On Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:57:05 +0200, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:

> On Fri, 13 Oct 2006, Paul Bijnens wrote:
>> On 2006-10-13 14:21, Nick Pierpoint wrote:
>> > FAILED AND STRANGE DUMP DETAILS:
>> > 
>> > /--  rollins /home lev 1 FAILED [/bin/tar returned 2]
>> > sendbackup: start [rollins:/home level 1]
>> > sendbackup: info BACKUP=/bin/tar
>> > sendbackup: info RECOVER_CMD=/usr/bin/gzip -dc |/bin/tar -f... -
>> > sendbackup: info COMPRESS_SUFFIX=.gz
>> > sendbackup: info end
>> > ? gtar: /var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists/rollins_home_1.new:1: Invalid time 
>> > stamp
>> > ? gtar: /var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists/rollins_home_1.new:2: Invalid inode 
>> > number
>> > | gtar: ./nick/.evolution/cache/tmp/spamd-socket-path-M7CcHJ: socket 
>> > ignored
>> > | Total bytes written: 7639367680 (7.2GiB, 7.1MiB/s)
>> > ? gtar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
>> > sendbackup: error [/bin/tar returned 2]
>> > \--------
>> 
>> 
>> I believe you have a problem with the filesystem that holds /var.
>> Is it full?  Or is it corrupt? ...
>> 
>> Gnutar creates a file in the directory /var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists
>> for its listed-incremental feature.  And accessing that file somehow
>> triggers the errors "Invalid time stamp" and "Invalid inode number".
>> Maybe because /home is larger, and thus while backing up /home the
>> error occurs, while backing up /etc, the listed-incremental file is
>> much smaller, and does not trigger the error.
> 
> Have you recently upgraded tar to 1.15?
> 
> Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
> 

I think I started off with 1.15, but recent yum activity in my Fedora 5
installation is:

Sep 09 06:06:31 Updated: tar.i386 1.15.90-2.FC5
Sep 15 04:16:45 Updated: tar.i386 1.15.91-1.FC5
Sep 30 05:20:58 Updated: tar.i386 2:1.15.1-14.FC5
Oct 03 05:16:58 Updated: tar.i386 2:1.15.1-15.FC5
Oct 11 05:04:54 Updated: tar.i386 2:1.15.1-16.FC5

I ran fsck on the filesystem and there were no problems. I also ran the
tar command on its own and it completed ok so it would appear to be the
amanda/tar combination that is the problem.

I have deleted the gnutar files associated with the /home backup in
/var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists and this has at least given me a new full
backup to set my mind at ease before the weekend.

I'll monitor the incrementals over the weekend and see if the underlying
issue remains.

Thanks everyone for your advice so far.

-- 
Nick