Re: [rdiff-backup-users] problems backing up to smbmounted dir

[Ben Escoto]

>>>>> David Kempe <address@hidden>
>>>>> wrote the following on Fri, 22 Jul 2005 17:33:25 +1000

> I thought fsync didn't work on windows file systems at all. - this
> means smbfs, cifs and cygwin.  I think your patch might help, but I
> would like to eventually see rdiff-backup have full support for
> writing to windows filesystem. I am not sure what is involved fully,
> but one day I will get one of my guys to take a look.

rdiff-backup uses fsync to guarantee that certain operations happen in
order.  For instance, it will write a file, fsync it, and then move it
over another file.  That way you get an atomic file update.

Without the fsync the file could get moved over the old file before it
is fully written.  Then if there was a crash in the middle you could
lose both versions of that file, the new and the old.

rdiff-backup has an order it follows when writing stuff to a backup
partition.  When there is an error and it needs to regress, it knows
the order so can tell how to back everying out.


-- 
Ben Escoto