rdiff-backup tries to read/list directories, no matter --exclude rules.

[Randall Wigle]

Binary package hint: rdiff-backup

 I am using rdiff-backup to backup my system via an ssh connection. I have an unexpected informative error, and I don't know why I am getting it.

==================================
Reading filelist /home/rwigle/bin/rdiff-excl.txt
Sorting filelist /home/rwigle/bin/rdiff-excl.txt
Exception '[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/rwigle/.epsilon/server'' raised of class '<type 'exceptions.OSError'>':
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/rdiff_backup/robust.py", line 32, in check_common_error
try: return function(*args)
File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/rdiff_backup/rpath.py", line 998, in listdir
return self.conn.os.listdir(self.path)

ListError .epsilon/server [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/rwigle/.epsilon/server'
=============================================

The thing is that I have set --exclude-special-files AND I have excluded the folder /home/rwigle/.epsilon (in which the troublesome server folder resides) but I still get this error.

The protection on .epsilon/server is as follows

drwx------ 2 root root 4.0K 2010-11-10 14:54 server

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: rdiff-backup 1.2.8-5ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-28.55-generic 2.6.32.27+drm33.12
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-28-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Feb 25 11:21:46 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_CA.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: rdiff-backup

[Andreas Olsson (andol)]

I can confirm this error. I assume your backup is being run as a non-root user?

It would appear as if rdiff-backup is trying to read/list directories before applying the --exclude rules.

andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ mkdir -p from/alpha/beta/gamma
andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ sudo chown root:root from/alpha/beta/gamma/
andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ sudo chmod 700 from/alpha/beta/gamma/
andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ mkdir to
andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ rdiff-backup --exclude '**/alpha' from/ to/
ListError alpha/beta/gamma [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'from/alpha/beta/gamma'
andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ rm -rf to/*
andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ strace rdiff-backup --exclude '**/alpha' from/ to/ 2>&1 | grep gamma
lstat("from/alpha/beta/gamma", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=40, ...}) = 0
open("from/alpha/beta/gamma", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied)
write(2, "ListError alpha/beta/gamma [Errn"..., 81ListError alpha/beta/gamma [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'from/alpha/beta/gamma'
andreas@stilgar:~/temp$

The test above was performed with the currenty natty version rdiff-backup 1.2.8-5ubuntu3.

This seems to be from the same root cause as http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=508063

[Andreas Olsson (andol)]

I have also made an upstream bug report of this

http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/index.php?32597

(Do note that the rdiff-backup upstream is currently not very active.)

[Randall Wigle (rwigle)]

Yes, this is being run as non-root. (And thanks...)

On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Andreas Olsson <email address hidden> wrote:

> I can confirm this error. I assume your backup is being run as a non-
> root user?
>
> It would appear as if rdiff-backup is trying to read/list directories
> before applying the --exclude rules.
>
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ mkdir -p from/alpha/beta/gamma
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ sudo chown root:root from/alpha/beta/gamma/
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ sudo chmod 700 from/alpha/beta/gamma/
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ mkdir to
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ rdiff-backup --exclude '**/alpha' from/ to/
> ListError alpha/beta/gamma [Errno 13] Permission denied:
> 'from/alpha/beta/gamma'
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ rm -rf to/*
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$ strace rdiff-backup --exclude '**/alpha' from/ to/
> 2>&1 | grep gamma
> lstat("from/alpha/beta/gamma", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0700, st_size=40, ...}) = 0
> open("from/alpha/beta/gamma", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_DIRECTORY|O_CLOEXEC) =
> -1 EACCES (Permission denied)
> write(2, "ListError alpha/beta/gamma [Errn"..., 81ListError
> alpha/beta/gamma [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'from/alpha/beta/gamma'
> andreas@stilgar:~/temp$
>
>

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

Hello!

The new rdiff-backup 2.0 (written in Python 3) has recently been released. Please check out https://github.com/rdiff-backup/rdiff-backup and contribute in this open source project.

This bug is unlikely to apply to anymore to latest rdiff-backup 2.0, so it will be closed unless you want to help out and test if you can repeat the bug with the latest rdiff-backup.

[Otto Kekäläinen (otto)]

Closing issue as wontfix since there was not further contributions from reporter.