Yes, these are different issues, but have some similar issues.  The
big question is whether the messages are simple for a casual user to
understand.


If the file/directory will be automatically created, then amanda
should say warn about the problem, and say that the file/directory
will be automatically created.  This lets the user decide whether to
worry about the issue.  The note is good, because there might be a
typo, but letting the user know that amanda will work anyway is also
necessary.  Otherwise, the user has to search through the
documentation to decide whether a directory needs to be created.

Since the directory gets created in some cases where there is a
warning, the user (including me) might have trouble remembering when
the file or directory is created and when it isn't.  Sure, if you
understand the inner workings of amanda, it more or less makes sense
that log directories are not created.  However, there should be a
clear warning that the log directory does not exist and that amanda
will fail.


Jon LaBadie <jon AT jgcomp DOT com> writes:

> On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 11:31:06AM -0700, Kevin Dalley wrote:
>> Amanda should be clearer on this issue.  I think that there is one
>> similar case where amanda says that the file/directory will be created
>> next time around.  However, the log directory won't be created, if you
>> add a new config.  This is confusing.
>> 
>
> I think there is a very significant difference.  In the case of the logdir,
> indexdir, and infofile (actually a directory), these are settings in the
> amanda.conf file and specify places that amanda will use to store lots of
> data and log files.  Amanda will not create these parameter specified
> repositories and will not run if they do not exist.
>
> The OP of this thread received a NOTE about missing data and log files,
> not the top level directories specified in the amanda.conf file.  These
> are missing because a DLE was added to the disklist.  amanda will happily
> create the logs for any DLE in the when it does run, but it does not create
> the directory to hold all of the many DLE logs.
>
> One reason for the NOTE is the possibility of an editing error when someone
> changes the disklist.  Suppose you changed the dumptype or spindle number
> or ??? of an existing DLE.  And further, you changed, without intending to,
> the host or tag or directory for that DLE.  To amanda, it would look like
> a new entry in the disklist and you would get the warning perhaps alerting
> you to your error.
>
> -- 
> Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
>  JG Computing
>  4455 Province Line Road        (609) 252-0159
>  Princeton, NJ  08540-4322      (609) 683-7220 (fax)
>

-- 
Kevin Dalley
kevin AT kelphead DOT org