Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Bug report: Symbolic link replacing directory

[Maarten Bezemer]

Hi,

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004, john wrote:

> How to confuse a backup system? Maybe you should try this approach, it
> worked for me. :-(

There have been other threads about problems with special files (like
symlinks). Even so far as deleted _source_ trees because of symlink
handling. As a workaround (and no, I do not quite like it this way) I make
a .tgz of all special files and then exclude all special files when
invoking rdiff-backup.
Restoring is a bit more compilated that way though, so make sure you know
what's going on.

What I'd like to see, is an option to have special files exist _only_ in
metadata, not on disk. This would enable backing up to file systems
without notion of ownership and file types, like vfat.

Kind regards,
 Maarten Bezemer