rsnapshot in Lucid does not support using link_dest and sync_first simultaneously
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
rsnapshot (Ubuntu) |
Fix Committed
|
Undecided
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Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
Binary package hint: rsnapshot
DESCRIPTION
rsnapshot 1.3.0 (the version in lucid) has a known bug that makes rsnapshot create a plain copy of the files instead of create hard links for all but the first backup point when using both the options link_dest (use rsnapshot's link-dest feature) and sync_first (seperate the rsync phase from the directory rotation logic).
This renders rsnapshot mostly useless in this configuration, since it will then consume huge portions of disk space instead of beeing rather frugal.
This bug is mentioned in the rsnapshot FAQ as the third question: http://
STEPS TO REPRODUCE
- Change the default config: link_dest[TAB]1 and sync_first[TAB]1, snapshot_
- run "sudo rsnapshot sync && sudo rsnapshot hourly ; sudo rsnapshot sync && sudo rsnapshot hourly"
- observe that the files in hourly.0 and hourly.1 are not hardlinks: the link count for is always 1 for /tmp/hourly.
FIX
A minimal patch is provided as a bazaar branch.
REGRESSION POTENTIAL
The fix short-circuits a failed attempt at smartly deciding whether --link-dest is usefull or not. The fix always call rsync with --link-dest.
This is not an issue for rsnapshot because --link-dest can only help rsync create more hard links - unless there is a bug in rsync itself.
So the risk is rather low.
summary: |
- rsnapshot does not support using link_dest and sync_first simultaneously + rsnapshot in Lucid does not support using link_dest and sync_first + simultaneously |
This bug effected me, and was rather annoying to debug.
After going to the trouble of reporting it upstream, I discovered it's already fixed in rsnapshot 1.3.1 as packaged in Maverick.
I suggest that version is backported to Lucid - it's just fixes in there after all, and this bug causes serious diskspace waste! (It loses the --link-dest parameter on all but the first backup directory, thus taking an entire copy.. the whole point of rsnapshot is to avoid taking those entire copies!)