On Monday 12 July 2004 18:21, fmouse-amanda AT fmp DOT com wrote:
>Gene, thanks for your help.  I finally seem to be on the track of
> fixing the problem.  I completely nuked amanda and let Gentoo
> rebuild it from scratch, after providing the ebuild with the proper
> env vars.  This didn't help, but it gave me a clean slate.
>
>After that, I rewrote my amanda.conf and disklist files for the
> affected configs using the templates provided with the current
> version of amanda (my old configs have been in use for about 5
> years, through several versions of amanda, and were somewhat hacked
> and outdated).  I'm not sure exactly which parameter(s) made the
> difference, but a backup of the main local system seems to be
> proceeding well.
>
>I note that the Gentoo build defaults to 'localhost' for the server
> address, which should _always_ be 127.0.0.1, and hence unambiguous.
>  I trust the Gentoo devs implicitly.  IMHO, they're right up there
> with the Debian package maintainers in knowledge and experience.  I
> did, however, use the FQDN for the server in the ebuild, which I
> prefer in any event.

The huge majority of the amanda users here, and even Jean-Louis, will 
re-iterate about not using localhost because its not a unique name.  
The problem being that the data can be taken to any machine that is 
also localhost and installed.  This is, among other things, a huge 
security hole.

I'm not sure how the ebuilder works, but from the tarballs unpacking, 
to a fully installed update here is not more than 5 to 6 minutes 
unless you use the checkinstall utility to install it on an rpm based 
system.  Checkinstall can be handy in that you do the standard 
routine of unpack, cd to the unpacked directory, ./configure; make, 
doing this as the user amanda, then revert to root or become root, 
and do the make install or the checkinstall.  Checkinstall takes the 
packages built directory, makes a binary rpm out of it, and then 
installs the rpm.  One can then remove an errant package with the rpm 
-e command should it become required.

Configureing the tarball to make it can be confusing, and error prone 
if you don't have a photographic memory, so I only do these steps to 
build and install it:

(1) tar xzvf name_of_tarball
(2) cp gh.cf name_of_tarball/
(3) chown -R amanda:disk name_of_tarball
(4) become the user 'amanda'
(5) cd name_of_tarball(minus the tar.gz of course)
(6) ./gh.cf (which configures it with my std config options, then 
'make's it)
(7) become root
(8) cd name_of_tarball
(9) make install
(10) become user amanda
(11) amcheck configname (to error check the install)

Steps 1-9 take about 5 minutes here.

Here is that gh.cf file:
--------------------
#!/bin/sh
# since I'm always forgetting to su amanda...
if [ `whoami` != 'amanda' ]; then
        echo
        echo "!!!!!!!!!!!! Warning !!!!!!!!!!!!"
        echo "Amanda needs to be configured and built by the user amanda,"
        echo "but must be installed by user root."
        echo
        exit 1
fi
make clean
rm -f config.status config.cache
./configure --with-user=amanda \
        --with-group=disk \
        --with-owner=amanda \
        --with-tape-device=/dev/nst0 \
        --with-changer-device=/dev/sg1 \
        --with-gnu-ld --prefix=/usr/local \
        --with-debugging=/tmp/amanda-dbg/ \
        --with-tape-server=coyote.coyote.den \
        --with-amandahosts \
        --with-configdir=/usr/local/etc/amanda

make
--------------- 
I didn't sanitize it any, that hostname won't resolve more than 100 
feet away in my woodshop, as my firewall is bulletproof in practice.
Adjust your changer device if required.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
There are 4 boxes to be used in defense of liberty. 
Soap, ballot, jury, and ammo.
Please use in that order, starting now.  -Ed Howdershelt, Author
Additions to this message made by Gene Heskett are Copyright 2004, 
Maurice E. Heskett, all rights reserved.