Deja-dup reports it couldn't backup ~/.cache/dconf and ~/.gvfs even though it's not supposed to try to (also, ~/.dbus)

Bug #1313034 reported by Pershin
158
This bug affects 34 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Déjà Dup
Fix Committed
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Error message after copying:
Could not back up the following files. Please make sure you are able to open them.
/home/myuser/.cache/dconf
/home/myuser/.dbus
/home/myuser/.gvfs

But I do not need these copies! And even if I add these names in "Folders to ignore", deja-dup STILL TRIES to make these copies, but it can not again.

On my old system (Ubuntu 12.04), this error was not.
AFAIK, deja-dup should not copy these folders automatically, even without adding to the list "Folders to ignore".

Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit

Pershin (pershin2010)
summary: - Deja-dup cannot make copies some technical files
+ Deja-dup cannot make copies of some technical files
Revision history for this message
Michael Terry (mterry) wrote : Re: Deja-dup cannot make copies of some technical files

Those are automatically ignored (at least ~/.cache and ~/.gvfs are). Is 'myuser' the user you are running Deja Dup as?

Revision history for this message
Pershin (pershin2010) wrote :

Yes it is. And 'myuser' is my only user.

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in deja-dup (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Markcortbass (markcortbass) wrote :

I confirm this bug for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with the latest updates.
I solved this problem with these commands:

sudo chown USERNAME .cache/dconf .gvfs
sudo chgrp USERNAME .cache/dconf .gvfs
sudo chown -R USERNAME:USERNAME .dbus

Revision history for this message
TenLeftFingers (tenleftfingers) wrote :

According to this thread, running chown or chgrp is not recommended: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2177677

The same bug seems to be reported here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/deja-dup/+bug/1329133

Naël (nathanael-naeri)
affects: deja-dup (Ubuntu) → deja-dup
Naël (nathanael-naeri)
summary: - Deja-dup cannot make copies of some technical files
+ Deja-dup reports it couldn't backup ~/.cache and ~/.gvfs even though
+ it's not supposed to try to (also, ~/.dbus)
Naël (nathanael-naeri)
summary: - Deja-dup reports it couldn't backup ~/.cache and ~/.gvfs even though
- it's not supposed to try to (also, ~/.dbus)
+ Deja-dup reports it couldn't backup ~/.cache/dconf and ~/.gvfs even
+ though it's not supposed to try to (also, ~/.dbus)
Revision history for this message
Alex N. (a-nox) wrote :

Deja-dup still reports it could not back up ~/.cache and ~/.gvfs on Ubuntu 15.10., even though they are added to the ignore list.

Revision history for this message
Alan B. Clements (alan-clements) wrote :

It's still trying to back up ~/.cache/dconf even though ~/.cache is on the excluded list in 16.04

Revision history for this message
graingert (tagrain) wrote :

For me it's still trying to back up ~/.gvfs even though ~/.gvfs is on the excluded list in 16.04

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Isaac Eiland-Hall (isaac-s) wrote :

16.04 and I've excluded ~/.cache/dconf and it reports every day that it can't back up that folder.

Revision history for this message
baltic (bugsgenerator) wrote :

that's likely coz when duplicity is called, the --exclude parameter paths are not escaped or put in "".
so when you have spaces in any exclude pathnames, the exclusion doesn't work.

Revision history for this message
Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse) wrote :

I haven't read the code of deja dup, but I strongly suspect this is the same as Bug #1089131. If so:
"This is a known bug, and one that you can ignore. Duplicity will still ignore the file, it's just telling you that it can't stat it. The rest of the backup should have completed correctly."

It's been on my list to fix sometime, as it annoys me, but if it is the same issue then I don't believe it has any real effects (aside from meaning duplicity gives the incorrect exit code).

Revision history for this message
Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse) wrote :

I have now fixed the bug that I mention above in duplicity trunk, to be released in
Duplicity 0.7.08. Can somebody please test with that new version and add a comment as to whether the behaviour above persists?

Revision history for this message
Donald Pellegrino (donald-a-pellegrino) wrote :

I installed duplicity_0.7.08-0ubuntu1ppa1227~ubuntu16.04.1_amd64.deb from https://code.launchpad.net/~duplicity-team/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/10315900. The details section of the back up dialog reported progress as expected. Directories from the exclude list were no longer included in the processing list. Unfortunately, the verifying stage reported Backup Failed with "Giving up after 5 attempts. Error: g-io-error-quark: The specified location is not mounted (16)." No additional details were available from journalctl.

Revision history for this message
Donald Pellegrino (donald-a-pellegrino) wrote :

Update to Comment #13. With no changes, I simply hit "Back Up Now..." again and the second time it completed successfully. The target storage location is SSH. Perhaps the error in Comment #13 was just due to a temporary network connectivity issue. This was just a cursory manual test of backup, and I did not test a restore, but Duplicity 0.7.08 does appear to resolve this bug.

Revision history for this message
Donald Pellegrino (donald-a-pellegrino) wrote :

Duplicity 0.7.08 appears to resolve this bug.

Changed in deja-dup:
status: Confirmed → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Walt Bankes (wjbite-gmail) wrote : Re: [Bug 1313034] Re: Deja-dup reports it couldn't backup ~/.cache/dconf and ~/.gvfs even though it's not supposed to try to (also, ~/.dbus)

Hi Donald:
I had a similar problem.
I was able to trace it to my W10 dual boot.
It seems that if you are using Windows in the default FAST BOOT mode,
Windows does not properly release the drive when it shuts down so that
Ubuntu can not get access to that drive when you boot into Ubuntu after
using Windows.
I was able to correct the problem by turning off the Windows FAST BOOT mode.
Walt B

On Sun, Jul 10, 2016 at 11:11 AM, Donald Pellegrino <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Update to Comment #13. With no changes, I simply hit "Back Up Now..."
> again and the second time it completed successfully. The target storage
> location is SSH. Perhaps the error in Comment #13 was just due to a
> temporary network connectivity issue. This was just a cursory manual
> test of backup, and I did not test a restore, but Duplicity 0.7.08 does
> appear to resolve this bug.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1422169).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1313034
>
> Title:
> Deja-dup reports it couldn't backup ~/.cache/dconf and ~/.gvfs even
> though it's not supposed to try to (also, ~/.dbus)
>
> Status in Déjà Dup:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Error message after copying:
> Could not back up the following files. Please make sure you are able to
> open them.
> /home/myuser/.cache/dconf
> /home/myuser/.dbus
> /home/myuser/.gvfs
>
> But I do not need these copies! And even if I add these names in
> "Folders to ignore", deja-dup STILL TRIES to make these copies, but it
> can not again.
>
> On my old system (Ubuntu 12.04), this error was not.
> AFAIK, deja-dup should not copy these folders automatically, even
> without adding to the list "Folders to ignore".
>
> Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/deja-dup/+bug/1313034/+subscriptions
>

Revision history for this message
Donald Pellegrino (donald-a-pellegrino) wrote :

Thanks for the information @wjbite-gmail. The behavior I reported in Comment #13 was from a System76 Lemur Lemu6 system running only Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Therefore the Microsoft Windows FAST BOOT mode would not be a factor. Perhaps something else was preventing drive access in my case though.

Revision history for this message
Christopher Barrington-Leigh (cpbl) wrote :

Hi Donald.

Is this fix likely to end up going out to the LTS / 16.04?

Thanks,
Chris

Revision history for this message
PJO (lexicographer) wrote :

I have this problem with the following files in Linux Mint 18.0

/home/user/.cache/dconf
/home/user/.config/enchant

Mint 18.1 is due out this month. It would be nice to have the second fixed of these fixed as well (now that Cinnamon is an option for Ubuntu I think it's reasonable to note this here).

Revision history for this message
Diego González (diegonz) wrote :

Almost 2017, and still present in Ubuntu 16.10 aka Yakkety Yak.
I have no paths to exclude containing spaces like was commented before.
I think I've been observing this error since 11.10/12.04, maybe when i started to try deja-dup.

Revision history for this message
Eero (eero+launchpad) wrote :

Is this program maintained anymore? There are open high priority bugs from 2011. Can someone recommend properly working backup program for single user installations?

Revision history for this message
Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse) wrote :

As mentioned above, duplicity 0.7.08 resolves this bug. It was fixed back in June.

If you are using duplicity 0.7.08 or later and are seeing this issue, we absolutely want to hear from you. These latest comments are about distributions carrying old versions of the program, rather than development on duplicity.

There seems to be a bit of confusion in the latest comments. If you are seeing this error, there are two distinct scenarios:
1) You do not want to back up the files mentioned in the error and have added them to your excluded files list. This is what this bug is about and the bug was fixed back in June. The error will go away if you upgrade your duplicity. As I mentioned back in May, the issue (an error given even though files are in the exclude list) was never actually causing any issues with the backups, just giving a superfluous error.
2) If you *are* trying to back up the folder (it is not in your exclude list), but are getting this error, then this bug is *not* your issue. PJO, it sounds like you actually want to backup those folders. The error is most likely caused because you do not have access to the file/folder you are trying to back up. There is not much duplicity can do about that and you need to either give yourself permission to read the files or run duplicity as a user that does have permission. As the error says, make sure you are able to open them.

Eero, duplicity is absolutely maintained. There have been four releases since the version in Zesty/Yakkety. If the one high-priority bug (as opposed to feature request) from 2011 is affecting you, please do comment on that bug with your experience -- it would be good to have some help fixing it. A test case from you would be ideal. I do not have a non-English locale, so it is hard to test whether it is still an issue.

Revision history for this message
Eero (eero+launchpad) wrote :

Good thing if the application is still maintained. I just mentioned that bug from 2011, because I hit a bug that breaks all my future backups (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/deja-dup/+bug/1651396). Then I took a quick look of other bugs and noticed that there are some high priority bugs that haven't been fixed in a long time and began to wonder if this is still maintained.

Revision history for this message
Tim (timpipp) wrote :

Still no fix for this after 3y?

Revision history for this message
max (macsym69) wrote :

As of today, Duplicity 0.7.06 is the lastest official version for Ubuntu 16.04. If Duplicity 0.7.08 fixes this problem, how can we ask the Ubuntu team to update?

Revision history for this message
Tim (timpipp) wrote :

I see fix is committed id just thought id share my observation:

This bug started about 2-3 weeks after a fresh install of 16.4 LTS.

First everything was fine, backups ware going ok, and Deja-dup was ignoring the mentioned files.
than after about 2-3 weeks it started to try to backup the locked files.

Regards Tim

Revision history for this message
Vej (vej) wrote :

@Tim As max already wrote, this bug is fixed upstream in Duplicity (not Déjà Dup), but Ubuntu had not included that fix yet.

As far as I know Michael Terry is working on a fix for Zesty (see bug #1669616 ). This fix might find its way into the supported versions of Ubuntu afterwards.

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