[rdiff-backup-users] changed file format?

[S . Isard]

Sorry if this is covered in the documentation or the list archives.
I've searched, but maybe not known what to look for.

I am converting from version 0.12.3 to 0.12.6, both versions built from
tar archives with the same copy of librsync-0.9.6.  The machine was
RH7.3 at the time 0.12.3 was built, but converted to RH9, kernel 2.4.20
in between. It appears that rdiff-backup file formats are not entirely
compatible between the two versions.  I have done the following test:

Saved a directory with the old version
rdiff-backup.0.12.3 tmp test

Listed it with the new version
rdiff-backup.0.12.6 --list-at-time T test
(where T comes from the data files in test/rdiff-backup-data)
This works fine.

Re-saved the same directory with the new version
rdiff-backup.0.12.6 tmp test
Got a warning message:
Warning: Metadata file not found.
Metadata will be read from filesystem.

Retried the list command above with same time T, i.e., the time at which
the data was backed up using 0.12.3
rdiff-backup.0.12.6 --list-at-time T test
The command failed, with error message:
Fatal Error: Mirror metadata not found
Traceback ending with
rdiff_backup.connection.ConnectionReadError: Truncated header string
(problem probably originated remotely)

Does this mean that if I start using 0.12.6 for my daily backups, I will
lose access to all of my old data?  Anything to be done apart from
starting over with a full backup under the new version and keeping a
copy of the old one around for getting at the existing files?

I noticed that the time format in the data filenames has changed.  The
files created by 0.12.3 end with "+01:00" for my timezone, but 0.12.6
uses "Z" (except for the error log, which still has "+01:00").  Could
the problem be something to do with this?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Stephen Isard