[PLUG] Preventing writing to a mount point

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Thu Jun 25 19:18:29 UTC 2009


> On Wed, 2009-06-24 at 19:55 -0700, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> > 
> > Alternative (2), of course, is to locate the programmer who
> > thought it was a good idea to automatically create a directory
> > on a mount point without checking.  Then gently flog them -
> > unless, of course, they enjoy floggings.  If rdiff-backup calls
> > chattr -i to remove immutable bits before creating directories,
> > you have my permission to strap them to a chair and play Slim
> > Whitman's "Indian Love Call" until their head explodes.

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 08:06:02AM -0700, Michael M. Moore wrote:
> But I already checked that.  With nothing mounted under /media:
> 
> mcubed at drifter:~$ rdiff-backup /home/mcubed /media/disk/test
> Fatal Error: Unable to create directory /media/disk/test
> 
> rdiff-backup doesn't automatically create a directory on a mount point
> when that mount point isn't writable, or doesn't exist.

Michael, did you try that as root?  John wants to do full system
backups running as root.  The error message says "Unable to create",
which may be due to user mcubed having insufficent permissions to
write to the root-owned directory /media.  Root faces no such limitation.

I don't have time to review the rdiff-backup code (I use the dirvish
wrapper around rsync), but naked rsync run as root will also make
subdirectories and scribble on mount points if permitted.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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