[rdiff-backup-users] small files failing to backup

[Ben Charlton]

Hi,
I've been looking at using rdiff-backup to keep backups of 
some non-critical servers, and come across an odd problem. Trawling the 
mailing lists/google seems to have come up blank.

I'm backing up from a Linux machine (2.6.1 kernel, ext3fs) to a Solaris 
9 host (ufs). 

Both hosts are using rdiff-backup 0.12.6.

Commandline used is: 
rdiff-backup --exclude /u1/backups --exclude /u1/music --exclude /mnt 
--exclude /dev --exclude /proc / backup::/u1/backup/kitten/

"backup" is an SSH host alias, and is configured to log in using ssh 
keys. 

The initial backup runs ok, and looks fine. Later backups run and sync 
up large files ok, but any small (mostly < 1kb) files (noticeably 
dotfiles and configuration files) seem to fail on subsequent backups 
with a mix of error 100 and 103.

An example of the error messages generated:

librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.irssi/config librsync error 100 while in patch 
cycle 
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.mutt_certificates librsync error 100 while in 
patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.mysql_history librsync error 100 while in patch 
cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of 
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.ssh/known_hosts librsync error 103 while 
in patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of 
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.viminfo librsync error 103 while in patch 
cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) seek failed: Invalid argument
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: IO error 
UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/settings/gtk.xml librsync error 100 while 
in patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of 
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/xfce4rc librsync error 103 while in 
patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of 
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/xfce4rc.bak librsync error 103 
while in patch cycle
librsync: ERROR: (rs_file_copy_cb) unexpected eof on fd9
librsync: ERROR: (rs_job_complete) patch job failed: unexpected end of 
input UpdateError u1/home/bcc/.xfce4/xffm/xffm.runlist.2.dbh librsync 
error 103 while in patch cycle

I'm rapidly running out of ideas short of trying a different backup 
plan...

Any thoughts?

Ben
-- 
Library Computing Officer
Templeman Library, University of Kent
email: address@hidden    phone: +44 1227 823621