BackupPC-users

Re: [BackupPC-users] UPDATE: Hypothesis: Problems backing up Windows machines under 'rsync' traced to perl-File-RsyncP protocol 28 limitation

2008-10-27 20:33:28
Subject: Re: [BackupPC-users] UPDATE: Hypothesis: Problems backing up Windows machines under 'rsync' traced to perl-File-RsyncP protocol 28 limitation
From: "Jeffrey J. Kosowsky" <backuppc AT kosowsky DOT org>
To: <backuppc-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:31:19 -0400
Nils Breunese (Lemonbit) wrote at about 01:07:02 +0100 on Tuesday, October 28, 
2008:
 > Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:
 > 
 > > Now, the verbose output of BackupPC_dump shows:
 > >            Got remote protocol 30
 > >            Negotiated protocol version 28
 > > while the extra extra verbose output of running rsync manually shows:
 > >      (Client) Protocol versions: remote=30, negotiated=30
 > >      receiving incremental file list
 > >      (Server) Protocol versions: remote=30, negotiated=30
 > >
 > > I SUSPECT the problem may be due to perl-File-RsyncP which reportedly
 > > only uses protocol 28 while rsync-3.0.4 uses protocol 30. If so,
 > > perhaps the reason that the rsyncd method works is that it bypasses
 > > such portions of perl-File-RsyncP that cause the problem.
 > >
 > > If true, perhaps a lot of the problems with backing up Windows  
 > > machines
 > > could be cleaned up by upgrading perl-File-RsyncP to protocol 30.
 > >
 > > IF so, is there any way to update the perl library? (I noticed that
 > > Craig is also the author of it)
 > 
 > File::RsyncP is a (non-complete) implementation of rsync in Perl  
 > written for use by BackupPC. The latest version of File::RsyncP  
 > supports protocol version 28, there is nothing to upgrade there. The  
 > protocol used is the highest version supported by both the client and  
 > the server, which is 28 in either case you described. There is no  
 > version of File::RsyncP which supports protocol >28 at the moment.
 > 
That's precisely my point. If we want to have the 'rsync' method work
better with Window, then File::RsyncP needs to be updated to version
30. Since File::Rsync was authored by Craig Barratt (the same person
who leads the BackupPC project) as part of his toolkit for writing
BackupPC, I thought it would be reasonable to inquire about updating
File::Rsync.

And since one of the touted advantages of BackupPC is its ability to
back up Windows in addition to Linux and since many people have been
having problems with rsync, it seems reasonable to suggest this as a
priority area for future development (assuming the developers are
willing and able). While I have only pidgen-level Perl skills, I would
certainly be willing to help test and troubleshoot any efforts in this
direction. 

 > By the way, we are backing up machines that all run rsync 3.0.4 and  
 > support protocol 30, but we're using BackupPC with File::RsyncP, so  
 > the negotiated procotol is protocol 28 for all our backups. And our  
 > backups are working fine. But we're not backing up any Windows machines.

My point PRECISELY -- Protocol 30 seems to be important to avoid hangs
with long and/or weird file names in Windows. Since those file types
don't exist in Linux, Protocol 28 works just fine there.

Finally, the reason for summarizing this is that I have seen all types
of posts about people having issues with rsync on Windows but I failed
to find any good explanation or solution despite massive
googling. Even my question asked here about a week ago received a
variety of answers none of which seemed to focus on this point.

Now I may be wrong in my diagnosis, but if it is right, hopefully this
summary will be helpful to other users in a similar situation.

Jeff

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