Evolution Backup Files Incorrectly Reported (AGAIN)

[Kevin P. Munn]

When using the "Back Evolution Settings.." for the Weekly Back Up, USED to produce a viable file to restore from.
The file was about 11Mb in size, an has proved reliable when needing to restore, or when starting afresh.
Now the "evolution-backup.tar.gz" product is 332Kb in size.
The last time it was this size ANY "Restore" failed, REPEATEDLY.
This seemed to have been a recent (Since beginning of June) issue, and as it is REQUIRED as a Work Application it is of concern.
Tried a Terminal "Text-As-Command" Work-Around, but this also Fails.
---
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110426)
Package: evolution 2.32.2-0ubuntu7
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-11.48-generic 2.6.38.8
Tags: natty
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-11-generic i686
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: users

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre (cyphermox)]

This seems to work properly here. Unfortunately, as there is not enough information on this bug report to further investigate this issue, we'll need to ask you for more data:

- Please attach the file .xsession-errors (from your home directory) to this report. If there are errors from the backup process, they should be displayed there.
- Please run 'apport-collect 818157' to add extra debugging information, including the release of Ubuntu you are using.

Thanks in advance!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Kevin P. Munn (able-kevin)]

apport information

[Kip Warner (kip)]

I'm having the same problem. I'm using Evolution 3.6.4 under Ubuntu Raring 13.04 (amd64).

If I watch a backup from GDB, this is what I observe:

process 30858 is executing new program: /usr/lib/evolution/3.6/evolution-backup
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".
[New Thread 0x7fffe9b6f700 (LWP 31032)]
[New Thread 0x7fffd2d7f700 (LWP 31033)]
** Message: evolution --quit
** Message: rm /home/kip/.local/share/evolution/.running
rm: cannot remove ‘/home/kip/.local/share/evolution/.running’: No such file or directory
** Message: dconf dump /org/gnome/evolution-data-server/ >/home/kip/.local/share/evolution/backup-restore-dconf-eds.ini
** Message: dconf dump /org/gnome/evolution/ >/home/kip/.local/share/evolution/backup-restore-dconf-evo.ini
** Message: cd /home/kip && tar chf - .local/share/evolution .config/evolution evolution.dir | gzip > '/media/kip/Kip-3TB/Mail/evolution-backup-20130517.tar.gz'
** Message: rm /home/kip/evolution.dir
[Thread 0x7fffd2d7f700 (LWP 31033) exited]
[Thread 0x7fffe9b6f700 (LWP 31032) exited]
[Inferior 1 (process 30858) exited normally]

However, the backup is, as the OP reported, way too small.

$ du -hs evolution-backup-20130517.tar.gz
968K evolution-backup-20130517.tar.gz

If I look inside the archive it generated, ignoring configuration files, and just look at everything else. There's not much, if any, mail.

$ find evolution-backup-20130517/ | grep -v config
evolution-backup-20130517/
evolution-backup-20130517/.local
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/calendar
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/calendar/system/calendar.ics
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/calendar/trash
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/datetime-formats.ini
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/printing.ini
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/tasks
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/tasks/system
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/tasks/system/tasks.ics
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/tasks/trash
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/signatures
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/camel-cert.db
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/backup-restore-dconf-eds.ini
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/system
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/system/log.0000000001
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/system/addressbook.db.summary
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/system/photos
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/system/addressbook.db
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/system/contacts.db
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/addressbook/trash
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/share/evolution/categories.xml
evolution-backup-20130517/.local/sha...