[rdiff-backup-users] Unable to perform remote regression without uninstalling pyxattr from server side

[Charles Duffy]

Per subject; observed in rdiff-backup 1.0.4, lightly patched (so line
numbers may be different). The report below describes behavior prior to
such uninstallation. While I sent another message regarding this same
issue ~5 days ago, I've been able to pin it down a little better this time.

On the client side:

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Detected abilities for source (read only) file system:
  Access control lists                         Off
  Extended attributes                          On
  Mac OS X style resource forks                Off
  Mac OS X Finder information                  Off
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Detected abilities for destination (read/write) file system:
  Characters needing quoting                   ''
  Ownership changing                           Off
  Hard linking                                 On
  fsync() directories                          On
  Directory inc permissions                    On
  High-bit permissions                         On
  Access control lists                         On
  Extended attributes                          On
  Mac OS X style resource forks                Off
  Mac OS X Finder information                  Off
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Previous backup seems to have failed, regressing destination now.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/rdiff-backup", line 23, in ?
    rdiff_backup.Main.Main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line
286, in Main
    take_action(rps)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line
256, in take_action
    elif action == "backup": Backup(rps[0], rps[1])
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line
300, in Backup
    backup_final_init(rpout)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line
397, in backup_final_init
    checkdest_if_necessary(rpout)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line
904, in checkdest_if_necessary
    dest_rp.conn.regress.Regress(dest_rp)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py",
line 445, in __call__
    return apply(self.connection.reval, (self.name,) + args)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py",
line 367, in reval
    if isinstance(result, Exception): raise result
KeyError: 'ea'

On the server side:

Regressing to Tue Jan 31 11:23:27 2006
Regressing attributes of /path/to/directory/named/test
Sending back exception 'ea' of type exceptions.KeyError:
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/connection.py",
line 334, in answer_request
    result = apply(eval(request.function_string), argument_list)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/regress.py", line
71, in Regress
    ITR.Finish()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/rorpiter.py", line
251, in Finish
    to_be_finished.end_process()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/regress.py", line
282, in end_process
    rpath.copy_attribs(rf.metadata_rorp, rf.mirror_rp)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/rpath.py", line
161, in copy_attribs
    if Globals.eas_write: rpout.write_ea(rpin.get_ea())
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rdiff_backup/rpath.py", line
614, in get_ea
    return self.data['ea']

In this case, rpin is a RORPath; consequently, it has no connection so
missing information (in this case the EA data) can't be retrieved.

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with the codebase to know where
to start in fixing this one.