[PLUG] rdiff-backup issue

[John Jason Jordan]

On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 18:13:45 -0800
John Jason Jordan <johnxj at comcast.net> dijo:

>On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 15:50:00 -0800 (PST)
>Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> dijo:
>
>>On Tue, 2 Feb 2010, John Jason Jordan wrote:
>>
>>> The problem is the first line "python setup.py install." In English
>>> "install" is a transitive verb, that is, it requires a direct object
>>> argument. I.e., install *something*.
>>
>>John,
>>
>>   Don't they insist on fluency in computer in a linguistics program?
>> The
>>above command is telling python to install what it finds in setup.py;
>>in your case, rdiff-backup. The README you quoted also told you that
>>you could build the executable (i.e., compile it) but not install the
>>executable in /usr/bin by issuing the command 'python setup.py build'
>>instead of 'python setup.py install'. Both are reflectsive commands.
>>Self-referential, if you will.
>>
>>> Presumably I should make the command say "python setup.py install
>>> rdiff-backup," but I need to be in the right directory first. And I
>>> can't find the right directory.
>>
>>   No, don't change the command. The python install tools are smart
>> enough to
>>read what's in setup.py. Trust it; it works. There's a different
>>setup.py for each python package you install, and each is specific to
>>that tool.
>>
>>> I think I am subscribed to the rdiff-backup mailing list, so I am
>>> going to ask there. Or maybe I'll take it to the Fedora forums
>>> instead/also.
>>
>>   With the latest python installed with fedora-11, try uninstalling
>>rdiff-backup and reinstalling. I don't know if the fedora package is
>>pre-built or has the source. If there's a source rpm for rdiff-backup
>>that might be the one to use. Shrug. Too many years since I ran Red
>>Hat.
>
>Now I am not sure the problem is with python/rdiff-backup
>incompatibility. I just installed pybackpack, which is a GUI front end
>for rdiff-backup. As I write this it is happily making a backup. The
>only problem is that it does not allow me to access all the
>possibilities and features of rdiff-backup from the command line. For
>example, it can exclude only whole folders, not files based on wild
>cards. I have a lot of distro ISOs scattered around and it would be
>silly to back them up, so my script excludes *.iso.

I finally nailed the problem.

It was my excludes.txt file. I had added a folder and two wildcard
file patterns for the ISOs -

- /Azureus Downloads
- *.iso
- *.ISO

It was puking on the patterns for the ISOs. When I removed them from the
excludes.txt file the script ran just fine.

Now, why did it throw a page of incomprehensible error messages that
led us to think there was a problem with python? Why couldn't it just
say "hey dumbass, what the hell am I supposed to do with *.iso and
*.ISO?" Now that's an error message that I could have understood. C'mon
programmers, speak human, 'k? Sheesh.

As an aside, the statistics file it created tells me it took 112
minutes to back up 145 GB from my 7200 RPM SATA drive to the 5400 RPM
SATA drive in the Ultrabay. That's about 1.3 GB per minute. Not bad.