[rdiff-backup-users] Write-once read-many problem

[Sheldon Hearn]

Hi folks,

I'm abusing rdiff-backup as a "write from one" + "read from many" 
solution.

Only one host backs up to the central server, as the user with 
permission to write files.

Many hosts will restore from that central server, as a user who does not 
have access to write the files.

I touch up permissions after backing up, making the metadata files o+r 
and the metadata directories o+rx, to facilitate this.

The restore command looks like this:

TZ=UTC rdiff-backup \
    --restore-as-of "2005-07-18" \
    --force \
    --exclude /usr/portage/distfiles \
    address@hidden /usr/portage

However, the restores exception out on "Operation not permitted", as per 
the attached trace.

Since the local user on the "restoree" host's end is root, I can only 
assume that the problem is on the "backup server" (remote) end.  
However, I'd have expected a restore to be a read-only operation 
(except for the failure to write backup.log).

Am I doing something wrong, or is this just outside the design of 
rdiff-backup? :-(

Ciao,
Sheldon.

OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: 
'portage-rdiff-backup/app-accessibility'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/rdiff-backup", line 23, in ?
    rdiff_backup.Main.Main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 254, in 
Main
    take_action(rps)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 224, in 
take_action
    connection.PipeConnection(sys.stdin, sys.stdout).Server()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py", line 347, 
in Server
    self.get_response(-1)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py", line 309, 
in get_response
    try: req_num, object = self._get()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py", line 225, 
in _get
    raise ConnectionReadError("Truncated header string (problem "
rdiff_backup.connection.ConnectionReadError: Truncated header string (problem 
probably originated remotely)

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