NSSBackup never really begins when loops with symbolic links

[spade]

Hello,

I have the version 0.2-0~beta1 and it works well on full big partitions, but not on a small /home one (~200MB).
When I click on "Backup Now", the CPU is busy with the process "python" but never "gzip" nor "tar" appear in the top list. I can see the file /var/log/nssbackup.log growing up and up, and when it reaches 50kB, I edit it and kill the python process. The file is full of warnings like :
2008-06-13 18:22:26,164 - WARNING - BackupManager.py:isexcludedbyconf(229) - '/home/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.wine/dosdevices/f:/choupettem/.local/share/Trash/files/.mozilla/.mozilla/firefox/jp6n2dsm.default/lock' n'existe pas. Il doit être exclu
NSSBackup doesn't look to like infinite loops in directory structures using symbolic links, so I excluded "/home/choupettem/.wine" and added "backuplinks = 0" in "/etc/nssbackup.d/nssbackup-BackupHome.conf" (attached).

Not better !

If I missed a newer version including this bug fix, may I know where it is ?

Regards.

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Thank you for your report.
I can confirm this bug. I have just fixed it in the BZR branch.

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Thanks for your quick answer !
I had the version installed with the debian packages found in http://ppa.launchpad.net/nssbackup-dev/ubuntu/pool/main/n/nssbackup
Then I followed the procedure described in http://www.wattazoum.fr/Guide-d-installation.html to upgrade to the bazaar version. But when I run NSSBackup through the command line "/usr/local/bin/nssbackup-config-gui", I get the same endless behaviour.
When I click in "nssbackup-confi-gui/Help/About", I get "Not So Simple Backup Suite 0.2-0~beta1".
How may I know the version I run is really the bazaar one ? Is there a service I should stop and restart ?

Regards.

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Sorry Spade,
I should update the tutorial cause now there is a dedicated branch for each release . So there is a nssbackup 0.2 branch.
See here https://code.edge.launchpad.net/nssbackup

So please try following the tutorial again but by getting the code using :

bzr branch lp:nssbackup/0.2

I can also release a version with the fix if you want .

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Thanks Oumar.
I retrieved the 0.2 branch and when I click in "nssbackup-confi-gui/Help/About", I get now "Not So Simple Backup Suite 0.2-0~beta3".
The task is now much shorter but not more efficient... I can see the process alive for few seconds but nothing is done.

Any idea ?

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Can you set the log level to DEBUG ?
the log file can be huge so you should compress it before attaching it here.

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Not really huge... Tell me if I made a mistake.

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Sorry, forget about my previous message. I didn't know how to activate the "debug" log level so I put it directly in the "nssbackup-BackupHome.conf" but it didn't look to be a good idea. I finally set it simply in the "Report" tab of the gui. The log file is bigger, but not huge.

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Here is the debug log file get with another simple backup set. It contains only one thunderbird directory, out of the "home", without any loop I think.

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Hello,
I think you attached the wrong log . This seems to be identical to the last one. (at least it's trying to backup "/var") .

Can you launch "sudo nssbackupd" from a shell, then do a Ctrl+c when you think that the process is hanging, copy the logs from the shell and attached it here ?

Normally you should have an error stacktrace at the end of the logs.

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Hello,
Since I use the BZR branch version, I get no more hanging, but the backup is not done.
With launching with the command line, I can see the "*.ful" directory is created but only the log file is inside (the same one than in /var/log).
Here is the log file then the command output.

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Thank you very much.
This last output helps a lot. I will fix this when I get home.

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Fix committed on the BZR 0.2 branch.

[spade (sammy-spade)]

We are definately progressing ! The backup is achieved, but...

1/ 2 subdirectories are created :
"2008-06-18_09.24.36.917145.rirette.ful" contaning "files.tar.gz" ~235MB
"2008-06-18_09.32.04.594885.rirette.inc" containing "files.tar.gz" ~587KB
It is as if I launched an incremental backup after a full one, although I launched the full one only.

2/ when I run "NSSBackup Restoration GUI", I get the main GUI window plus a window containing "'str' object is not callable" and when I click on "OK", everything disappeares.

3/ When I look in the big "files.tar.gz", it looks like symbolic links have been excluded despite "backuplinks = 0" is not in "/etc/nssbackup.d/nssbackup-BackupHome.conf"
Concerning this point, including symbolic links doesn't mean that target files should be included. (So the exploration should not be done)

4/ the end of the command line output is :
2008-06-18 09:38:00,888 - ERROR - nssbackupd.py:run(207) - Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/nssbackup/nssbackupd.py", line 203, in run
    self.__sendEmail()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/nssbackup/nssbackupd.py", line 96, in __sendEmail
    server.sendmail(_from, _to, _header+_subject+_content)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/smtplib.py", line 692, in sendmail
    raise SMTPSenderRefused(code, resp, from_addr)
SMTPSenderRefused: (530, '<email address hidden> There is an error in your configuration. More info at www.tele2mail.com', 'NSsbackup Daemon <email address hidden>')
Does it mean that the mail expeditor address should be a valid one ?

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Is there a place where we can send suggestions for NSSBackup ?

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

2008/6/18 spade <email address hidden>:
>
> We are definately progressing ! The backup is achieved, but...
>
> 1/ 2 subdirectories are created :
> "2008-06-18_09.24.36.917145.rirette.ful" contaning "files.tar.gz" ~235MB
> "2008-06-18_09.32.04.594885.rirette.inc" containing "files.tar.gz" ~587KB
> It is as if I launched an incremental backup after a full one, although I launched the full one only.

How do you tell NSsbackup that you want a Full backup ? Basically
there is no way doing that, for the moment.

> 2/ when I run "NSSBackup Restoration GUI", I get the main GUI window
> plus a window containing "'str' object is not callable" and when I click
> on "OK", everything disappeares.

This should be fixed on the BZR branch. I don't understand why you're
getting it again. Please try to update the branch and do a /sudo make
reinstall/.

> 3/ When I look in the big "files.tar.gz", it looks like symbolic links have been excluded despite "backuplinks = 0" is not in "/etc/nssbackup.d/nssbackup-BackupHome.conf"
> Concerning this point, including symbolic links doesn't mean that target files should be included. (So the exploration should not be done)
>

By default NSsbackup won't backup the link (which I can change). It
will backup them only if the *backuplinks* is set to 1.
NSsbackup will never follow the links.

> 4/ the end of the command line output is :
> 2008-06-18 09:38:00,888 - ERROR - nssbackupd.py:run(207) - Traceback (most recent call last):
> File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/nssbackup/nssbackupd.py", line 203, in run
> self.__sendEmail()
> File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/nssbackup/nssbackupd.py", line 96, in __sendEmail
> server.sendmail(_from, _to, _header+_subject+_content)
> File "/usr/lib/python2.5/smtplib.py", line 692, in sendmail
> raise SMTPSenderRefused(code, resp, from_addr)
> SMTPSenderRefused: (530, '<email address hidden> There is an error in your configuration. More info at www.tele2mail.com', 'NSsbackup Daemon <email address hidden>')
> Does it mean that the mail expeditor address should be a valid one ?
>

This depends on your mail server. Some mail servers would let you pass
with an invalid address and some other won't .

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

2008/6/18 spade <email address hidden>:
> Is there a place where we can send suggestions for NSSBackup ?

You can send suggestion as Blueprints here :
https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/nssbackup/

[spade (sammy-spade)]

> How do you tell NSsbackup that you want a Full backup ? Basically
> there is no way doing that, for the moment.
I launched it through the command line "nssbackupd". It looks like that everytime a backup is achieved, 2 subdirectories are created : either a "*.ful" and a "*.inc" ones, either 2 "*.inc" ones. It is not very annoying but just a bit messy.

> This should be fixed on the BZR branch. I don't understand why you're
> getting it again. Please try to update the branch and do a /sudo make
> reinstall/.
I have done an update and a "make install" and I get the same behaviour with "NSSBackup Restoration GUI". Please have a look to the attached command line output.

> By default NSsbackup won't backup the link (which I can change). It
> will backup them only if the *backuplinks* is set to 1.
> NSsbackup will never follow the links.
Maybe the default should be to include them, but the main point is to know what's going on. Maybe a checkbox in the GUI ("exclude symlinks" in the exclude tab) would be welcome.
Sorry but adding "backuplinks = 1" in "/etc/nssbackup.d/nssbackup-BackupHome.conf" doesn't look to make the symbolic links to be included.

> This depends on your mail server. Some mail servers would let you pass
> with an invalid address and some other won't .
Maybe the "optional" in the GUI is a bit abusive.
Sorry but I modified the expeditor address to put a valid one, but no notification mail is sent. Please find the command line output in the following message.

5/ If I modify a profile inside the GUI (for example remove an included directory), save it then launch a backup, I get a backup upon the old version of the profile. It looks like I should exit the GUI and reopen it to take the modifications of the profile in account, or run "nssbackupd".

[spade (sammy-spade)]

I tried to run "nssbackupd >nssbackupdOutput" to get the whole output but the file gets empty. I copied and pasted the standard output from the terminal window into the text file, but the result is incomplete and contains the end of the running only.
Do you know a way to capture the full output ?

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Here is the log file to complete the collection.

[spade (sammy-spade)]

Is there a forum for usual questions ?

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

Hello,

Sorry for the late answers .

> Is there a forum for usual questions ?

well NSsbackup is a little software, there is no community supporting it. The NSsbackup team alone so the only place to ask for questions would be launchpad ( the Answers Tab https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/nssbackup )

>I launched it through the command line "nssbackupd". It looks like that everytime a backup is achieved, 2 subdirectories are created : either a "*.ful" and a "*.inc" ones, either 2 "*.inc" ones. It is not very annoying but just a bit messy.

Did you set the same output folder for both profiles ? This will cause what you just described. each profile will assume the last snapshot is the one from this own profile thus will create ".inc" backups.

>I have done an update and a "make install" and I get the same behaviour with "NSSBackup Restoration GUI". Please have a look to the attached command line output.

I will look at it again :-/

>Maybe the default should be to include them, but the main point is to know what's going on. Maybe a checkbox in the GUI ("exclude symlinks" in the exclude tab) would be welcome.

Oki, I shall add that.

> Sorry but adding "backuplinks = 1" in "/etc/nssbackup.d/nssbackup-BackupHome.conf" doesn't look to make the symbolic links to be included.

In your previous logs I can see NSsbackup mentioning the backup of symlinks :-/

> Maybe the "optional" in the GUI is a bit abusive.

I have removed it on the beta 4 version

> Sorry but I modified the expeditor address to put a valid one, but no notification mail is sent. Please find the command line output in the following message.

Well, the sending of emails won't be found in the logs. It's done after the logs are closed so that you receive the content by mail. By it can be found just after the backup in the global log file (/var/log/nssbackup.log or ~/.local/share/nssbcakup/nssbackup.log). You should also test the mail setting in NSsbackup config GUI.

> If I modify a profile inside the GUI (for example remove an included directory), save it then launch a backup, I get a backup upon the old version of the profile. It looks like I should exit the GUI and reopen it to take the modifications of the profile in account, or run "nssbackupd"

Be sure to save you modification before launching the backup. when you save, the settings are written in the configuration file and then when you launch nssbackupd, it will read them.

By the way, please update to the beta 4 and tell me if it's better.

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

According to your console output, this is the reason why you have not receive your mail. The sender seemed wrong.

SMTPSenderRefused: (530, '<email address hidden> There is an error in your configuration. More info at www.tele2mail.com', '<email address hidden>')

[Oumar Aziz OUATTARA (wattazoum)]

fixed in beta 7