[rdiff-backup-users] rdiff-backup from stdin

[Daniel Webb]

Is there a way to use rdiff-backup to store an entire drive image without
using an intermediate file?

For example, instead of

dd if=/dev/hda | gzip > /mnt/hdb/hda.img

use rdiff-backup to create /mnt/hdb/hda.img but also have a rdiff-backup-data
dir with reverse diffs?  Is this stupid?  The idea came up with a conversation
on backing up Windows.  I don't know much about Windows, but I remember the
last time I used it seriously (Window 98), it was very tough to backup and
restore.  The only way I ever successfully did it was a full disk image, bit
for bit.  None of the Windows backup software I ever tried worked.  That was
part of what led me to Linux, it drove me crazy to know that my backups were
guaranteed to fail (happened three times).