Re: [BackupPC-users] BackupPC_link got error -4 when calling MakeFileLink

[Holger P. <wb...@pa...>]

Hi,

Juergen Harms wrote on 2008-12-26 23:46:55 +0100 [Re: [BackupPC-users] BackupPC_link got error -4 when calling?MakeFileLink]:
> I fought these messages yesterday. In my case the reason is that topDir 
> - the directory where the backup data is stored - is a separate 
> file-system, and that BackupPC has problems dealing with that situation. 

as Nils said, that is not true. BackupPC has problems with incorrectly
changing TopDir.

> Googling provided 2 alternative solutions

It might not be obvious, but the BackupPC wiki goes into some detail on this
topic: http://backuppc.wiki.sourceforge.net/change+archive+directory

> (there appears to be quite an epidemy of people suffering from this problem):

There appears to be quite an epidemy of people not consulting the wiki.

> 2. Use the --bind option of mount (the Google reference suggests -o 
> bind, I guess another and probably obsolete flavour of --bind, not 
> documented on my Mandriva platform). [...]
> this is done by adding to your /etc/fstab - I placed it 
> directly after the "mount /dev/xxx /backup ..." instruction - the 
> following line:
> 
> /backup /var/lib/backuppc none rw,bind 0 0

This is actually an example of the "probably obsolete flavour of --bind, not
documented on my Mandrive platform". But it's correct and will hopefully
continue to be so.

> with the result that the 2 mount points get mounted at boot time. I also 
> changed owner and group of /backup to the backup user - but there I am 
> less sure how correct or imperative that is.

Well, you can't change the group to the backup user ;-), but it's correct and
I'd say at least recommended too. Once the directories under $TopDir are in
place, the backuppc user should not need to create any, but you never know
what directories future versions of BackupPC might want to put there.

> I read that a new release (3.1.1) of backuppc is being prepared - short 
> of fixing this problem, it might be a good idea to add a couple of words 
> to the documentation, warning about this restriction in the 
> configurability of the topDir variable.

I believe there *is* a warning in the documentation (though I admit I can't
find it right now), and I believe it *will be* fixed in 3.1.1, of which I
haven't heard that it is being prepared, though.

Regards,
Holger