[rdiff-backup-users] fatal error: expected <dir> to be a directory but found None instead.

[Jon Dowland]

Hello,

I am unfortunately suffering from a problem that I see people have mentioned
on here before[1] to no avail.

I backup /home/jon to /backup/tchicaya/home/jon. Within /home/jon used to
exist a directory "jon_from_home_backup_back_sortme" which I moved to
/home/jon/sort (and subsequently has been deleted).

rdiff-snapshot seems to be complaining about
"jon_from_home_backup_back_sortme" on the *receiving end*. This directory does
not exist (as "found None instead" implies. If I try creating an empty
directory there there is no improvement (I think the error is the same).

The error, then:

* begin paste **********************************************

 backup seems to have failed, regressing destination now.
ListError .rnd [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/jon/.rnd'
Warning: expected /backup/tchicaya/jon/jon_from_home_backup_back_sortme to be a 
directory but found None instead.
This is probably caused by a bug in versions 1.0.0 and earlier.
Exception '('jon_from_home_backup_back_sortme',)' raised of class '<type 
'exceptions.KeyError'>':
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 304, in 
error_check_Main
    try: Main(arglist)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 324, in Main
    take_action(rps)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 280, in 
take_action
    elif action == "backup": Backup(rps[0], rps[1])
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 343, in Backup
    backup.Mirror_and_increment(rpin, rpout, incdir)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 51, in 
Mirror_and_increment
    DestS.patch_and_increment(dest_rpath, source_diffiter, inc_rpath)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 243, in 
patch_and_increment
    ITR(diff.index, diff)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/rorpiter.py", line 280, in 
__call__
    if last_branch.can_fast_process(*args):
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 520, in 
can_fast_process
    mirror_rorp = self.CCPP.get_mirror_rorp(index)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 471, in 
get_mirror_rorp
    except KeyError: return self.get_parent_rorps(index)[1]
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 453, in 
get_parent_rorps
    raise KeyError(index)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/rdiff-backup", line 30, in <module>
    rdiff_backup.Main.error_check_Main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 304, in 
error_check_Main
    try: Main(arglist)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 324, in Main
    take_action(rps)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 280, in 
take_action
    elif action == "backup": Backup(rps[0], rps[1])
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/Main.py", line 343, in Backup
    backup.Mirror_and_increment(rpin, rpout, incdir)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 51, in 
Mirror_and_increment
    DestS.patch_and_increment(dest_rpath, source_diffiter, inc_rpath)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 243, in 
patch_and_increment
    ITR(diff.index, diff)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/rorpiter.py", line 280, in 
__call__
    if last_branch.can_fast_process(*args):
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 520, in 
can_fast_process
    mirror_rorp = self.CCPP.get_mirror_rorp(index)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 471, in 
get_mirror_rorp
    except KeyError: return self.get_parent_rorps(index)[1]
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.5/rdiff_backup/backup.py", line 453, in 
get_parent_rorps
    raise KeyError(index)
KeyError: ('jon_from_home_backup_back_sortme',)

* end paste ************************************************

Oh, this is version 1.2.8 (as packaged by Debian). The backups may have been
taken with different versions over time, but never as far back as 1.0.0 (as
the error implies).

It is most likely that this happened as a result of running out of disk space
on the receiving end (which has been happening frequently for me recently).
Therefore, I suspect there is a bug in rdiff-backup in that it does not fully
regress in some situations. (I have created more space on the backup slice
since).

For now I have created a new backup partition and started backing up onto it.
I therefore have the failing backup partition available for diagnosis. Alas,
the backup source is a moving target and I can't prevent that (it's my $HOME
and I don't have enough disk space on *that* drive to save a test snapshot).

Many thanks for any help you can offer me,

[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/rdiff-backup-users/2007-05/msg00060.html
and http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/rdiff-backup-users/2007-05/msg00061.html


-- 
Jon Dowland