Comment 2 for bug 725083

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