--On Tuesday, July 05, 2005 09:51:36 -0600 Graeme Humphries <graeme.humphries 
AT vcom DOT com> wrote:

> I've just added exclude lists as per the examples in the online
> documentation, with the following configuration:
> 
> exclude list optional ".amanda.excludes"
> 
> However, amcheck now complains on every item in the disklist for a
> *single* host, that it "[Can't open exclude file '/filepath' :
> Permission denied]". I thought "optional" was supposed to prevent this
> from being an error condition? And, even stranger, it doesn't seem to
> generate any similar errors on any of the other client systems, just a
> single one.
> 
> Any ideas?

amcheck runs as your Amanda user and may not have permissions to the
directory where your exclude file lives.  amdump is suid root so it
will be able to access the file.
  I consider it a bug but others consider it a feature (fewer suid
programs).
  'optional' just means it's ok to not be there, but 'permission denied'
is an error and Amanda reports it as such.

Frank


-- 
Frank Smith                                      fsmith AT hoovers DOT com
Sr. Systems Administrator                       Voice: 512-374-4673
Hoover's Online                                   Fax: 512-374-4501