Thanks, Dominic. I didn't realize it could run as me; I do backup a few files from, I think, /etc perhaps another system directory, so that's why I got in that mode.
My repo doesn't seem that huge; my entire /home is about 60 GiB. Perhaps I should check the speed of the drive I've got; it may be a 5400 RPM. I should perhaps profile rdiff-backup's operation, at least informally. What I hear you say is that a) there's no faster way to recover quickly if I abort or if I try to run as the wrong user. Is it possible for rdiff-backup to detect and respond better to selecting the wrong user? It asks me for a password as if it's a sudo system, but I think it fails after I enter the password. Perhaps I always hit Ctrl-c and cause the failure myself, but I thought I had gotten the "regressing" message even without pressing Ctrl-C. I guess I'll need to find a day when I don't need or want to use this machine. :-) On Tue, Jul 31, 2018 at 10:30 AM Dominic Raferd <domi...@timedicer.co.uk> wrote: > On Tue, 31 Jul 2018 at 16:53, Bill Harris <wsharri...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I've used rdiff-backup for years, and I'm mostly very happy with it. > There > > is one problem that crops up occasionally; and I haven't found a way > around > > it yet. > > > > AFAICT, rdiff-backup likes running as root. On rare occasion, I forget > and > > start it as myself. rdiff-backup complains, and, as I recall, offers to > > sudo itself (I'm running Debian Stable, which is not normally set up as a > > sudo system). > > > > If I enter a password (and perhaps even if I don't) and then hit Ctrl-c > > because I realize I messed up, I get the "it appears the last backup > > failed" message, and then I'm in for a long (about a day), full backup > > instead of the usual 15-45 minute incremental backup. > > > > Is there a way to recover in such a situation so that I don't have to > wait > > for such a long backup to complete? I presume rdiff-backup won't react > > well to my changing files during the backup. > > > > Is there a secure way to keep this from happening? I could learn how > > setuid works, but I think that's an insecure approach. > > > > Unless you are backing up system files, rdiff-backup doesn't have to run as > root, but in my experience it is wise always to run it as the same user for > a given repository. For instance I think if you run a backup as root once, > then any subsequent run as another user to or from the same repository may > hit problems - because the user may be denied the necessary access to > certain rdiff-backup control files (in the rdiff-backup-data subdirectory). > > The delay must be because after you break a backup run, rdiff-backup has to > regress the backup to a consistent state. For it to take a day to do so > suggests you have a very large backup dataset and/or a very slow computer. > If possible, can you break down the dataset into smaller components, then > if you make the same mistake again, the regression will be much quicker? I > realise this means starting a load of new backup repositories (which TBH is > why I haven't done it in one case where I have an unwieldy repository). > _______________________________________________ > rdiff-backup-users mailing list at rdiff-backup-users@nongnu.org > https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rdiff-backup-users > Wiki URL: > http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki > _______________________________________________ rdiff-backup-users mailing list at rdiff-backup-users@nongnu.org https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/rdiff-backup-users Wiki URL: http://rdiff-backup.solutionsfirst.com.au/index.php/RdiffBackupWiki