Re: [rdiff-backup-users] New System Chown Backup-Hard-drive for new user?

[Robert Nichols]

On 10/08/2016 10:23 AM, Wayne Sallee wrote:
> I created a new linux opperating system. While I used the same user name, the 
> number is different,
> so I copied my stuff over to the new system, and chowned the files over.
>
> No problem there.
>
> But now I need to get back to doing the rdiff-backups to the external hard 
> drive.
>
> Should I chown the external drive so that the files mach, then continue as 
> usual?
>
> Or is it not that simple? :-)
>
> I'm trying to avoid a lengthy backup session on the new system, and avoid 
> excessive backup files,
> and make easy retrieval should I need an older file.

The problem with that is that the ownership of the files in the mirror
will no longer agree with the numeric ownership recorded in the
rdiff-backup-data metadata files. That shouldn't be a big deal, since
rdiff-backup will default to using the user name when setting the
ownership on restored files. The big problem will be that every file
with a changed ID will be seen as having changed the next time you do a
backup. That is going to result in a very long backup session and the
creation of a huge number of tiny zero-diff files.

It would be a lot cleaner to chown (and chgrp) the files in the new
Linux system and adjust the numeric IDs in /etc/passwd and /etc/group to
match the old system.

--
Bob Nichols     "NOSPAM" is really part of my email address.
                Do NOT delete it.