Re: [rdiff-backup-users] SELinux preventing rdiff-backup

[Matthew A. Thompson, Contractor, Code 6189]

The heavens stretched forth and Andrew Ferguson decreed the following on 
or about 03/04/2009 10:20 AM:
> Ah, ok syscall=188 means that this is happening during setxattr(2).
>
> Can you try backing up a simple directory with one file in it, and use 
> the -v6 option to rdiff-backup? I believe you should get a line that 
> looks like:
>
> "Warning: unable to write xattr security.selinux to /my/test.bak/file"
>
> Is that the case? If so, then that suggests that rdiff-backup could 
> simply skip setting security.* extended attributes on the destination 
> files, just as it already skips the system.* namespace.

You are correct, sir, as seen below.  That said, your final paragraph is 
 Greek to me... SELinux is confusing and rdiff-backup is confusing, 
both together...ACK! (One thing I can say is that if you use --no-eas 
and --no-acls, there is no SELinux warning, but is that a good thing to do?)

To wit, I used a Cobol directory with one file, hello.cob, and:

# rdiff-backup -v6 --no-acls /home/USER/Cobol/ /media/LaCie/trial/Cobol
Using rdiff-backup version 1.2.5
Making directory /media/LaCie/trial/Cobol
Making directory /media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data
POSIX ACLs test skipped. rdiff-backup run with --no-acls option.
Windows ACLs test skipped. rdiff-backup run with --no-acls option.
escape_dos_devices not required by filesystem at /home/USER/Cobol
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Detected abilities for source (read only) file system:
  Access control lists                         Off
  Extended attributes                          On
  Windows access control lists                 Off
  Case sensitivity                             On
  Escape DOS devices                           Off
  Escape trailing spaces                       Off
  Mac OS X style resource forks                Off
  Mac OS X Finder information                  Off
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Making directory 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0
Making directory 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0/hl
Hard linking 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0/hl/hardlinked_file2 
to 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0/hardlinked_file1
POSIX ACLs test skipped. rdiff-backup run with --no-acls option.
Windows ACLs test skipped. rdiff-backup run with --no-acls option.
escape_dos_devices not required by filesystem at 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0
Removing directory 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/rdiff-backup.tmp.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Detected abilities for destination (read/write) file system:
  Ownership changing                           On
  Hard linking                                 On
  fsync() directories                          On
  Directory inc permissions                    Off
  High-bit permissions                         On
  Symlink permissions                          Off
  Extended filenames                           On
  Windows reserved filenames                   Off
  Access control lists                         Off
  Extended attributes                          On
  Windows access control lists                 Off
  Case sensitivity                             On
  Escape DOS devices                           Off
  Escape trailing spaces                       Off
  Mac OS X style resource forks                Off
  Mac OS X Finder information                  Off
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Backup: must_escape_dos_devices = 0
Making directory /media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/increments
Starting mirror /home/USER/Cobol to /media/LaCie/trial/Cobol
Processing changed file .
Processing changed file hello.cob
Regular copying ('hello.cob',) to 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup.tmp.1
Warning: unable to write xattr security.selinux to 
'/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup.tmp.1'
Warning: unable to write xattr security.selinux to 
'/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol'
Writing mirror marker 
/media/LaCie/trial/Cobol/rdiff-backup-data/current_mirror.2009-03-04T11:38:49-05:00.data
Cleaning up



--
Dr Matthew Thompson, NRC Postdoc (Contractor)
Naval Research Laboratory, Code 6189
202-767-2160