Doug> ... . Amanda didn't care if the exclude file was there or not,
Doug> and actually gnu-tar didn't care very much either. Gnu-tar emits
Doug> a warning that the exclude file doesn't exist, and so it won't
Doug> use it.

Jon> gnutar on my system terminates with an error if the exclude file
Jon> is missing

Jon> So I am surprised by Doug's observation to the contrary.

I really should just learn to test things before I go off spouting
stuff. Why is it always the case that when what I write differs from
what I mean, it always turns out that what I write is wrong.  Sigh.

Gnu-tar dies when the exclude file doesn't exist. All version that I
could fine too.

BUT!!! AMANDA 2.4.2p2 ignores the missing exclude file if it doesn't
exist. Here is a sendbackup file. Notice that sendbackup notices that
the exclude file (//.amanda.excludes) doesn't exist, and so it ignores
it. 

I still like this behavior, but now it is Amanda's sendbackup (and
sendsize) that checkes for the existance of the exclude file, and in
its absence it doesn't pass it to the backup command.

/action goes slinking off the list in shame.


sendbackup: debug 1 pid 85909 ruid 501 euid 501 start time Wed Jan  1 23:25:39 
2003
/usr/local/libexec/amanda/sendbackup: version 2.4.2p2
sendbackup: got input request: GNUTAR / 1 2002:12:29:5:40:33 OPTIONS 
|;bsd-auth;compress-fast;index;exclude-list=.amanda.excludes;
  parsed request as: program `GNUTAR'
                     disk `/'
                     lev 1
                     since 2002:12:29:5:40:33
                     opt 
`|;bsd-auth;compress-fast;index;exclude-list=.amanda.excludes;'
sendbackup: exclude list file "//.amanda.excludes" does not exist, ignoring
sendbackup: try_socksize: send buffer size is 65536
sendbackup: stream_server: waiting for connection: 0.0.0.0.50001
sendbackup: stream_server: waiting for connection: 0.0.0.0.50002
sendbackup: stream_server: waiting for connection: 0.0.0.0.50003
  waiting for connect on 50001, then 50002, then 50003
sendbackup: stream_accept: connection from 10.10.10.15.50000
sendbackup: stream_accept: connection from 10.10.10.15.50001
sendbackup: stream_accept: connection from 10.10.10.15.50004
  got all connections
sendbackup: spawning /usr/bin/gzip in pipeline
sendbackup: argument list: /usr/bin/gzip --fast
sendbackup-gnutar: pid 85910: /usr/bin/gzip --fast
sendbackup-gnutar: doing level 1 dump as listed-incremental from 
/var/amanda/lists/birdland__0 to /var/amanda/lists/birdland__1.new
sendbackup-gnutar: doing level 1 dump from date: 2002-12-29  5:40:33 GMT
sendbackup: spawning /usr/local/libexec/amanda/runtar in pipeline
sendbackup: argument list: gtar --create --file - --directory / 
--one-file-system --listed-incremental /var/amanda/lists/birdland__1.new 
--sparse --ignore-failed-read --totals .
sendbackup-gnutar: /usr/local/libexec/amanda/runtar: pid 85912
sendbackup: started index creator: "/usr/local/bin/gtar -tf - 2>/dev/null | sed 
-e 's/^\.//'"
sendbackup: index created successfully
sendbackup: pid 85909 finish time Wed Jan  1 23:25:40 2003