Re: [Rdiff-backup-bugs] assert not upper_a.lstat() case sensitivity error on local backup to/from vfat sd card filesystem on android cell phone

[address@hidden]

I think I've found the solution to this problem and a related "Fatal Error: bad directory" (i.e. it doesn't think you're accessing a valid rdiff-backup directory for purposes such as purging old backups or verifying it). It seems that file systems mounted with the "noexec" option cause this. By default, sd cards are mounted this way in my phone, but remounting them with "exec" set fixes the issue. I did some testing so I think this is the cause, but I'm not 100% sure that I didn't miss something.

WHY does this fix the issue? For these types of operations, I shouldn't need to remount file systems (this is a bad kludge that may only work if your cell phone is rooted). As far as I can see, exec/noexec only affect whether or not you can directly run a program from the file system itself. What is rdiff-backup doing that would be interfered with by noexec?

-----Original message-----

From: "address@hidden" <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
Sent: Thu, Mar 14, 2013 05:12:36 GMT+00:00
Subject: assert not upper_a.lstat() case sensitivity error on local backup to/from vfat sd card filesystem on android cell phone

It occurs in fs_abilities.py on line 304 where the line "assert not upper_a.lstat()" is, much like with the error on CIFS and sshfs setups. However, this exclusively involves backing up to and from the same sd card with the vfat file system. I get the same issue on the internal and external sd cards (see mount information below). Everything works fine if I comment out line 304, of course.

No idea why it would cause this when normally it only occurs with remote file system setups and caching issues. The "dirsync" attribute in the mounted file systems means directory operations are fully synchronous, but I would think that that is an advantage for this situation, but obviously I'm missing something...

Thanks for taking the time to ponder this.

Pertinent information:
rdiff-backup 1.2.8
Motorola Droid 3 running latest Gingerbread
Running in environment provided by Debian Kit with Ubuntu precise (it is basically just debian/ubuntu running on top of the existing system without altering it)

address@hidden:~$ mount|grep sdcard
/dev/block/vold/179:1 on /mnt/sdcard-ext type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,dirsync,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/block/vold/179:57 on /mnt/sdcard type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,dirsync,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)