Hi,
I was just wondering if anything is happening with this? Thanks.
Regards,
Alistair
On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 11:25:10 +1000, Alistair Popple
<alistair.popple < at > gmail.com> wrote:
Hmm... so do you think when the symlink to /usr was deleted, /usr was
deleted along with it?
This is probably best explained with an example I used to replicate
the problem on a test system at home. Hopefully this is
understandable (I can clarify anything if it isn't):
I created the following directory structure in /tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src:
.
|-- test1
| |-- test1.1
| | |-- a
| | |-- b
| | `-- c
| `-- test1.2
| |-- d
| |-- e
| `-- f
`-- test2
|-- test2.1
| `-- test1.1
| |-- g
| |-- h
| `-- i
`-- test2.2
|-- j
|-- k
`-- l
The following steps were then performed:
* rdiff-backup -v7 alistair < at > 127.0.0.1::/tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/
/tmp/rdiff-backup-test/dest/
* mv /tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/test2/test2.1
/tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/test2/test2.1.old
* ln -s /tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/test1
/tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/test2/test2.1
* rdiff-backup -v7 alistair < at > 127.0.0.1::/tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/
/tmp/rdiff-backup-test/dest/
At this point everything should be fine and working as expected. The
following directory structure exists in the desination directory:
|-- rdiff-backup-data
| |-- ......................
|-- test1
| |-- test1.1
| | |-- a
| | |-- b
| | `-- c
| `-- test1.2
| |-- d
| |-- e
| `-- f
`-- test2
|-- test2.1 -> /tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/test1/
|-- test2.1.old
| `-- test1.1
| |-- g
| |-- h
| `-- i
`-- test2.2
|-- j
|-- k
`-- l
Note the symlink from test2.1 to a file outside the destination path.
However if the backup fails (eg. it is interrupted halfway through)
then the desintation directory needs checking:
* rdiff-backup -v7 --check-desintation /tmp/rdiff-backup-test/dest
It is at this point the problems begin. If you check
/tmp/rdiff-backup-test/src/test1 (a directory outside of the
destination) you will find that the test1.1 directory has been
deleted. This only happens for the directories mentioned in the
original (non-linked) version of test2.1, which is why test1.2
remains. The problem here seems to be that the check-destination-dir
option follows the symlinks rather than treating them as files. If
the link is changed to a relative one then sure enough no directories
outside of the destination seem to be modified, however after the
destination check test1.1 is missing from the destination/backup - ie.
it has _not_ been backed up. Performing subsequent backups will also
not back that information up, even if the relative symlink is removed,
thus the backups remain incomplete for what I assume is ever more.
