably, infrequently rdiff-backup
> runs much, much longer than usual.  Why?
>
> I'm asking now because yesterday rdiff-backup ran for 3 hours and 6
> minutes when I expected it to run between 5 minutes and 20 minutes.
>
> Is there a problem switching from 32-bit to 64-bit?

Any change in the recorded metadata for a file will cause rdiff-backup
to do a time-consuming diff of the old and new files. For files with
just a single link, that data includes ModTime, Uid, Uname, Gid, Gname,
and Permissions. For files with more than one hard link, add the device
and inode numbers and the number of hard links to that. Systems that
discover their devices in an inconsistent order cause device numbers
to change. If you have more than one OS installed on that laptop, you
should always use the same one to do the backups.

--
Bob Nichols     "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address.
                Do NOT delete it.