Leonid Shulov wrote:

but:
astp0002:/var/log# sudo -u backup /usr/lib/amanda/amandad
amandad: create debug directory "/var/log/amanda": Permission denied

What happens if you type:

sudo -u backup mkdir -p /var/log/amanda

Do you an error, or does it succeed silently?

Or do you have SElinux enabled with some very strict setting?

No, simple Debian Linux with kernel 2.6.15-1-686

I'm  not that familiar with debian. (SELinux is a configuration not
a packager, just in case.)

--
Paul Bijnens, Xplanation                            Tel  +32 16 397.511
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